For the Love of Vinyl

Once again, I'm going to talk about music. I've always loved the experience that comes from listening to music and how it can become a personal thing for some people. I can connect to a band and a song in depth, and somehow I begin to call it, 'mine.' If I like a band, and then someone else likes it, I end up thinking they aren't true fans. Plus, they're taking 'my' band and now I have to share....
Anyway, growing up in a digital age eventually saw the 'extinction' of cassette tapes and now CDs are on their way to being obsolete. I hope that this doesn't happen however. In my opinion, downloading can be easy and helpful, but it's also very impersonal. When you get an album, you can actually hold it in your hands, and flip through the lyrics booklet to read what the artist has written to you. The best parts are when you find little messages or a strange sentence that makes you smile. It's the fact that the bands are putting together this album and all that hard work went into it, and people are basically ignoring that to download one song. So frustrating! I mean, I understand if you only like one song, or if it's the most popular one, but at least listen to some of the other songs!
With that said, I love the hands-on approach that owning a CD can give you. If you download, you miss all the lyrics and the colors and the images. Where's the fun in that?! I absolutely love vinyl albums. When you get them, they come in a big cardboard sleeve and they can come in different colors depending on how many are pressed. I'm starting my own collection now and I have vinyl copies of "Highway to Hell," the Clash's self-titled debut- the US Version, "Rock and Roll High School" soundtrack, and "Ramonesmania," and my favorite Ramones album- "Rocket to Russia"- with pink vinyl! Those are all regular vinyls, though. I also am the proud owner of three .45s, "Mother Mary" by the Foxboro Hot Tubs, Dee Dee Ramone's last songs, and the Pinhead Gunpowder 7" EP. Both that one and the Foxboro Hot Tubs have come out this year, which just goes to show you how some bands can understand the importance of intimacy with the fans. (I get a kick out of explaining the difference between an EP and an LP, too). Not only is there fun in explaining everything, I find it amusing to look at all the record labels, from Lookout to Jingletown to Adeline. Looking up those record labels exposes me to new bands and other stuff you just can't get with downloading something. It's also the fact that I love these records; when you play them the sound is different and it you can hear the crackling of the needle in the grooves. That sound always makes me smile, and to me, having a band give me that emotion through their album is more important to me than downloading a single song to play on an Ipod, where it eventually loses it's relevance. That is something I just couldn't stand.