I love vinyl. The gorgeous covers. Gatefold sleeves. Liner notes. Inserts. The feel of a record’s sharp edge as you flip it with your fingers. There is nothing like opening a brand b]new album and hearing the pop of the needle as it hits the record for the first time.
Records are a curated experience. Two sides, each containing a suite of songs often very carefully sequenced by the artist. Yes, it was a context created by the limitations of the 12′ LP, but what a great context. Generations of music fans grew up in the late 50s, 60s, 70s and into the 80s with whole albums burned into our collective memory. We knew our favorite albums intimately and consumed them in order from track one, side one to the locking groove at the end of side two.
Some music wasn’t meant to be broken up into little bits. Great concept albums, symphonies and song cycles were produced to be heard as one extended piece. For an obvious example, you can’t really break up the songs on side two of The Beatles’ Abbey Road without sacrificing the greatness of the work. They were random song fragments blended together with a beauty and genius beyond the separate pieces.
As technology changed it was obvious that vinyl was relatively inconvenient compared to CDs. Digital music is even easier. We can copy, share, mix and match with so much ease. However, what have we lost in the way of curation and context? (I must add that I am thrilled by the resurgence of vinyl sales.)
I love digital music. It is infinitely more convenient. My entire library is stored on a drive and available at a moment’s notice. No more giant crates of vinyl or shelves of CDs. No scratch and hiss. We all get to create the best radio station ever with all our digitized tracks and/or simply use Pandora, Spotify, Turntable.FM or any of the great new online music services.
When I am working I often plug one of my way too many iPods into the dock and listen on shuffle. Today the first 10 songs were from Candi Staton, Destroy All Monsters, Let’s Active, REM, Tori Amos (sorry), Iron Maiden, Jack Logan, Elastica, Honey Cone and Link. All great songs randomly shuffled. I love the surprise and serendipity of shuffle, but sometimes miss the craft and context of a perfectly segued and sequenced record.
What do you prefer? Curated musical content or random shuffle?
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