The Real reason for vinyl survival

Johanna Norris 

Have you ever played a record before? If your answer is “no”, then get yourself over to Groucho’s in Dundee, or any other nearby record shop, and tell the owner that you would like to resolve this dilemma. If you are embarrassed by this idea, it means that you are ashamed because, somewhere deep down inside, you know that the gramophone record is the parent of all commercial sound you hear today and you haven’t paid a shred of respect to it in your entire existence. However, this Saturday, April 16th, is Record Store Day - a day to think about entering one of those rare and mysterious record stores to understand why these giant, inconvenient discs are not yet extinct.

The first ever Record Store Day was officially launched by Metallica back in 2008 and since then the event has been held annually on the third Saturday of April. The day focuses more on celebrating record stores rather than the existence of records themselves. Considering the acclaim it receives, it is amazing that the idea only sprung to life six years ago and today, there over 1000 participating record stores worldwide, 200 of which are in the UK, from areas as far north as Orkney to the better known stores of Brighton down south. While record stores across the globe celebrate this day by putting on events, hundreds of artists show their support by playing live gigs or releasing exclusive vinyls on the day. Artists releasing such exclusive vinyls this year include Patti Smith, Mac Demarco, Loose Joints, Hozier, Justin Bieber and The Doors. Other institutions celebrate the day too, such as the Museum of Soho in London which is putting on a special David Bowie film screening this year. Even mainstream TV shows such as American Idol have paid tribute to Record Store Day in the past. The excitement the event raises may be an unsung factor contributing to the ‘vinyl revival’ that has been going on since 2006. In Berlin, record stores seem to be popping up rather than shutting down. The Nielsen Company published figures in 2015 claiming that vinyl sales in the US had increased by an astounding 260% since 2009.
 

You can own a record but you can’t own an album on Spotify. It’s just air; it’s nothing. Records will always be there for you. All that shit you have on your iTunes – you could lose it in an instant. Not to say that music platforms like Spotify aren’t phenomenal for expanding our music knowledge, however there is something truly special about going into a record store and languorously grazing the sleeves, perhaps even basing your decision on the album cover, if you’re not looking for something in particular. Buying records online does not have the same holistic effect compared to buying from a record store.

Absolutely every single person in the world is aware of digital manipulation. Steve Jobs was right in saying that simplicity is what every human works hard to achieve, but the result often lacks any sense of adventure. It is too easy to find music nowadays and there is much less ‘experience’ connected with finding and listening to songs on the internet. When you visit a record store on the other hand, whether you find something or not, you come out with a story. The feeling of having dinner at home is trumped by the feeling you get from having dinner in a restaurant. It’s the same principle for listening to music: you cannot recreate the atmosphere from inside a club or record shop at home. Hunting and foraging is human nature, so finding and choosing music is human nature. I confess that I am addicted to stalking online media sites for new sounds from the comfort of my bedroom and satisfying my human instinct this way, but I feel filthy at my lack of control. If I lived within walking distance of a record store I know I would be in there every day, trying out records, flicking through CDs or whatever other treasures they have in store, wondering if there will ever be a day when people go on record-store hopping holidays rather than island-hopping.