Is vinyl a con and a fad to some? Of course it is, it’s a bit like those Hawthorn supporters who jumped on as they were winning flags and have since jumped off the pot even quicker.
Personally, collecting vinyl can be hard yakka, it’s a serious business but ultimately it’s fun.
For me it’s about ‘digging in the crates’ as some would say, getting your hands dusty, leaning over that second last crate in the corner away from the glossy new releases, leaning with the nerves of your back starting to strain, testing your poor core strength flicking past the 10th copy of the same Engelbert ■■■■■■■ Humperdinck LP, checking every cover cos there might be gold in this one and spotting an original pressing (on further inspection, the first of two reissues and that hard to get) of Weather Report’s ‘Mysterious Traveller’ for $5 in VG condition, nary a scratch. Not quite Mint aged cover but it’ll do very nicely. Or that War LP, ‘Galaxy’ from the op shop at Vermont Big Apple shopping centre for a 2 dollar coin, which cost less than the amazing meat pie (star of anise, the key ingredient) I bought from Top Top Vietnamese bakery shortly after. So basically every LP in my collection has a story behind it and I’m sure it’s like that for most of us who collect or are even the benefactor of a bundle of say Brubeck, Miller and Helen Reddy LP’s from a deceased loved one.
I do miss the days circa 1996 when vinyl sales were close to their nadir and from memory there was only one plant pressing vinyl in the entire country. Around this time I’d stroll up to Dixon’s in Camberwell and easily pick off things like The Smiths ‘Meat is Murder’ and three Joni Mitchell LP’s all for about $8 each. Even if I wasn’t cashed up that would follow a trail onto the one in Prahran, Relic Records, Greville Records and onto those stores mentioned above. NB I’d forgotten about Extreme Aggression! I’ve seen new Meat is Murder reissues in stores on a few occasions for as high as $50. Sometimes I like to fork out for something, as I may not get the chance to do so for some time or forget. Spotting a rip off merchant is easy for me though.
Vinyl is a huge part of many scenes and genres. Northern Soul weekenders wouldn’t quite be the same without 45’s, it’s always been this way with dance music, it specifically has always played an important part in hip hop culture and still does. In the early days, DJ’s were the focal point of the party. This was prior to emcees taking the mantle, DJ’s at partys would disguise their LP labels from rivals in order to not give away the identity of the drum break on the record. It made their set better than the others and also created a mystique. As such many producers and beat makers (hacks like me) mostly older heads and purists, still prefer sampling from hard (or easily) sourced vinyl rather than ripping something straight from YouTube or Spotify and apart from gaining clearance (not always!) for the sample via lawyers and music industry people, will leave it up to the audience to discover where the sample/loop/break originated. It’s nice to hear the pops and crackles of a beat maker’s own copy too. I own some records purely for some open drums or if there’s a nice loop amongst some filler ■■■■. On the other hand a good mate who makes deep house beats, only buys stuff he’d listen to.
Getting back on topic, I’m always looking out for sibilance (letter ‘s’, ‘t’ and ‘p’ sounding like a bad crash cymbal), particularly on the inner grooves of a piece. I’ve heard it was by the mid 80’s when CD was becoming more prominent, a lot of old vinyl was being recycled and reduced with the labels still on. It was then repressed thinner for greater quantity. I have 12” of Dave Dobbyn ‘Slice Of heaven’ so thin it’s just about the most warped thing I’ve got. On Discogs I look at reviews of reissue quality. Hip hop and sample based music is so damn expensive, so after reading a poor quality review of Nas ‘Illmatic’ reissue I took a gamble on a cheap pressing - no sibilance. Nice score, got lucky. As Soulnet mentioned people listen to whatever quality they want, sibilance grates me on modern reissues but I can live with it.
So while there’s a spike in the market and online stores have made bench marks and broader price awareness, this means getting good scores on rarities is harder. A mate of mine who owns 30,000 records is finding it harder to find cheap gems that people think is just old hat rubbish. Among his greatest are two sound library records bought for a few dollars 25 years ago, both worth about a grand a pop today.
There’s a lot more wank about vinyl these days, my stories included but if it gets more people interested in owning and nurturing their own collection and happier for it - then I’m all for it. It’s a different relationship to easily using Spotify which I do from time to time but there’s more satisfaction towards the graft, the story and ownership of your own records. There was an interesting article I read recently that those of us who have collections are not the actual owners of that vinyl but the current custodians and that someday it’ll probably be owned 2nd, 3rd, 4th hand by someone else. I don’t have kids but if my nephews are good to me before I fall off the perch, they can have the lot and if they don’t want or appreciate it, hopefully it’ll fund them enough so that they can help put it towards mortgage, education, booze or whatever they want. Someone has to enjoy this vinyl when I’m done with it. I’m 40, my modest (by comparison to some) but healthy collection is 30 years old as of this Christmas, it started with INXS ‘Kick’ and Fleetwood Mac ‘Tango in the night’ but it’s still got a while to go.
Tldr - it’s a fad for others but not for some of us and has always been relevant. Some reissues are good, some not so good. Research - know your product!