I was thinking about this the other day as I downloaded the latest Metric album onto my mp3.
When I was little, my dad listened to Sam Cooke and Dionne Warwick on the 8 track player in the car. When I got older I bought vinyl records. In fact, the first single I ever bought was Bad Girls by Diana Ross. I used to love the whole routine of buying them. Walking up and down the aisles of Dutchy's Record Cave and finally settling on the inevitable Smiths album. I'd gently remove the shrink wrap and lovingly slide out the card wrapped disc. If I was lucky there's be photographs of the band on the inner wrap. If I was super lucky, the lyrics would be printed out. If they were, I'd always read them all the way through before playing the record even once. I used to choose my favourite song based on the lyrics and see if I felt the same after I heard it. Good times.
Later I graduated to cassettes but I hated them. You couldn't just skip ahead to a song unless you had a really good player and I didn't. My tapes used to frequently end up in the hungry jaws of my cut-rate Sears player and I had to either spin the cassette on the end of a pen to collect the loose tape it or watch it end up as a kindergarten craft project.
I waited as long as I could before I started buying CDs. It was only when my Violent Femmes album got so scratched it played in half the time, that I thought I should replace it with this "flash in the pan" CD thing. I still have that CD and it plays great.
But now it's on to mp3s. I seriously don't remember the last time I walked into a record store. I don't need to. If I want the lyrics, I google them. I don't have time to pore over them for hours like I used to anyway. All I need the lyrics for is to make sure I don't sing "I smell like a clown, I'm lost and I'm found" while belting out Rio like I did at my friend Jackie's place and humiliating myself for life.
So when was the last time you actually bought a physical album?
kxx
2 comments:
In a glob of Velveeta, baby, doncha know that I'm lovin you-oo
In a glob of Velveeta, baby, doncha know that I'll always be true!
Srsly, I did go to an actual record store and buy an actual Nirvana album for my niece for Christmas about 3-4 yrs ago. She played it on an actual turntable. She was 14-15 and thought it was very retro.
Actually, I can tell you exactly the last time I bought an LP...Monday evening. Admittedly, I did it sitting on my duff, looking at amazon.co.uk on my web browser. But, the fact remains, I bought an LP and five 7" records, which I presume are what we Yanks call 45s.
And, earlier this evening I was looking at another LP at another site. Haven't bought it yet because I needed to e-mail the seller with a question. But, I anticipate buying it in the near future.
I agree with you about cassettes. While they're convenient in some ways, they're very temperamental. I've chewed up my share of them, and just plain worn out others.
I thought CD players were the work of the devil when I first saw them, and held out as long as possible before succumbing to the allure. I do love the ease of playing a song over and over without having to worry about my hand shaking and scratching the record. Just the simple press of a button and, hey presto, instant repeat. But I'm old enough that to me "record" and "album" mean and will always mean vinyl.
Post a Comment