Are Your Friends Electric?

I recently had to write about my appreciation for vinyl

It was for an post in the The Vinyl District, I figured I might as well post it here since I havent done much blogging in a long time.

About five years ago I discovered listening to music on vinyl and it has changed the experience of listening to music for me in a way that I will always be grateful for. My appreciation for music began when I was in middle school, which was during the Napster era. As a result, I viewed music as a free, endless commodity where my friends and I would have an arms race to see who could build up the largest music library on our computers.

Having a large, well rounded music library is great, but it doesn’t allow the listener to give the music the proper time and respect that it deserves. I am a strong believer in listening to music in the way that the artist intended the listener to hear the artist’s work. When you listen to music on your computer or iTunes, it is far too easy to create a playlist and distract the listener from hearing the artist’s work in the entirety that the artist intended. Being an artist, I know that my band records an album or EP with the intentions of creating an experience where a lot of thought is put into the track-listing and transitions in between songs.

This is why I love vinyl so much: it forces the listener to hear the artist’s work exactly in the way that the artist intended the listener to hear it. You cannot make a playlist with LPs and you cannot skip from favorite track to favorite track with the same ease of iTunes. I typically buy a record because there is one song in particular from a band or artist that I love. Initially, when I listen to the record my experience revolves around my desire to hear that one song, and I will typically dislike most of the other tracks on the record. After listening to the record a few times that desire fades and the songs that I didn’t particularly like emerge as the underdog, becoming my favorite tracks on the record. It breaks my heart to think of all of the people creating playlists, missing out on having to make an effort to understand and enjoy the songs surrounding their favorite single on an album.

Listening to music on vinyl creates a ritualistic experience for me. When I listen to vinyl it forces me to actively pay attention to the music, opposed to just listening to it in the background. After a few songs, I have to get up, walk to my turntable and flip the record. If I want music to be playing, I have nurture my turntable and flip the record when it needs to be flipped.

Vinyls add value to music for me. There is something magical about the weight, the large album art and the need to handle your records with care. I don’t have any prized mp3s or even prized CDs, but I have a handful of vinyls that I wouldn’t hesitate to grab first if my house was on fire.

When I am looking for a particular classic record, I will do everything in my power to get a first print, the older the records, the more of a story that they have to tell. My mom gave me her copy of Bill Wither’s Just as I Am on vinyl that she grew up listening to. It is one of my most prized possessions not only because it is a masterpiece, but because each scratch and hiss reminds me of my mother listening to that exact record having the same listening experience that I am having today.

you can read everyone else’s opinions on vinyl at http://vinyldistrict.blogspot.com/2010/11/tvd-first-date-kopecky-family-band.html

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