Wonderful post and a great way of looking at collecting. When you get to be middle aged you’ll have the simultaneous pleasure of looking at albums or CDs that trigger a specific memory and then replaying them because you realize you haven’t listened to them in twenty years, a not unpleasant experience but unavoidable when you live and love music that long. So you have that going for you, which is nice.
Another pleasure for us middle aged music fans is seeing young people take up and enjoy the hobby. I was in a record store (actually 3 stores) over the weekend and saw a college girl at the checkout clutching a vintage Lovin’ Spoonful album like a treasure. I hope she loves it.
Excellent! This essay needs to go viral. I’m Gen X. I remember a time before digital anything and life really was GOOD. Imagine a phone that’s just a phone. Imagine a bunch of people in a town listening to the same song at the exact same time on the radio! That seems so radical now.
I love the concept of buying one album a month because that music has essentially impacted you the most. And on the whole the understanding that your taste in music is a tangible record of who you are.
Such a thoughtful & deeply researched paean to collecting vinyl! I will enjoy re-reading & sharing this essay.
I’m on a different timeline as your elder music lover, and though there are many reasons to give a big raspberry to the greed of Spotify, as I’m still committed to listening to new music I am thankful how having such a vast library in Cloud Cuckoo Land connects me to artists I’d otherwise never know about, such as the global funky jazz of Shake Stew and Azmari, or listening to deep cuts from better known artists… yet the problem remains that musicians deserve better pay from streaming!
This is great. A point I'd like to make in favour of promoting buying _digitally_ is it's often the most profitable way to support artists (vinyl runs can even lose money for artists, and there might be 301 people that want 300 records). I work on a couple of projects in this area but bolstering the idea of owning digital music is probably the best thing we can do for musicians going forward. We're working on a music player designed to make a digital collection feel more tangible, would love to get your thoughts https://substack.com/home/post/p-165874115
I love this. Feeling inspired to purchase a record player for my room next year.
Wonderful post and a great way of looking at collecting. When you get to be middle aged you’ll have the simultaneous pleasure of looking at albums or CDs that trigger a specific memory and then replaying them because you realize you haven’t listened to them in twenty years, a not unpleasant experience but unavoidable when you live and love music that long. So you have that going for you, which is nice.
Another pleasure for us middle aged music fans is seeing young people take up and enjoy the hobby. I was in a record store (actually 3 stores) over the weekend and saw a college girl at the checkout clutching a vintage Lovin’ Spoonful album like a treasure. I hope she loves it.
This was fantastic
Excellent! This essay needs to go viral. I’m Gen X. I remember a time before digital anything and life really was GOOD. Imagine a phone that’s just a phone. Imagine a bunch of people in a town listening to the same song at the exact same time on the radio! That seems so radical now.
Great essay! I think you are a profound author and literary mind of our time
I love the concept of buying one album a month because that music has essentially impacted you the most. And on the whole the understanding that your taste in music is a tangible record of who you are.
Such a thoughtful & deeply researched paean to collecting vinyl! I will enjoy re-reading & sharing this essay.
I’m on a different timeline as your elder music lover, and though there are many reasons to give a big raspberry to the greed of Spotify, as I’m still committed to listening to new music I am thankful how having such a vast library in Cloud Cuckoo Land connects me to artists I’d otherwise never know about, such as the global funky jazz of Shake Stew and Azmari, or listening to deep cuts from better known artists… yet the problem remains that musicians deserve better pay from streaming!
This is great. A point I'd like to make in favour of promoting buying _digitally_ is it's often the most profitable way to support artists (vinyl runs can even lose money for artists, and there might be 301 people that want 300 records). I work on a couple of projects in this area but bolstering the idea of owning digital music is probably the best thing we can do for musicians going forward. We're working on a music player designed to make a digital collection feel more tangible, would love to get your thoughts https://substack.com/home/post/p-165874115
I’m not sure you can, at least unironically, be “squarely confronted with the relentless passage of time” at, um, 20.