My music is hot again, vinyl is cool and today’s classics lean more to Roll Over Beethoven than Ludwig Van Beethoven.
 
Let’s start with the classics. I recently attended a graduation party for some students from the Toledo School for the Arts. The band, made up of recent graduates, mixed a variety of new tunes into a play-list dominated by classic rock. The audience of 30 or so was decidedly teens and the band played what their peers wanted to hear:  Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, The Beatles, Pink Floyd.

Record stores like Culture Clash are noticing a resurgence in vinyl

This was a pleasant surprise--teens paying homage to the golden era of rock and roll--the 60s and 70s.
 
I rediscovered this music a few years ago after buying a turntable to replace one that broke some 15 years ago. I was rehabbing from hip replacement and back fusion surgeries and I set a goal of playing every one of our 200 plus vinyl albums while working out. The music eased the routine of therapy and I unwittingly uncovered a dark, family secret. Son One had “borrowed” some of my classics.

In retrieving them, I discovered his vinyl collection was larger than mine. He’s 32 and a product of the digital age, so that surprised me.
What drove him back to a technology that had its limitations?
 
Pat O’Connor, owner of Culture Clash, an independent record store on Secor Road in Toledo, sees the young and their parents perusing the used record bin. Many of them grew up listening to vinyl in their parents’ basements and now they want their own collection.
 
They also like the warmer sound of pressed vinyl versus the digital perfection of a CD, or the thinner sound of a download, especially if it’s compressed.
 
While vinyl accounts for only two percent of recorded music sales, the market is growing at a time CD sales are declining. Vinyl sales in 2009 jumped 35 percent, according to Nielson Soundscan. Turntable sales are also up. Today’s musicians have noticed. O’Connor says some of them are pressing 200 or so LPs with cool graphics, lyrics and liner notes for collectors as well as mass-producing CDs and making music available for downloads on the Internet.
 
O’Connor has been in the music business for 37 years, first as co-founder of Boogie Records. He said much of his clientele consists of young people looking for hot new artists on independent labels--tomorrow’s stars. Many of the new records he offers fit this genre. This is the same appeal Boogie Records had when my wife and I started our collection.
 
Some recent releases on vinyl include: Hurley by Weezer; Harlem River Blues by Justin Townes Earle and Sex with an X by The Vaselines.
 
 O’Connor adds that Guitar Hero, the video game in which players simulate playing the guitar to popular rock songs, has also sparked interest in the discovery of classic rock. So too have television commercials which use rock classics to connect with the Baby Boomer generation.
 
A few years ago, I remember my college-age daughter asked me if I had a copy of War’s song Low Rider, which she heard on a television commercial. I gave her the album and told her to put in on the turntable. She replied she couldn’t find the song and read off all the titles. I suddenly realized she didn’t know there were two sides to an album. She turned it over and we listened to the song together. This is another attraction of vinyl. It is a social experience, one more likely to be shared with friends unlike listening with ear buds to an i-Pod.
 
For me, however, listening to vinyl is usually a solitary experience. More times than not, I’m alone in the basement working out. My current favorites are A New Life by Marshall Tucker and Moondog Matinee by The Band.
 
Vinyl is not only a rediscovery of some of the best rock music, but also a rediscovery of my past. These are the albums my wife and I bought when we started our journey together, when we were discovering each other and the uncertain, adventurous and sometimes perilous road we were walking together.
 
I’ve listened to music on 33, 45 and 78 vinyl; on reel-to-reel, eight-track and cassette tape; on cd, Zune and computer but the most pleasure I get is from brushing the dust off and cuing up the needle and listening to the warm, crackling sound of vinyl.
 
Comment at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed