The Art of Vinyl Manliness

The Art of Manliness podcast this week was about the return of analog in relation to music and books. http://www.artofmanliness.com/category/podcast/ episode 289

If you get the chance it's worth your time listening. One of the reasons given for the return of analog and hard copy isn't that we don't miss the vinyl itself, it's that we miss spending the day in record stores. Album cover art used to be a field of art. I framed old album covers long after vinyl went out. People used to spend hours flipping through albums in stores to look at art. Maybe they wanted that obscure or forgotten album. You asked your friends or the guy near you in the store if this album was any good. 

People struck up conversations when someone held a book. You can't do that when someone has a Kindle. 

The other point raised that I agreed with was that the art lost meaning in the digital age. Vinyl records had to be shelved. You had to place them on a player, then since the average album held twenty minutes of music per side, you had to turn the album over. Now music is press of a button. I don't buy as much music anymore nor do I play music as much as I used to. I forgot some of the songs that I did have in the library.

Don't get me wrong, I love the convenience of modern technology. I made a four hour playlist last Thanksgiving of food related songs; Sweet Cherry Wine, Cinnamon Girl, Lemon Tree. It sounds kitschy but no one complained. That would've been a nightmare on vinyl. 

The podcast told me that I wasn't alone with these views, which is what was lost in the digital age.