Let’s Get Physical: The Not-So-Surprising Vinyl Revival

“After light enters the ocean, it interacts with the phytoplankton, dissolved organic matter, particles, and water molecules. Some of it is eventually scattered back up through the surface. This light is called the water-leaving radiance, and it can be detected from space." Water-leaving Radiance

As with all ephemeral phenomena, there's a caveat: in order to draw the proper conclusions, you have to gain the proper perspective in order to discern and accurately analyse the data.

In an analogous way, we haven’t yet been able to properly evaluate how the concept of downloading music has affected our role as listeners: how re-conceptualizing a song as a digital download has altered our mental construct of what a song is. The fact remains; fundamentally, our perception has been irrevocably altered, in some ways for the better, in some ways for the worse. 

The relatively recent vinyl resurgence [see here, here, here, here, and here] leads one to wonder: when it comes to music, does a vinyl record carry more emotional and intellectual weight than a digital download? Some would say - myself included - indisputably, yes.

Although there's still no consensus as to how to go about protecting the intellectual - albeit invisible - property of artists, there is universal acknowledgement that our digital dilemma is a necessary byproduct of the unfettered rights we all enjoy as free-roaming citizens of the World Wide Web. As with all things digital, this isn't a case of black or white. There are many shades to consider.

Most of the conversation surrounding downloads revolves around the idea of its legality: websites like Limewire (currently under court-rdered injunction) and Pirate Bay forced us early on to confront these dilemmas. We can debate, dissect, and eventually masticate the issues, but somewhere along the way, we’ve forgotten that what we are talking about is not just a song, but an experience, one that is often crafted with the songwriters blood, sweat and tears. 

A great song and lyric is more than the sum of its parts; it is the experience of the writer’s lifetime compressed, condensed into a few minutes of pure pleasure, pain, confusion, redemption, regret, surrender... So when Hayden Thorpe coos "A crude art / A Bovver Boot ballet / Equally elegant and ugly" in The Wild Beasts’ "Hooting and Howling", he's not just singing words; he's re-contextualizing our reality and transforming the pedestrian into Poetry. What he's doing is an admixture of alchemy, magic, mystery, story telling, documentary; he's not just singing a song, he's inviting, challenging us to re-consider the critical importance of words in the music we cherish. While the ease of digital downloading has taken a serious bite out of what was once known as the Music 'Industry', it is universally acknowledged that the free-(down)loaders are not those who would normally pay for their music to begin with.

This defection - from listeners to looters - has a rationale, and we can trace the trajectory. The scavenging for free mp3s began after listeners learned that the bulk of their money was going into the coffers of the Record Labels and not into the pockets of the Recording Artists themselves. This plundering has led to a hunger amongst listeners who are starved for good music and thirsting for the good-old-days when music was made and not manufactured.

One unintended consequence of this was that it has created a listening public that now burns for rarefied experiences, a new as well as older generation that is willing to spend whatever the asking price on music that moves them in a format that impacts their lives: live performance and vinyl records.

But History - like a scratched record - does tend to repeat itself, and as it turns out these periodic blips in the radar, when Musicians are pressed by the exigencies of a fickle and fluctuating market - as with the recording ban of 1942 and the birth of Be Bop - musicians have risen to the occasion and squeezed out some startling and staggeringly beautiful music. And while you won’t find (most of) it on the Pop charts, a listener can, with some digging, enjoy these treasures buried beneath the surface.

Meanwhile, there has been a quiet burgeoning of intense and immense creativity amongst musicians who have thrived under the radar. In fact, finely attuned listeners have their antennas up, and have been made skeptical of any music that bears the insignia of a major record label. It's a question of authenticity, and most of us who really listen - who don’t consider the songs we love 'downloads' - most of us deeply care about how authentic the music that we listen to really is. It's a question of intrinsic value, and the merit of a great song has more to do with its inherent worth than its price point. 

Appetite for Self-Destruction:
The Spectacular Crash
of the Record Industry in the 
Digital Age by Steve Knopper 
Link

We've seen the rise and fall of the music industry, and it is safe to say, nobody is lamenting its demise save Music Industry stalwarts who still think that taking the pulse of Pop culture means monitoring the Top 40. But the days of Casey Kasem are long behind us, and we can all take a deep breath and cease to bemoan the loss of our collective innocence. Instead, those of us who exult in the the birth of this new era - one that is "equally elegant ant ugly" - know that the past is a path we have all waled to get here, and the future is a road we will all travel together.