Huge Numbers Of Record Collectors Conclude That Vinyl Is Still Tops
Many good ideas are found to be wanting once they are tested by time and the discerning eye of many who can spot flaws, hype and underperformance, and who will not stand for sub-standard performance. After certain entities are brought outdoors and seen in the unyielding clarity of pure sunlight, they are sometimes never to be heard from again, and often that’s possibly just as well. One of those “things” enjoyed wide acceptance for decades, was found in homes all over the world and made a decisive, lasting impact on culture and communication.
The technology was first introduced many years ago and is known to virtually everyone in Western civilization. If you’re pondering what could possibly offer so many opportunities to the masses, it’s really no mystery that vinyl records opened a great many doors for the average listener. Those who had not been able to own dependable, good quality recordings of music, voice, theater, and practically any other kind of sound that could be recorded, now could. New 78 RPM records replaced recording formats of the day, which included wax, wire and cylinder recordings, each of which had its problems.
Vinyl represented a reasonably priced, durable format that was widely available in stores and capable of being played many times without wearing out. By the time 33 1/3 RPM record albums were made available to the country, the audience for vinyl recordings was well established. Vinyl allowed audiences to get a better sense of the musician or singer’s creative output. You could collect and listen to LP recordings of music of various descriptions, and soon, music of every variety was available on vinyl LPs as well as 45 RPM singles.
You could purchase a copy of any disc and play it back whenever you were in the mood, be it a Shostakovich symphony or the Beatles vinyl. But as technology moved on it was inevitable that the recording industry would come up with a new format purported to be an improvement over vinyl recordings.
The contender for supremacy to the LP came in the form of CDs, the digital format that took over and forced vinyl recordings out of your local record store. But before anyone could count vinyl out, it gained a new life, and when the more popular CDs began to dominate the market, legions of vinyl supporters rose up. Pretty soon, it was evident that a vast number of people still appreciated the warmth and excellent sound reproduction qualities of vinyl recordings.
You may suppose that the only ones interested in vinyl are old Elvis vinyl collectors and appreciators of classical music, but that’s not the case.
The new generation of vinyl fans turns out to be young pop music enthusiasts who have rediscovered the sturdy LP.
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