Vinyl: a dying tradition

What I'm listening to right now: The Clarke/Duke Project original vinyl press.

I am sure all of you are familiar with the age old standard of vinyl records, used originally before the invention of the CD and digital audio files. Early sound engineers needed a medium to release music to consumers on, and vinyl became that medium. It took a while for one size and speed vinyl record to gain universal use, but in 1931, the RCA record company (still one of the top international labels) invented the now-traditional 33 1/3 rpm standard for albums, and the 45rpm standard for singles. The vinyl record revolutionized the way music was made available to consumers and the music industry, and it immediately caught on as virtually the only option for commercial releases.

In 1950, all record companies agreed to use a standard of equalization called the RIAA curve. This essentially means that any acoustic material pressed onto the record would have certain low frequencies  made louder and certain high frequencies made quieter based on a standardized equalization curve. Record players were built based on this curve as well, except they worked in reverse to negate the effects of the curve upon playback. Vinyl as a material has the tendency to produce hissing and clicks on the needle used to play records, and this curve targeted frequencies where the noises were commonly found in order to provide smoother and more acoustically pleasing playback.

Keep in mind that the vinyl record was an offshoot of the gramophone, and thus was around long before the magnetic tape player. This rendered it the only viable option for record companies to release music with, and it remained so until David Bowie's complete discography was first converted to Compact Disc (CD) in 1985. Thus began the age of a new standard, but that is another story for another day.

This huge time gap, though, meant that vinyl was THE only commercially used standard for music releases  for a span of 54 years. Many of our parents and grandparents grew up with vinyl, yet it somehow possesses an air of familiarity even to those born long after the technology became obsolete.

Why bother to keep vinyl around if there is a newer and better standard, you might ask? First off, it has been scientifically proven that vinyl records sound better than digital files or compact disks. Ask any self-professed audiophile which medium has the best sound and you will unequivocally hear "vinyl". This alone is enough evidence to some people that vinyl is superior.

For those who are less convinced, however, I will offer a faith-based argument. The era of vinyl was an era in which the listener was physically connected to the music he or she was listening to, from putting the record on the turntable, to putting the needle down, then flipping the record after that particular side had ended. This is a very distinct experience that the CD and MP3 have never and will never provide. There is a reason top DJ's around the world still use vinyls. There is a reason that even today, with the vinyl record being virtually obsolete, that musical artists who produce silver, gold, and platinum records are presented with vinyl records in the respective colors by their record labels.

So if you have access to a working record player, I urge you to go find a record store that still sells vinyl records. I'm sure you'll find some familiar bands and artists, and it's also a great way to discover new music. Vinyl may be more expensive than digital, but it's oh-so-worth-it.