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Can't Stop the Music

I was born in 1987, which means I’m one of those technology-obsessed members of Generation Y. My Baby Boomer parents scorn this fixation, often criticizing the purely digital way we listen to music via downloads and iPods. But I also love to listen to albums on vinyl. This brought me to Ithaca’s twice-annual CD & […]

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I was born in 1987, which means I’m one of those technology-obsessed members of Generation Y. My Baby Boomer parents scorn this fixation, often criticizing the purely digital way we listen to music via downloads and iPods. But I also love to listen to albums on vinyl. This brought me to Ithaca’s twice-annual CD & Record Fair on a recent Saturday.

I arrived not knowing what to expect. But once I entered the auditorium of the Women’s Community Building downtown, I regretted not coming earlier (and with more money). I could have spent the entire day rummaging through boxes of records, CDs, posters, concert DVDs, and T-shirts, and still not have covered everything. After managing my resources and making some tough decisions, I bought B.B. King’s Live in London and Steely Dan’s Pretzel Logic on vinyl for just a couple dollars each. I also walked away with three Neil Young CDs: two rare concert recordings and a bootleg version of Chrome Dreams—an unreleased album that’s extremely hard to find.

Why do I spend money on a technology that was rendered obsolete decades ago? First, analog sounds better; digital sound is compressed and less textured. You swim in the music while listening to vinyl—as opposed to getting hit in the face by it on an iPod. Records also require the listener to be an active participant; rather than putting the music on and forgetting about it, you have to change to the “B” side. I like not having the option of fast-forwarding to my favorite song; I’m forced to listen to the album in the order that the artist arranged.

Records are also more intimate. My copy of Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline gets stuck halfway through “I Threw It All Away.” While annoying, this blemish makes the record more personal—I’m confident that I have the only copy that does this. There’s something special about listening to the same copy of the Beatles’ Revolver that my parents played 40 years ago. And unlike CDs, vinyl offers a broad canvas for cover art, liner notes, and more.

Besides being a great way to expand on a hobby, record fairs allow you to shoot the breeze with people who share similar interests. Some of the vendors and I exchanged stories about concerts we’ve been to, and I envied that they’d seen famous performances of earlier generations. Judging from the size of the crowd on Saturday, many others in the Ithaca community recognize that vinyl isn’t so “obsolete” after all.

— Chris Nelson ’09
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