Features Vinyl Analysis: Snobbery Or Substance?

The digital revolution may have caused a seismic shift in the way music is consumed. But a quieter uprising (with a richer sound) has started – and it’s made of black plastic. This month it was revealed that despite the fact that overall UK album sales fell by 11.2%, 2012 saw vinyl sales increase by 15.3% compared with 2011. This isn’t something new: we’ve been witnessing a vinyl revival since 2007 – this is the fifth successive year sales of vinyl LPs have grown. Even the thought-to-be-dead cassette seems to be enjoying something of a renaissance, however small.

Are we going through a nostalgia inspired resurgence of forgotten formats? Will mini-discs be the hipster’s format of choice in 2013? Well, probably not – it’s best to also point out that digital album sales also rose by 14.8% to 30.5m (as a comparison, 3,823 cassette albums were sold in total in the UK last year).

But the very fact that 389,000 LPs were sold in 2012 is a phenomenon worth investigating. This year’s sales have been inspired by old and new acts. The xx’s ‘Coexist’ was the best-seller, followed by a remastered ‘Ziggy Stardust’ reissued on vinyl to commemorate the album’s 40th anniversary and Jack White’s ‘Blunderbuss’ at number three (indeed White is a vinyl fanatic and regularly releases limited edition 7’ singles through his Third Man Records).

The trend also seems to point to a spectrum of people getting involved: teenagers, university students, baby boomers coming back in, regretting they got rid of their old collection.

What’s happening? Vinyl doesn’t have any right to still be going. We live in an age where a digital culture has given us unlimited access to any song we can imagine (and even some we wouldn’t want to). Anyone with an internet connection and the bare-minimum of tech know-how can now stockpile a massive collection of tracks with relatively little effort.

And that’s where the arguments always seem to come from. ‘Vinyl versus MP3’ is always couched in terms of something of substance versus something flimsy and insubstantial. It’s said vinyl takes effort and dedication, takes a real love of the artist; while MP3s just take the click of a mouse.

Speak to people who love vinyl and you’ll see them fall into a reverie. They seem to get aroused by thick gatefold sleeves and 180 gm vinyl. Vinyl is sexy, they say. It’s rich, warm sound envelops you, they purr. It has a charm and magic that MP3s cannot come close to replicating.

But let’s play devil’s advocate for a minute. What’s the benefit of having your music in such a bulky, damageable format? Something that can be ruined with one rough scratch; something that has to be stored correctly. Is it not just needless vanity?

And let’s not pretend that MP3s haven’t given us some benefits. You can now listen to Parklife without having the rigmarole of hearing Alex James sing. Or the new Factory Floor song for 24-hours straight, without having to get up, just because it’s brilliant.

You can now find any track in the world on YouTube and listen to it instantly for free. But people hate this. It’s decried as making it too easy to have a musical history. They disparage the ability to dispose of tracks you don’t like straight away, and they bemoan the fact that you could miss out on incredible B-sides (can we even use the term b-side anymore?).

History professor David Suisman, who chronicles the history of the commercial music industry in his book “Selling Sounds: The Commercial Revolution in American Music”, says, “In an age when music and many aspects of culture seem ephemeral and fleeting and, in many ways, superficial, the materiality of vinyl offers a substance.”

But is this substance or just plain snobbishness? Sometimes having a vinyl collection just seems another way for people to show their superiority when it comes to music and the chance to denigrate others.

Is there a valid reason? Yes and no. Some people just love the antiquity of the format. Some people love the large artwork (just look at the amount of vinyl art frames you now see in shops). Some people prefer the richer (better?) sound.

Yet there are more tangible reasons. The vinyl renaissance is also bringing back the actual joy of physical discovery of music. As someone who was in the queue for Record Store Day last year to get themselves a copy of ‘Mclusky Do Dallas’ I can attest to its popularity. It was something communal and exciting and it certainly creates a very different, and deeper, relationship between you and the artist.

And, at a time when any piece of music you want is a click away, there’s something immensely satisfying about sitting down and listening to a record. It’s active not passive. Listening to vinyl means actually spending time with the music – it’s not just the background tune to you looking at gifs of cats.

What to make then, of the rise of vinyl? Part of it, of course, is becoming more immersed in music. Part of it is being ‘cool’. Part of it is nostalgia - an affection for the notion of what music was, when it ‘meant more’.

To me, the worry is that all of these reasons can be boiled down to a form of superiority, of snobbishness. ‘This music means more to me because I’m listening to it on wax.’
Of course, it’s hard to resist the allure, that certain cachet that vinyl offers. I’m as guilty of it as the next person. And when it has the positive effect of money going into the music industry; who am I to argue?

But music needs to engage with as many people as possible – not create an ‘us versus them’ battle. The assumed air of extra-authenticity which many people who listen to vinyl have puts us in danger of looking down on people who still care about music, just not the format. I’m all for passion and dedication, and I love vinyl as much as the next person – but surely if more people are listening to more music, regardless of format, then we all win?

Anyway, the fact that most (if not all) new vinyl releases include digital downloads of the record probably makes the whole argument redundant. Sorry guys.