BACK TO BLACK....
Like a lot of people my age (born in '76), i've grown up through a lot of technological changes, especially in the medium that music is heard through. As a kid vinyl was the dominant format, with the pre-recorded cassette tape in second place but gaining popularity as advances in sound playback improved (they never found a way to stop your tape deck chewing them up though), and both remained unchallenged until the new kid on the block arrived in the mid-80's: the Compact Disc. Touted as far superior in sound quality, and able to fit over 70 minutes of music onto one disc, this herald of the digital age was "the future" of music. It was also claimed to be virtually indestructible - no scratches, needle jumping, or any of the wear and tear associated with your vinyl records, prompting a host of tv shows (most famously Tomorrows World) to smear jam on them, proving said claims to be outright lies, although i'm sure the creators of the CD didn't forsee such tests! At first they were hideously expensive, and the equipment even more so, which meant that it took a few years to the public to catch up. So the music industry waged a war against King Vinyl, telling people that their record collections were out of date, that vinyl would be but a distant memory within a few years, and attempting to woo them by re-releasing the classic albums and back catalogues of the great bands of their youths - Pink Floyd, etc - on this new format. This was mainly because the cd was cheaper to make than vinyl, but this saving wasn't passed on to the consumer: they were still quite expensive in their 90's heyday, £13 a pop on average. It took until the early 90's before they took over, and the familar racks of black wax started disappearing from record stores.
Being a long way off working age, it was a while before i started making the change to the cd, so my collection continued to build, vinyl for singles and the odd album, cassettes for albums, mainly because i had a walkman, or rather cheap versions of them (remember ALBA, anyone?), which i seemed to get through at an alarming rate! Even after i had my first cd player, i still hung on to my 7"s, 12"'s, and tapes for a few years, until my first house move at 18 meant a clearout. I still had a turntable until around 2001, and still bought a few singles on vinyl until i made another jump and a bought a flash Sony mini stereo system with the latest trend, a minidisc player. This was a new format that never really caught on. Very few acts released albums on it, which meant that it ended up a replacement for the humble C60 and its kin, with two key differences: the digital sound quality, and the ability to format the recording, which could be increased fourfold, making it ideal for mixtapes and recording stuff from the radio, which was mainly what i used it for. They disappeared after a few years: their rival, the Digital Compact Cassette, fared even worse. And of, course, the new millenium bought the MP3 and downloading which, after the music industry were caught napping by various illegal online music sharing sites and eventually decided "if you can't beat them, join them", is now the way in which most music is bought. The black wax was obsolete. Or was it? It had barely clung on, mainly the preserve of audiophiles buying reissued albums on premium vinyl (for premium prices), second hand traders, and cult artists. The age of the iPod and the MP3 was in full swing. But from the late noughties onwards, the kind of passionate music fans who write blogs like this (!) had a collective sense that something was missing. Yes, the convenience of buying music at the touch of a button was easy, the cd was easier to store and look after. But these things come at a price: the shrinking of artwork, the complete absence of feeling of owing something tangible, an object, in music being reduced to a file on a hard drive. So the resurgence of the vinyl record began: more and more artists bowing to demand from fans for their music to made available on this classic format, the slow turnaround of independent record shops being saved from closure, the foundation of international Record Store Day, to the point now where the chart compilers had to create a Vinyl Chart. Back To Black, as some of the heavyweight vinyl re-issues of classic albums have on the shrinkwrap.
I've gone through all the main music formats in my life so far - i still buy cds and have an iPod, though i rarely download anything now - but i've always had a longing for the vinyl record. Maybe it's partly a nostalgia for the records of my youth, that smell, the pops and crackles, the feeling of pulling the disc from its sleeve, the act of putting it on the turntable and gently dropping the needle on the run-in groove, having to flip it over halfway through if you're playing an LP. It's a very physical thing, and in putting a record on, you're actually engaging with the music in a way that playing a cd or an MP3 just doesn't happen. I've had a desire to go back to vinyl for a couple of years now, and last year it finally happened. Whilst browsing in a local second hand charity shop, my partner pointed out a vintage radiogram, a Marconiphone 4353, in good working order. No tape deck, just a turntable with auto-changer, 4 speeds, and one of those spindles that allows you to stack singles to play one after the other. It also has a fully working LW/MW/FM radio, and a compartment that i assume is meant for an old fashioned cassette player. It's a thing of beauty to me: not some top of the range separates system, but something that has been looked after. A nice birthday present! And i have a small but growing vinyl collection again: some new and reissues, some second hand - i wonder if the joy that comes from flicking through the racks of a second hand record store and chancing upon something that you used to have or always wanted but never had, is a predominately male thing? - and my passion for music, which i felt was on a slow wane, is back. Hence this blog. Stops me from boring the missus and workmates! As i'm typing, i'm listening to two albums i found today, in the same shop my pride and joy came from - The Hits Album 6, and Oxygene by Jean Michel Jarre. One a compilation of songs from my childhood, and the other an electronic classic, Grooves full of memories and magic.
Being a long way off working age, it was a while before i started making the change to the cd, so my collection continued to build, vinyl for singles and the odd album, cassettes for albums, mainly because i had a walkman, or rather cheap versions of them (remember ALBA, anyone?), which i seemed to get through at an alarming rate! Even after i had my first cd player, i still hung on to my 7"s, 12"'s, and tapes for a few years, until my first house move at 18 meant a clearout. I still had a turntable until around 2001, and still bought a few singles on vinyl until i made another jump and a bought a flash Sony mini stereo system with the latest trend, a minidisc player. This was a new format that never really caught on. Very few acts released albums on it, which meant that it ended up a replacement for the humble C60 and its kin, with two key differences: the digital sound quality, and the ability to format the recording, which could be increased fourfold, making it ideal for mixtapes and recording stuff from the radio, which was mainly what i used it for. They disappeared after a few years: their rival, the Digital Compact Cassette, fared even worse. And of, course, the new millenium bought the MP3 and downloading which, after the music industry were caught napping by various illegal online music sharing sites and eventually decided "if you can't beat them, join them", is now the way in which most music is bought. The black wax was obsolete. Or was it? It had barely clung on, mainly the preserve of audiophiles buying reissued albums on premium vinyl (for premium prices), second hand traders, and cult artists. The age of the iPod and the MP3 was in full swing. But from the late noughties onwards, the kind of passionate music fans who write blogs like this (!) had a collective sense that something was missing. Yes, the convenience of buying music at the touch of a button was easy, the cd was easier to store and look after. But these things come at a price: the shrinking of artwork, the complete absence of feeling of owing something tangible, an object, in music being reduced to a file on a hard drive. So the resurgence of the vinyl record began: more and more artists bowing to demand from fans for their music to made available on this classic format, the slow turnaround of independent record shops being saved from closure, the foundation of international Record Store Day, to the point now where the chart compilers had to create a Vinyl Chart. Back To Black, as some of the heavyweight vinyl re-issues of classic albums have on the shrinkwrap.
I've gone through all the main music formats in my life so far - i still buy cds and have an iPod, though i rarely download anything now - but i've always had a longing for the vinyl record. Maybe it's partly a nostalgia for the records of my youth, that smell, the pops and crackles, the feeling of pulling the disc from its sleeve, the act of putting it on the turntable and gently dropping the needle on the run-in groove, having to flip it over halfway through if you're playing an LP. It's a very physical thing, and in putting a record on, you're actually engaging with the music in a way that playing a cd or an MP3 just doesn't happen. I've had a desire to go back to vinyl for a couple of years now, and last year it finally happened. Whilst browsing in a local second hand charity shop, my partner pointed out a vintage radiogram, a Marconiphone 4353, in good working order. No tape deck, just a turntable with auto-changer, 4 speeds, and one of those spindles that allows you to stack singles to play one after the other. It also has a fully working LW/MW/FM radio, and a compartment that i assume is meant for an old fashioned cassette player. It's a thing of beauty to me: not some top of the range separates system, but something that has been looked after. A nice birthday present! And i have a small but growing vinyl collection again: some new and reissues, some second hand - i wonder if the joy that comes from flicking through the racks of a second hand record store and chancing upon something that you used to have or always wanted but never had, is a predominately male thing? - and my passion for music, which i felt was on a slow wane, is back. Hence this blog. Stops me from boring the missus and workmates! As i'm typing, i'm listening to two albums i found today, in the same shop my pride and joy came from - The Hits Album 6, and Oxygene by Jean Michel Jarre. One a compilation of songs from my childhood, and the other an electronic classic, Grooves full of memories and magic.
Hi Lee, I have exactly the same model Marconiphone as you! Inherited it from my dad after he died. Not played it for a while as I thought I should probably replace the old stylus so as not to scratch my old (and new) vinyl. Feel like it would probably benefit from an overall service too, have you had a go at doing that for yours? Any tips?! Cheers, and happy listening!
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