[Vinyl fights on in a digital world]

Despite ease, popularity of music downloads vintage LPs maintain niche fan base

By: Elizabeth Ghiorso

A death match between vinyl and MP3 is like a standoff between Mr. Miyagi and Katy Perry. In other words, it's a fight between something awesome and something popular.

MP3s, like Katy Perry, are trendy, easy and cheap. However, for those who call themselves authentic audiophiles, nothing beats vinyl for depth and richness of sound.

The LP offers a complete experience and a culture all its own - a culture that has transcended all other music mediums and carried vinyl into the digital age.

Why are vinyl records still thriving after all this time? The answer is simple; vinyl records, like Mr. Miyagi, kick ass.

While iTunes may be shiny and hip, digital downloads don't come close to the record store experience. No degree of convenience beats the atmosphere, the crowd or the prices at the local vinyl shop. Even big record stores like Amoeba and huge, corporate mega-stores like Virgin bring music-lovers together and provide a common ground for punkers and pianists alike.

The record store is a social mecca - a place for exchange and free-expression. It's the only place where people can run their fingers along the tops of hundreds of record jackets until they find one that speaks to their situation, one that they just can't live without. iTunes is just a place to buy some music.

"When you listen to a record, you are listening to the music the way it was meant to be heard," said Johnny, the lead singer and guitarist of Chico's rockabilly/punk band The Shankers.

Johnny, who goes by the one-name moniker ala Prince, works at Melody Records, and when I walked in, he was about to sell a few LPs to Neem-I, a local DJ on KZFR who hosts the show Roots & Culture.

Neem-I was buying records for the first time because he had recently received some equipment that allowed him to spin vinyl, he said. He had been thinking about checking out some records for a long time and now he was "feelin' it."

Johnny related the difference between records and MP3s to that of driving an automatic or a stick shift.

"If you really want the experience of driving a car, you drive a stick," he said. "But if you want to pick your nose and just cruise, you drive an automatic.

Johnny also shed some light on the contrast from a musician's perspective.

"For a band, vinyl is a huge deal," he said. "Any Joe Blow can put something on CD, but it's a commitment to put something on vinyl."

The further into the vinyl community one gets, the more one realizes that vinyl records are personal to people. Each record is an individual entity and most have stories to go along with them.

"The first record I ever got - I blackmailed my sister to take me to a record store," said Brad Finney, the singer and guitarist behind Chico's acoustic punk-rock band, Nothing Left.

Vinyl ownership carries a sense of nostalgia for Finney.

"I have been collecting records since I was 14 years old," he said. "They all have stories."

Vinyl records are important to Finney because they represent his history, he said.

"I grew up in Southern California," Finney said. "I would mow lawns and make some cash and then blow it all on a bunch of 7-inches or a few LPs."

Vinyl aficionados crave not only the killer sound of the record but the full-bodied experience that comes with it. Vinyl isn't just the best way to listen to music; it's a lifestyle. Each record in a collection represents both the true intentions of the artist and the circumstances of the collector.

Searching for scratches, scouring the planet for original presses and hearing that little pop as the turntable switches sides adds to the romance of the vinyl experience.

As for the MP3 experience - there isn't one. Buying and listening to music online is commercial and soulless. Online music sources have no stoned record-store clerks, no stale incense smell, no faded album art, and no cliche political bumper stickers. MP3s are songs stripped of artistic identity and individuality; they are lost in ambiguity.

If all you want is the latest Taylor Swift single, then you may be better off with iTunes. But if you want to really hear some music, feel the depth of sound, experience the true intentions of the artist and kick ass like Mr. Miyagi, then vinyl is the way to go.

SOURCE: http://www.theorion.com
Reprinted By Permission