Yesterday on Threads, I shared this article from The Observer newspaper. It talks about the vinyl revival and how LPs are an antidote to a frenetic world.
It resonated with me, the act of collecting and listening to vinyl is something more mindful than streaming music.
It also prompted me to spend some time thinking about my relationship with vinyl records.
I started buying vinyl in my teens, and by sixteen I had a modest collection of albums and singles. This led to me being a DJ, at first for parties with friends and then as a small business.
As my collection grew, so did the circle of friends that would come to parties and ask me to make DJ Mixes.
Later, I was a professional DJ and my vinyl purchasing peaked. Soon I had well over 15,000 records in my collection, and was adding almost every day.
Like many others, this dropped off with the advent of the CD, and later digital. DJ'ing technology moved to digital and my vinyl collection took a back seat.
Now, I'm collecting vinyl again.
This time around, the vinyl revival is something quite different. My collection is more refined, and focused on music I want to LISTEN to.
The urge to share music is still there, through playlists and social media. What is different this time are the much stronger connections made.
I have connections online who like the same music as me. I have friends who run record shops. I've made trips with people from the internet to buy records in foreign lands. I have contacts who still DJ in clubs, and love vinyl as the medium. I follow people on discogs who have similar tastes to me.
My collection is still making connections.
