McLuhan and Vinyl? I know – I sometimes stretch an idea to its snapping point but isn’t that why I bother to type all day?
Here goes – As I sit on the panels I’m invited to, I often forget to remind myself, that at the heart of all my discussions about music and technology the root of it is about my enduring passion for music.
Computer technology, especially web 2.0, has fooled many of us into thinking that we now have a “new” way of communicating. That is simply not true; we forget that Marshall McLuhan pointed out decades ago new technologies simply create new environments – the old environment then becomes the content of the new environment; Facebook simply allows us to digitize our Rolodex. The computer and its keyboard are the medium in this particular message. Our constant need to remain in touch with friends and family endures, and still will well beyond technology.
We should really be considering technology’s effect on the individual and society. Remember, e.e. cummings warned that “progress is a comfortable disease.” So where does music with its myriad genres and forms, its emotions and passionate responses, its common currency, fit into a “technological” culture?
Well consider this – Music is the medium is the message; bear with me here.
If music is the message then in McLuhan’s terms the vinyl record can be described as a technological extension [the medium] of the musicians body. The medium then creates the environment that produces effects [the media.] This then has an effect on society and culture where the starting point is always the individual – that is, you and me. McLuhan also advised against a rigid separation of the physical from the psychological.
If we then consider that the physics of media have changed yet the media that provides the atmospheres has not, and we understand that the effect is still psychological and can not be separated, do McLuhan’s ideas help us unravel the mystery of what innately binds us to the rhythms and lilts of music around the globe? [My argument carries over into live performance too where the instruments are extensions of the players bodies.]
Vinyl racks at Music Millennium Portland
Anyway, on to my thoughts about vinyl.
In a world of 320kb MP3s, FLAC, loss-less this that and the other files, I’m going to take a leap of faith here and hope that many of you jump in too – my premise is that a vinyl record surely has to be the purest embodiment of our universal love for music. It’s the closest thing to experiencing music live that I have heard. When compared to A to B, with A being an analog record and B being a CD, A wins every time for me. I share Neil Young’s comments in the digital vs analog wars – Young has acknowledged the benefit of hiss-free recording that digital technology offers, with the caveat that “along with the hiss went depth of sound and the myriad possibilities of the high end where everything is like the cosmos, exploding stars, echo.” [Read more of this discussion here.]
Digitizing music has made music more affordable and provided ease of use in portability but at the huge expense of having the emotional range, the highs the lows the rumbles, removed in the process. What we have been hearing on CD is a compressed version of a digital slice of the possible range of sound available to our ears. At live shows the bass sub woofers in the PA system allow you to literally ‘feel’ the bottom end, on CD or MP3 that experience is simply not available to you. Yet, when you play a vinyl record through a great hi-fi system you can experience it in a recording.
For some reason I decided at about exactly noon last Saturday to drive over to Music Millennium on Portland’s east side to buy some vinyl. Any vinyl. I came home with three weighty albums – comfortable with their heft and size and glad that I couldn’t just peel them open and stick them in the car’s CD player. [That's rather like the audio equivalent of Slow Food, Slow Music.]
The universe works in mysterious ways. Why is it that when I spend my day riffing on ideas like the ones in this post, drawing them out like an endless piece of string only to have it end up in a tangle of knots, why, why do I find myself buying three vinyl albums for completely different reasons and upon getting home and spinning them find validation for my thinking in the lyrics of a song each on two of them?!!
Nick Cave’s ‘Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!’ pressed into oily, rich, satanic black 180 gramme vinyl suggests an artisan at work tattooing a litany of sins and black portents upon the skin of Lazarus himself. In typical N.C. fashion all the lyrics revolve around the push and pull of sex and death yet here the underlying theme is of resurrection and a return to the grave as if the grave is a better place than the world currently is. Quite by coincidence the story of Lazarus provides a fitting metaphor for the resurrection of the vinyl record.
Along with the album comes a free 7″ single with a 7 minute long song pressed over two sides called ‘More News From Nowhere.’ In its epic journey, Cave bangs [pun intended] into woman after woman in a world of no consequence, of ‘news from nowhere,’ as if he’s hearing nothing but white noise from all the multimedia outlets, as if its the end of decency; a Rovian embrace of the end of history, a plague on us all this constant transmission from each of us to millions of others often unknown and without consequence – until its too late.
don’t it make you feel so sad, don’t the blood rush to yr feet
to think that everything you do today
tomorrow is obsolete
technology & women & little children too
don’t it make you feel blue, don’t it make you feel blue
for more news from nowhere, more news from nowhere
don’t it make you feel alone
don’t it make you wanna get right back home
more news from nowhere
more news from nowhere
goodbye/goodbye/goodbye
Wonderfully bleak but kinda makes me reconsider Twitter.
I also picked up ‘Cardinology’ from Ryan Adams and his Cardinals. Although a talented and prolific song writer he isn’t in the same league as Cave. Adams gets to a deep grey but never reaches the dark bloody hues that Cave revels in. [BTW, Cave is an apt surname now I think about it.] ‘Cardinology’ is strong but no game changer like Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!.
The song here that caught my attention is ‘Magick’ – where a song is often the total sum of our emotional response to music, wherever we hear it, however we hear it we can’t deny it. In ‘Magick’ Adams suggest it rights all wrongs, overcomes rogue nation states’ sabre rattling, fends off missile attacks and shuts down “power hungry clowns.” He says “give ‘em radios & heels and wake ‘em up with jams.”
I wish I had secret powers, I’d find all the power hungry clowns
and I would shut them down
Give ‘em radios & heels and wake ‘em up with jams on
right after I disappear then disarm, disarm, disarm
and watch the record go round….
In these lyrics the music is on vinyl and the theme is again resurrection – the record keeps on going round. It’s recurring, ‘Magick’ is the power it always brings to challenge popular culture and most importantly, politics. It’s also about addiction.
Pearl Jam visited this space well before Adams with their song ‘Spin The Black Circle’ released on Vitalogy in 1994. This from Wikipedia – According to singer Eddie Vedder, the track is about his and the band’s love for vinyl records. At the band’s July 1, 2003 show in Bristow, Virginia at the Nissan Pavilion, Vedder proclaimed “This song is about old records, old records, anyone remember old records?”
The lyrics play on the similarities between drug addiction and addiction to records and music, as many of the lyrics may be interpreted either way. It is unclear to what extent this is intended to be a serious comparison of different types of addiction and to what extent it is just intended to make the lyrics interesting. Jon Pareles of The New York Times referred to “Spin the Black Circle” as “one of the few songs from Seattle in which a needle has nothing to do with heroin.”
All for the love of vinyl.. Vinyl has a special place in the hearts of a certain demographic – I’d guess those in their late teens and early twenties, definitely those over 40, DJ’s, analog freaks and audio purists. Vinyl brings something to the ear and the heart that MP3s don’t – full-range emotional sonic ra[n]ge…
On a side note it is obvious to many that vinyl has seen a substantial rise in sales over the last few years. Whilst still a small percentage of overall music sales it is carving out its niche amongst music lovers. The labels have embraced this in different ways, mainly through different incentives in the area of giving away MP3 downloads with the vinyl purchase. For the Cave release, Anti allows 3 downloads, presumably as back up should you lose the files, but asks for an email address. Lost Highway offers only 1 download of the Ryan Adams album but doesn’t ask for an email address. Amazingly Warp offers no downloads at all for the Nightmares On Wax album.
Irony of irony’s – after they have fought tooth and nail against the drop in CD sales, music retailers are selling USB record players! Perhaps a better move would be to sell medium to high end turntables. It’s a hardware and software play.
in my workspace my monitor resolution gets finer. processors get faster. my keyboard gets thinner. the turntables seem resistant to change…..unaware of digital “perfection”. its comforting.
November 11th, 2008 at 3:38 pmI have a lot of friends that don’t have the ears or the heart to explore music as deeply as I do, and that’s O.K., but for me it was great to see someone who has thought about this experience deeply and confirmed what I have felt for a long time. Thanks.
November 11th, 2008 at 7:36 pmLet’s talk about ironies here: Major label artists spend countless dollars on the most high-end recording studio gear for home studios or for studio time. Every single aspect of the songs are tweezed, optimized and preserved in 48+ track digital clarity with nary a hint of hiss or unwanted noise.
Then it’s all smooshed down to an MP3 and listened to on an ear bud with a speaker smaller than a DIME. No wonder we love going to live shows.
Vinyl records are special not just for the analog warmth or the cover art. When you play a record it forces you to take an active part in the listening experience. You have to drop the needle, get up and change the side, replace the album back in its protective sleeve then back in the cardboard. It’s a fully tactile experience right down to how it SMELLS.
By the way, Dave–just relistend to Return the Gift and I’ll be damned if the 2005 version of I Love a Man In Uniform isn’t out-fucking-standing. A love affair rekindled. A shame the other two gents couldn’t come on board with the new digital realities.
November 11th, 2008 at 8:32 pmLast weekend I DJ’d at the opening night of a new venue in Edinburgh (The Bowery), using my old 60s Dansette and a heap of 7″ records. The audience were mainly 20 something, nice young things, nary a chav among ‘em. A few were fascinated by the machine and there was a certain amount of respect for the vinyl; yes, it was truly as much a sight as a sound experience for some. And they stayed with me to the detriment of the DJs in another room. But equally, it wasn’t until I handed over to those DJs (who were using iPods, interestingly, going straight into the amp) that the crowd began to dance. Admittedly there was a volume issue – I had a mic in front of the Dansette speaker pushing the sound out through the PA, their iPods fed straight in. But even though they played the odd more up to date electronic track they essentially kept up the vibe I started of old rocknroll & soul & old R&Breggae & rocksteady, the squared sound waves making the songs accessible, removing the extra ‘noise’, the analog bits in between that Dave is eulogising above. And I find this in conversations with younger people, and in the way they dress: no fuss, no distraction and I wonder if it was always a generational thing or if it’s a new age thing…
November 12th, 2008 at 4:29 amThe implications for making music are interesting, though. I love the idea of squaring the sound of a group recorded originally on a one or two track tape machine so it fits neatly into an MP3, the most appropriate medium for a pop song since the vinyl single. I’ve got to admit, the doo wop & rocknroll sounded irresistible & contemporary!
BTW, at the risk of blethering, that night I played the only record I can stand from Nick Cave, Release The Bats, still enough to get me giggling out loud. …oh, he’s such a bad man… a baaaad man.
You’re preaching to the converted here, Dave, but given how good you are at fronting up interesting new downloads I hope you might make a few new converts to the medium.
Personally I think there’s a huge opportunity here given how much enthusiasm is out there at the moment for ‘real’ music, be that rock or roll or folk, say. mp3s are a great medium for pop songs driven by lyrical content – eg Artic Monkeys, MGMT, Amy Winehouse – but awful for anything with atmospheric depth – eg Joy Division, Brian Eno, Nightmares on Wax.
I’d have thought those manufacturers with an ongoing interest in vinyl – Technics, for example – would go out of their way to get this message across, with product demos, JVs with record labels, whatever. Because experience remains at the heart of musical fandom – you have to experience the music for yourself in order to fall in love with it. And right now, an entire generation isn’t even beginning to experience vinyl.
Right now I suspect it’s still viewed as a cost and space issue for the big retailers, but if they are serious about retaining any kind of bricks and mortar existence then they should think hard about re-investing in those things that simply cannot be done online.
November 12th, 2008 at 6:33 amIt’s interesting about vinyl…In the town I live in, I have seen a lot of music stores close within the past few years. The ones that are staying open are the ones that have a good selection of vinyl. It also seems that many of the Gen-Y and Millenial kids are getting into the format. The New York Times recently reported that record companies are producing more vinyl, and seeing significant sales growth. I am excited to see more stuff out on vinyl.
November 13th, 2008 at 9:37 amfantastic article! vinyl has been my preferred format since day one, probably because most of my favorite bands are late 70s early 80s punk and there is just nothing like hearing music the same way it was originally heard. i love putting on an original Black Flag 7″ and hearing it in all it’s scratchy glory. my copy of Entertainment also sounds amazing on wax ;)
my preferred media for new releases is vinyl with a download card. i get the delicious analog sound at home, and have the audio easily available on my computer/ipod/phone/etc.
I’ve done a lot of digitization of my old rare vinyl, i am still tinkering with plugins and flow to get the cleanest capture and conversion. would love to hear people’s thoughts on this…
i’m such a vinyl nerd, i created a site to document one of my favorite band’s massive vinyl catalog – http://www.murdercityvinyl.com
jason
November 13th, 2008 at 11:09 am[...] you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed.Dave Allen has a fantastic article on his blog about vinyl, analog, digital formats, and tying it all together to a new generation. Real good [...]
November 13th, 2008 at 11:29 am@Tim: Do you have Nick Cave’s ‘Do You Love Me?’ on vinyl? That is a sick sick song and as good as it gets.
No secret- I like vinyl quite a bit. I think there is a textural quality to it that lends itself to creating a time and place—another dimension or context for a recording to exist. An mp3 is 2 dimensional, which I actually think is better for dance music and other forms where you really don’t want a large dynamic range. The key is marketing all of these formats to whomever is enthusiastic about them. Buy one of my records? I’ll gladly email you a 350k zip file of the album. Buy a cd? Well, we all know about cd’s—they continue to sell at shows and are easy to distribute.
I think all of these formats are here to stay—the only change I see is a main stream digital format that satisfies the audio purists—something like a blue ray containing special artwork and several digital formats. It would be a boutique item with a price point right around where records are, and unlike records, it wouldn’t use an archaic EQ curve. Again, I love records but…
The fact that much of the industry took so long to embrace the digital format is what caused them to lose half a generation of fans. Now they need to push for 350k files to protect the art of recording and develop and commit to the format for the next century. Whatever that is…
Oh, and an ipod with decent D/A conversion would be sweet too!
November 13th, 2008 at 1:16 pmI’m pretty young at 22. I just started collecting vinyl within the past year. I’m a huge fan of music. I grew up with a father who was a musician so I always looked at music very truly and deeply. Of course, I was the perfect age to get started on MP3s right away. First starting out on Napster and such, then making my way through the different ways of getting music online. As a kid, I used to collect CDs, but over time with changing technology, I had less reason to own them. I owned the first MP3 player in the US, and multiples after it. Eventually it became harder and harder for me to buy CDs because I knew the only use I had for them was either on my computer or on my MP3 player since my computer was the source of any entertainment center I had. I also had a hard time buying MP3s because I felt they had no physical weight to them, and I knew ways to circumvent that whole process. Vinyl has given me a reason to pay for music again. And I love it. Almost obsessed with it. Through all the albums I’ve obtained over the years, I’m finally getting to go back and buy them for the first time (or second time, depending.) In under a year I’ve collected 76 12″ records and I am just a struggling college student. I love the physical properties of vinyl. I own it. I can hold it. I can display it. It belongs to me now. It has made music personal again. And at the same time, made it social too. Often I will sit around with friends or my girlfriend and just listen to albums together. It’s a wonderful experience that very rarely would come out of the digital versions.
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:12 am[...] My Love of Vinyl Records The End of the CD and CD Retailers Puddlegum – Top 5 Reasons Why Vinyl Will Outlive CDs David Byrne Tells The Record Labels to Embrace The MP3 How Killing the CD Single Killed the Recording Industry How Bands Can Make More Money By Not Pricing Their Merchandize at Shows [...]
April 1st, 2009 at 2:29 pm