So I’ve been listening to a lot of music on vinyl, and acquiring a lot of music on vinyl, for about a decade since I re-discovered the form (building from a set of records that had followed me through two states and approximately 20 moves—most of the time without a functioning turntable. Starting from that base of 49 records, I’ve now amassed over 600 titles on vinyl, and I’ve been thinking a lot about my buying and listening habits.
While not explicitly related to my listening, this post digs into the types of vinyl I’ve acquired, starting with those first 49 and and all the rest since then. So I did a data dump form discogs.com and began slicing and dicing the data I’ve stored there to see if it turned up anything interesting.
Discogs lets me classify every record by the quality of the vinyl and sleeves, the format (i.e., vinyl in this case), year, genre, etc. First, I thought I’d look at the number of records I have by decade. I excluded classical for this exercise for obvious reasons.
The 80s rule
Anyone that knows me even a little bit won’t be surprised by that 36% from the 80s. After all, that’s the decade I came of age and really feel in love with music, and it’s also when a lot of my favorite bands were most active. I mean, when you have the entire vinyl discography by bands like Echo & the Bunnymen and R.E.M., that’s going to definitely skew the numbers. The second through the fourth decade with the most records are where things get a bit surprising and interesting.
Still no disco really
The decade with the second most records in my collection was the 70s. I found this to be very surprising given my listening history and my own perception of my tastes. I think there are a few of reasons for this though.
First, a lot of the bands I love actually got there start in the late 70s. And just as many bands that are associated with the 60s put out some of their best work in the 70s. I’m looking particularly at The Clash and The Kinks, respectively. Second, for every excessive, over-the-top, capital “R” rock band, and all it entails, in that decade, there are also a lot of great bands that lurk beneath the surface (hello Big Star and Cheap Trick).
Finally, I was beginning to get back into records, I found myself exploring records I would have dismissed out of hand before because I was looking for music that was mastered for vinyl and was outside of my 80s wheelhouse (nice to meet you finally, Steely Dan and ZZ Top).
The compact disc decade
The third most represented decade was also very surprising to me, mainly because I thought I had a lot more from the 90s. I mean, this decade was just as formative for me in many ways as the 80s. I was in my 20s going to shows all the time then after all, and there’s a lot of music I still love a lot from then (Afghan Whigs, Blur, and Pulp, to name just three of many).
But when I sit back and think about this in the cold light of day without any nostalgia, it comes down to this: a lot of 90s music just sounds like shit on vinyl. I was so excited when I got the Singles soundtrack on vinyl (along with a CD of extra material), but hen I put it on, it just sounded tinny and shallow. The CD I have, however, sounds great.
Remember, vinyl was a dying medium then and nothing was being mastered with vinyl in mind, by and large. Most of the records I own from that decade was from early on or are remasters made especially for the vinyl resurgence.
A new millennium and vinyl comeback
The fourth thorough sixth decades by representation bear this out: the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s. Sometime early in this century, sort of coinciding with the indie rock explosion coming out of NY primarily (with a nice assist from Detroit and England), vinyl began to be important again, and the sales numbers started their upward trajectory. Also, in this time, I’ve been super engaged with trying to keep up with music more closely than I had been in the boy band and pop days of the late 90s. There are just too many to name check.
I can’t stress this enough. If you don’t think any good music is coming our any more. Pay more attention.
Trending
All that jazz
In terms of rock and roll, the 60s came dead last (but I’ll explore genres in another post). Even then, some of those records are actually jazz. This really surprised because I thought I had more of this, and it’s something I’m really working on. The thing is, a lot of the vinyl from this era that’s original is prohibitively expensive if it’s in good shape, and even the remasters cost more than you’d expect. I do pony up from time to time and here is where most of my “wish list” lies.
A final note on the decades. The 40s and 50s are exclusively old school country, like The Carter Family, or jazz. But again, that’s my next post.