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Iceheart
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My old vinyl ollection came as a result of learning the advantages from a friend. Record companies were inconsistent when it came to having full lyrics, pictures, etc for cassette releases. Records usually came in bi fold packages with full lyrics and extras even the CD inserts didn't. I had over 20 albums in which I owned the cassette, record, and CD.

 

As far as sound quality, I never owned a high end record player so I could hear the difference between vinyl and CD. CDs sounded better.

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Guest El Chalupacabra

 

 

Unpopular opinion time!

 

I can't hear the difference between vinyl and digital. The sound quality just doesn't register with me. And yes, I collect vinyl (mostly vintage), I have really, really good sound equipment. That's why I don't normally consider the usual "warmer tones" argument from audiophiles - I don't doubt them, but I also don't think the average music fan cares so much that it's driving the current trend.

 

I also couldn't hear "Laurel" unless the higher tones of that recording were basically completely eliminated, so my ears aren't exactly normal.

 

I love Spotify. Mostly because it's enabled me to find so much new music that isn't on the usual radar. Any ethical quandary I might have with it is cancelled out on how much money I spend on concert tickets to see these bands when they end up in my area, or I end up in theirs. And, again, I do collect vinyl.

 

Live music > canned music no matter the shape of the can, anyway.

 

Since we're giving music recommendations, too, HAY TANK, have you found Spotify's "Swagger" playlist yet?

Honestly, I can't hear much difference between CD and vinyl, but depending on how it was ripped from a CD I can tell the difference between digital and vinyl. The more compressed the rip, the lesser the quality. For example, I have a ton of music I ripped like 15 years ago on my computer at 128, and it all sounds blah to me now. There is also all kinds of variables when it comes to audio tech that affects sound quality with vinyl. But when all things are equal, I really don't hear the difference. But I know people who swear by vinyl. Whatever. I like portability of digital formats, and will take that over vinyl any day.

 

My theory is vinyl is mostly being pushed by the music industry as a way to combat digital piracy, and some people just buy into vinyl because they "hear" the difference.

Being an old music geek (haven't kept up with it for years) I beg to differ. Vinyl popularity came from scene kids needing to be different, and it really started with people looking for music that never made the transfer to CD.

 

I remember spending days flipping through vinyl and visiting hole in the wall music shops looking for rare Elvis Costello releases.

In short, I was a hipster before being a hipster was a thing, and now I'm a dad who listens to Taylor Swift with my daughter.

 

 

 

My theory is vinyl is mostly being pushed by the music industry as a way to combat digital piracy, and some people just buy into vinyl because they "hear" the difference.

 

Some people definitely hear a difference but I also don't think there is any real discernible difference (I think there have been studies done confirming this too) but I unfortunately made the mistake of getting into purchasing vinyl (unfortunate as it is an expensive hobby). Main reason is that I like it as a means owning the physical album. Majority of all my music I listen to digitally and streaming, but if I really love an album or soundtrack and I want to own it, I'll grab the vinyl.

 

I don't think the music industry are using it to combat digital piracy though. Sales have increased over the last few years admittedly but it wouldn't even be making a dent on digital, and it never will. It's not portable at all, no way to stream it and use it with a digital assistant and it's expensive.

 

What I was referencing was newly produced vinyl, especially re-releases of vintage albums. And I certainly don't know. Just saying I had a theory.

 

But yeah, there are audiphiles out there that have been collecting records in their milk crates since time immemorial for whatever reason.

 

Perhaps it is a case of the record companies taking advantage of that to push a format once considered obsolete because it is harder to pirate, or I am completely wrong. You decide.

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I get where you're coming from, my guess is just that it was a natural progression as it went mainstream. It went from "I'm looking for something extremely rare" to "I'm looking for something that'll make me seem cool" to "I'm going to pretend that this is better quality" to "I'm going to buy it from Best Buy."

 

You could be right. I don't have any real data.

 

I will say that I do think that things that were recorded early enough do sound better on vinyl. I don't have any now, but I used to have a collection of Sinatra albums, and I always thought they sounded better than the cleaned up versions that were released on CD or digital.

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Guest El Chalupacabra

 

 

I don't have any real data.

Neither do I. Just my personal opinion. And that is not to say Wader and you aren't right, either. Maybe it is all of it, to some degree.

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The stuff Beyonce/Jay-Z/The Carters have been doing for the past few years starting with Lemonade is what happens when you give an artist free range to Art.

 

And I wonder if the homogeny of top 40 music in the past 3 years or so is a response to this by scared record execs.

 

(as if anyone else has the financial or cultural capital to do what The Carters are doing, but they're proving it can be done and the masses will devour it)

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I've been listening to a lot of music with my kids, and introducing them to as much variety as my wife can stand. My daughter loves Taylor Swift and Imagine Dragons. My son loves Foo Fighters and Nirvana. They both like the Beatles and the Monkees, my son likes the Rolling Stones. They also both really love just regular kids music, which is really good for their development.

 

My dad had a wide interest in music, which he shared with all of his kids. I love seeing

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I try to avoid my biases, but so far all I've used is the early stuff, which I prefer.

 

Crazy to think that there is "early" and "later" stuff for a band that existed for ten years.

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Do you consider their stuff good? Personally I lump Beyonce into the used to be good category. I think Kelly Rowkand puts out better R&B, but her music is nothing special either.

 

Yes. They're not my favorite ever performers or anything like that, but I think Beyonce did something really impressive with Lemonade, though her self-titled album before that was pretty good, too. I wasn't a fan during the Sasha Fierce thing, I thought she sounded too generic then, but she was also really young.

 

And the homogeneity is not restricted to the top 40. It has extended far beyond that now.

 

How do you know that when you refuse to listen to streaming services, though? What you hear on the radio is the tip of the iceberg, the bands who are truly doing unique stuff are bypassing the radio altogether for sites like Youtube and Spotify. Without streaming services, you're really only hearing like the top 1% of what's out there on the radio, and maybe like 10% of the indie bands out there on smaller sites like Bandcamp and Noisetrade. You're literally missing the majority of music produced if you don't stream.

 

Unpopular Opinion Time again! I don't like The Beatles. Neither do my parents, so maybe it's not being raised with them, but... my own delve into their music ended with a distinct feeling of "meh," with the exception of Let It Be and Blackbird, which are gorgeous.

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Do you consider their stuff good? Personally I lump Beyonce into the used to be good category. I think Kelly Rowkand puts out better R&B, but her music is nothing special either.

Yes. They're not my favorite ever performers or anything like that, but I think Beyonce did something really impressive with Lemonade, though her self-titled album before that was pretty good, too. I wasn't a fan during the Sasha Fierce thing, I thought she sounded too generic then, but she was also really young.

And the homogeneity is not restricted to the top 40. It has extended far beyond that now.

How do you know that when you refuse to listen to streaming services, though? What you hear on the radio is the tip of the iceberg, the bands who are truly doing unique stuff are bypassing the radio altogether for sites like Youtube and Spotify. Without streaming services, you're really only hearing like the top 1% of what's out there on the radio, and maybe like 10% of the indie bands out there on smaller sites like Bandcamp and Noisetrade. You're literally missing the majority of music produced if you don't stream.

 

Unpopular Opinion Time again! I don't like The Beatles. Neither do my parents, so maybe it's not being raised with them, but... my own delve into their music ended with a distinct feeling of "meh," with the exception of Let It Be and Blackbird, which are gorgeous.

I've listened to plenty of spotify, plenty of "diverse" alt radio and make a concerted effort to read music press and reviews from a variety of sources. I trawl bandcamp and YouTube daily and even suffer the smugness of pitchfork writers from time to time. Oh and I browse Soundcloud a lot too.

 

When I say I don't use spotify, I mean I try to keep my usage of it strictly for finding out about stuff. If I like something, I'll buy it. So I wind up listening to my own collection of curated artists more often than anything else. But the hunt for new stuff is constant.

 

For instance bands like Protomartyr, Idles (or Idols I forget the spelling) , Shame, and numerous indie punk bands are all doing the same thing. Tame Impala sounds the same as a thousand other indie bands. And the similarities are much stronger than their differences. The War on Drugs and Kurt Vile are playing a sound that another hundred thousand are all doing. No one is successful at being different, or if they are the exposure is near instantaneous and 20 other bands crop up doing the same thing. I could say the same for extreme metal bands. It's a problem that all genres and subcultures face. I just find it more tolerable amongst metal bands as the ones that manage to find a sound that is refreshing do more for my feels than any other genre these days.

 

So yeah, there are the rare gems out there. But there is so much homogeneous noise you have to sift through before you find anything interesting. The ease of information access is music culture's worst enemy. Nothing is given time to gestate in isolation into something interesting because it's picked up on instantly by others and replicated. This creates homogeneity.

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Bye Bye Bye by N'Sync is one of the all-time great pop songs.

 

18 year old me, who was in a Misfits/Gwar cover band is so ashamed.

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