We are all living in an era which everyone immerses themselves into the digital world where everything exists on the internet and seems to be intangible. Many people are talking about technology and futuristic stuff like cryptocurrency, electric cars or even metaverse which we might not even be familiar with. Despite being surrounded by all of this futuristic stuff, there must be some time that we look back to our memories and remind ourselves about what we have been through even as time passed. The feeling of being nostalgic makes us want to turn back time to enjoy those old moments where we can slowly appreciate tangible things that we named Analog world.

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   Talking about the Analog world, there are so many things that pop into my head. The word “Analog” reminds me of things like a typewriter, an old telephone with the wire or even a heavy-square computer that was on my dad’s working desk. However, talking about listening to music, have you ever wondered how people in the past enjoyed music though they did not have the internet? Or have you ever visited your grandparent’s house and seen something like a black plate played on the speaker that looks like a big flower?

   The black plate we saw is called “Vinyl record” or some called it “LP Vinyl”. By playing this, it was one of a few methods that people at that time can enjoy listening to music on their own apart from listening to the live performance. The vinyl record was so popular that if you did not have one at home, you would feel like you are out of trend. 

     Before getting deeper into the charm of this classic music format, let us revise the story of how this incredible invention has shaped people’s perspectives on music consumption.

    The vinyl record has been invented longer than you might think, people have been listening to music by using this for more than 100 years. It was first introduced to the public in 1857 with the invention called Phonautograph created by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. A few years later, Thomas Edisons created what he called a Phonograph or Record player which can reproduce the sounds by using the vibration of a stylus and the groove on a rotating plate or disc. Later, the Phonograph was developed by Emile Berliner and turned into a Gramophone in 1888. The Gramophone provided a better sound quality when it was played together with the disc which has been developed and still used in today’s vinyl production.

      Talking through this, you may wonder what is so special with vinyl records and why people are still in love with their charm even though a century has passed. Here we have 4 reasons to fall in love with this old-world charm of vinyl records.

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1. Vinyl records are tangible

   Unlike listening to music from famous online streaming platforms that people nowadays would usually do such as Apple Music, Spotify, Joox, etc. Vinyl records will give you a completely different experience that allows you to appreciate the vinyl disc that is delicately made and consists of its beauty. From the label to the disc’s colours, all the aesthetics have been designed in order to best fit the album vibes and create the best experience for those who own it. If you have once listened to the sound quality of vinyl records, you will definitely be mesmerized by the liveliness of the sound that creates vibes that digital music files cannot give to you.

2. Vinyl records create Slow Life

     Listening through vinyl records can create a Slow life lifestyle that is people will be able to slowly experience the process of listening. Starting with going to the vinyl shop where you can spend hours and hours searching and selecting your favourite album and discovering new songs that you might not know. Together with chit-chatting and exchanging the music interest with people in the shop, these experiences are something that cannot be found when you use online streaming platforms. Also, every detail of vinyl records from opening the wrapper and appreciating the album’s cover design to smelling the sleeve covering the disc allows you to cherish things that happen in front of your eyes.

3. Vinyl records make focus on the songs

   Since we cannot skip or shuffle the song while the record is playing, the record forces us to chronologically listen to all the songs on the album. This makes us more concentrated on each song playing at that moment. Also, due to the small number of tracks on each side of the vinyl record, it creates awareness for the listener that it is time to change the record’s side when they finished the last song and in order to listen to the other songs, they have to flip the record to another side. Generally speaking, listening to the records requires more processes compared with online platforms where everything was done in just one click.

4. Vinyl records cost value

    When buying vinyl records, it is a kind of investment that you can make in the future since the number of records for each album will be limited due to the complex production. Vinyl records that you own might not just be a normal album like a CD player or audio files but it is a limited rare item that can create massive cost and value at any time. If you look at the reselling price in the vinyl records market, especially the reselling price of some famous album that has high demand, you may be shocked by its price. Apart from the investment, vinyl records also have the value and story that each collector holds, causing many vinyl records collectors to decide to pass their vinyl collections to their children as a heritage.

Media helps promoting vinyl records

   After getting to know the reasons why people are so in love with vinyl records, have you ever wondered how it is getting more attention among the new generation? The answer to this question would be the “media” that is the main factor for helping promote the existence of vinyl records to wider society.

  Due to its physical appearance and aesthetics, making modern people like us whose everything can be content for Instagram would like to post some pictures of the record playing on the turntable in order to show the aesthetics and our good taste in music. However, social media has a stronger power than that, it can influence our lifestyle and apart from that, it creates a community allowing people who have the same interest to come and exchange their thoughts based on their interests. 

      Social media has really taken a big part among the vinyl records community Imaging finding a vinyl shop near your house would be so hard these days, but since we have media platforms like Facebook, Instagram or even Twitter that allows people to sell those vinyl related goods, life would be much easier for those amateurs who want to experience this classic format of music. We can simply say that vinyl records are getting more accessible to a wider range of people from a niche market to the mass market with media influences.

Vinyl records and modern music industry

   As a music lover, it is so common to hear many people mention digital engagements like music video’s view count or the song’s rank on the online streaming platform. Nevertheless, lately, we can see how people demand the analog music format for the new albums which causes so many artists to come up and release their albums with the vinyl records format. This vinyl effect can obviously be found especially in the Kpop and Tpop music industries.

  In the Kpop or Korean-pop music industry, many music entertainments and artists usually give precedence to the CD player as a main music format for the physical albums; however, during the last 5 years, we can see some of the artists who provide vinyl records as another format for the physical album as well. 

   You can see that even some famous Korean girl groups and boy groups like Blackpink and BTS also have their own albums with the vinyl records. This has proved that vinyl records are getting more and more attention among the South Korean music industry.

   Apart from the Kpop industry, Tpop or Thai-pop artists are also doing the same things. We can see more Thai artists come up with vinyl records for their new albums like Tilly Birds and Violette Wautier.

  Reading through this you may wonder what your favourite song would sound like when it is played on the vinyl records. I would like to suggest you all try to listen once in a lifetime because it may change your life forever or what about spending your holiday in a vinyl shop and turning back time to the good old days?