Record players

Most of my generation would say that record players are a thing of the past. In fact, a lot of them probably have never seen an actual record player in real life, only in movies or on television. But in the past few years, record players and the vinyl albums that are played on them have been making a huge comeback.

Bands today are releasing their music through MP3s, CDs, and vinyl records. I have always been a fan of records, but I suppose I owe that to watching independent films and older movies. There is a music store in my hometown that sells a variety of music memorabilia, including posters, flags, cds, buttons, apparel, and a wide selection of vinyl records. Most of the records are used and you can purchase them for pretty cheap.

The first record I ever bought was a Phil Collins album. Honestly I do not remember exactly which album, since I have most on vinyl now, but I remember my dad had just introduced me to Genesis, his band, and I fell in love with his music. I went to the music shop with my mom and as soon as I saw Phil Collins I wanted to buy it. The record cost no more than a dollar, and honestly is probably not worth anything at all. The thing about the used CDs at this music shop is that a lot of them are beat up and do not play very well on record players. However, I did not know this growing up because I never had a record player. I would continue to purchase albums, though, in case I ever got one one day. I had a collection of about 35 or 40 records when I finally got my record player, and sadly about half of them were barely audible. Regardless, I still enjoy having them in my collection, and a lot of them I cannot find anywhere else.

As I briefly mentioned before, artists are now releasing their new albums on vinyl as well, and this is both good and bad news. It is good news because it diversifies my collection and allows me to collect a lot more music, but it is bad news because the new released usually cost around 30 dollars. The Vinyls always have some neat artwork or holographic design that CDs do not possess, so it is worth the extra money, but it is painful for my wallet. At least these records sound good when I play them!