NWB - Community Blog

erm...with the state of modern music there's nothing I'd want to collect...who wants a Priests picture album? Recorded music died years ago...probably mid 90's...

I agree with everything you've said and these days i always buy cd's from my fave artists/bands.The availability provided by the net these days is incredible and has certainly opened up the music markets.
In the same instance I have just sold my vinyl collection for space saving reasons to a guy who was very happy to add them to his colection.End of an era but gone to a happy home,kind of poetic.Anyway mp3's are great as I don't have to carry original cd's around in my car and you can fit lots onto one disc.

Far from alone I'd say mate!
I too remember those days. An album was kind of like a statement about your tastes, and you'd compare purchases with mates etc.
Plus there was the anticipation as the needle hit that first groove - would it really be as good as the last album you loved by a particular artist etc
I must admit that nowadays it is seldom I listen to a full album. Instead I let WMP pick stuff at random most of the time.
Very sad I know!

I use digital downloads the way I used to use a tape recorder - I'll try a few tracks, but if I like them, I will then buy the physical CD.
I'll still rip it onto my mp3 player so I can listen with ease, but I like having that little jewel case on the shelf, with the booklet which quite often contains sleeve notes etc, explanations of the songs and lyrics.

Alyermustbeanoldgitpal

I know exactly what u mean. I used to go into a local shop in Paisley called Stereo one religiously once a week. But as well as what u mentioned, there were the times when they would be playing something and you'd go yeah Im having that. Then there was the second hand bit upstairs where you could get stuff really cheap. Yeah times have moved on, but many hours were spent rifling through all the vinyl and cd racks and I miss them lol.

@ US Mail
the needle???

Where was that? On your wax cylinder player?? LOL

I don't know I think a clear out is also in order of all the dodgy bargain bin cd's I'vr bought over the years.Maybe you've guessed I've just moved house lol.

@Night Train
OK the stylus then Alec!
I am almost 50 y'know! Christ!
LOL!

I can still 'smell' the valves inside my HMV record player

BUMP!!

It was a special part of the weekend to pop down to the record stores in Bolton, there used to be a choice of at least seven outlets but only one proper one now, HMV. I bet Alec remenbers Edwin P Lees !
Within minutes of getting home, the new album would be on the turntable and you would be reading ALL the sleeve notes, then onto the lyrics - fantastic days. Now it's crap, not the same excitement going to the large outlets getting rap blasted down your ears !

Rick.

thing in the paper the other day kinda hinted at a bit of a backlash against digital media...Tapes n vinyl could be on the way back !!!

The state of the music these days is, perhaps, the best it has ever been, there are thousands of bands out there, all genres are being played around the globe with new blood being injected by new, young and promising bands whilst the old dinosaurs are still going strong. Rock music as other genres, has been taken to unimaginable heights and; best of all, we are able to listen to the music we love anywhere and anytime. We have all formats to satisfy every taste, mp3, CD and vinyl (if you wanna pay the extra for it), we can even play vinyl in our computers and rip the tracks onto mp3s! Technology allows us to listen to anything we want before purchasing the product. It's all down to what you actually want, fancy sleeves, booklets, or just the track. There is so much music available, and I always discover new exciting things to listen to. At the same time I love to listen to good vintage rock, same as tasting a good aged wine. Rock is meant to be innovation and pushing things forward, we're no better than those who criticized rock back in the 50s, 60s and 70s if we let ourselves get stuck in time warps closing our doors to everything new. I wonder what will come after mp3s...

yeah I used to love buying a new LP, reading sleeve notes, the buzz of playing it the first time, everything about it. I still buy the proper cd if it is a band whos album I want but if I only want the single I'll go to Amazon or Itunes downloads. Vinyl is partly back, got a Rammstein album on vinyl and a couple of 7 inch singles by One Minute Silence a couple of years back. As for the state of modern music; if you don't find any you like, your not looking far enough. There are some brilliant bands out there and much more choice than ever due to digital making it easier for a band to get their music out there. Recorded music isn't as big a deal as it used to be, partly because of people cherry picking the odd song they like on itunes instead of buying the album and partly due to illegal downloads. The upshot of this though is that the bands now have to be good live and tour regularly to survive instead of releasing an album every 5 years and hibernating in a castle getting rich and fat from sales like a lot used to do. I'm 45 by the way and loved the old days of vinyl but I love now better where I can check out a band on myspace and buy the album or go see em after I hear their music.

@Luis G; well said, you posted while I was writing, but I agree with all that, great times we are in musically.

I've just been checking around some music shops and I've gotta say, there's plenty of vinyl being released these days! So, if anyone out there is missing the old days, well, you better get yer wallets ready... :D

@Sandwich Slayer: Amen brother.

/,,/

@Luis G......and Sandwich Slayer.

I understand that it is much easier to access music nowadays, but I feel that you have both slightly missed the point. For me, and I think this blog implies is the feeling that you don't possess anything anymore because the music is so accessable.

What has now gone is that exiting feeling of choosing your record and the disappointment of having to leave another three in the shop- thinking to yourself- I'll get one of those next week! Then rushing out of the shop, onto the bus (wishing the bus would go faster) and straight to the bedroom and on the record player. Nowadays you can't buy that exitement.

And the smell of the record and the artwork/photos on those gatefold sleeves were the business! I'll never part with my vinyl collection ever.....much to the annoyance of Mrs Cottonhouse!

For me the artwork,sleeve notes was as exciting as the music. How could anyone ignore Roger Deans covers on Yes/Greenslade/Osibisa albums. It was always as much about the packaging as the songs themselves

@ Keef & Gary - Yeah, you could SMELL the newness of your purchase !

I loved that smell, just like the smell of a new book and the packaging was awesome. Going over to your mates to play them while you drank your PARTY FIVES !

Rick.

@Keef - defo!

Maiden's "Piece of Mind"

Marillion's Misplaced Childhood and Fugazi

For Those About To Rock

The list goes on and on!

i love my cd collection, got saxons denim and leather expanded edition for 3 quid in Fopp the other day!!, ive been after that for ages, already got wheels of steel and strong arm of the law, love the booklets with the ac/dc digipacks all that kind of stuff

@The Cottonhouse Shakers
I still walk into music shops and I leave one for the next time, that hasn't changed at all.
Let's be clear gentlemen, you can buy vinyl of almost everything nowadays. If you choose to get mp3 or CD is your own choice and not because there is a shortage of vinyl.
Music is universal and I am glad that today is available in such vast quantities.

@The Cottonhouse Shakers. Yeah I do miss LPs partly because of the size; more pics, notes etc, but I still get the buzz of buying an album on cd, I get a solid good quality recording that I can rip to mp3 for convenience too. The odd special thing I'll get on vinyl still. Like Luis G said; more stuff is on vinyl all the time. It costs me more now tho LOL, last year I bought a Dragon Slayer album on yellow vinyl to hold and look at and the same album on cd to play and rip to mp3

Denim and Leather, I remember looking at the picture on the back of the LP and thinking - what a great pic! I wanted hair like Biff Byford, unfortunately it ended up like Steve Dawson's on the back of that album! Oh well.

@Luis-G and Sandwich Slayer

Points taken gents. I suppose that it is nostalgia and those times can't be brought back. You can buy pretty much everything else.

I don't think it means as much to me as it did when I was young but there's not as much to be excited about in the world of music, certainly the kind of stuff I like.

Although I still buy loads of vinyl and CDs I really miss the time when you'd get ludicrously excited about an album coming out and rush to the record shop the day it appeared.

In the mid 80s I had a Saturday job at Woolies in Blackpool - used to get me wages and go straight to Fillmore Records (anyone remember it, run by the late great Mick Schofield?) and buy a secondhand album or two.

There was nothing more exciting than browsing through the racks of vinyl, perusing the artwork, reading the sleevenotes and soaking it all up. I got into so many bands just through having a punt on an album I liked the look of.

In those days there was no Youtube etc to check out a band, so my SAHB/Neil Young/Yes/Zeppelin/Who/John Mayall/Jack Bruce/Muddy Waters etc albums I bought are treasured now cos they opened up my love of the sort of music we play on the band.

Of course, you can have a similar experience shopping for CDs but it doesn't beat the thrill of taking home a gatefold double album, whacking it on the turntable and blasting it out.
Louis

Massive Electric Storm, your story is just like mine when I had my first job at JJB Sports in Manchester. We were paid cash in hand and the shop shut about half an hour before the Vinyl Exchange so I'd leg it across town and spend half my earnings (£10) on an array of random records, the other half going into the bank to save up for my first Fender. It was great going home on the bus with some albums by a bands I'd barely heard of, reading the sleeve notes and looking at the cover wondering what the band was like. All the while blotting out the agony of standing still for ten hours in a palace of Chavvery.

Though where it all really started for me was at a little second hand record shop in Middleton centre, which is alas long gone. I'd basically save all my dinner money for the week up by not eating anything and then on a Friday I'd go down and buy albums on vinyl, 3 for £2! Awesome! I got into stuff like the Floyd, Purple, Zep and then Numan, Kraftwerk. Those were the days! Brilliant, though I was constantly hungry from the age 14-16.

CDs really, really annoy me. The worst thing is that the cases are terrible, they're second only to an egg in the fragility stakes. Whoever thought of that design needs shooting!

Buying a 12" vinyl was a teenage thrill ..i remember me & my mates running down to our local record store Playback in poynton to buy Quo Live on release but they hadnt got it yet so getting on the bus to Stockport , Neild & Hardy hadnt got stock or Boots etc ..so back on the Bus to manchester and finally tracking it down at HMV or Piccadilly records and savouring the double gatefold sleeve etc ..... you wouldnt do that for a little silver disc with sleevenotes that are too small to read .... and a download album ... what good is that ..... oh and who can get fat on a mars bar these days ..theyre tiny ..but thats another story .

Downloading definately leaves me in the cold. I know they're trying to make things more interesting with interactive digital album covers on some iTunes downloads but it's still not the same thing as having a physical item in your hands. It also means that music's primary association is the PC, not the hi-fi. An MP3 is also a million miles away from being good quality too, filling the gap between cassette and CD rather than improving it. It's weird how unlike TV, the advancements in digital technology have only been used to reduce the quality of music rather than improve it. Yes convienence has come on leaps and bounds but you don't hear 42" 1080P TV Blu Ray users moaning that they can't watch their films on the go! Where's music's blu ray?

I also hate the way that by default MP3 players shuffle the tracks. It's almost like you're asking for the moon on a stick to listen to an album from track 1 to 10.

i always prefer hearing a new album through the hi fi speakers, and having the option of buying individual tracks has stopped me listening to full albums, which is a shame, because ui always thought how tracks are placed next to each othern is very important to the albums flow.

still, i like being able to hear a track on the telly, and have it in my ears a minute later.

if you want cds, they're there for you. personally, i dont by cds anymore because they take up too much space and since you have have thousands of albums on one little hard drive. its much better for me personally. i plug my ipod into my car, no more need to cart cds around with me when ive got hundreds of albums to choose from at my finger tips.

i always prefer hearing a new album through the hi fi speakers, and having the option of buying individual tracks has stopped me listening to full albums, which is a shame, because ui always thought how tracks are placed next to each othern is very important to the albums flow.

still, i like being able to hear a track on the telly, and have it in my ears a minute later.

if you want cds, they're there for you. personally, i dont by cds anymore because they take up too much space and since you have have thousands of albums on one little hard drive. its much better for me personally. i plug my ipod into my car, no more need to cart cds around with me when ive got hundreds of albums to choose from at my finger tips.

i always prefer hearing a new album through the hi fi speakers, and having the option of buying individual tracks has stopped me listening to full albums, which is a shame, because ui always thought how tracks are placed next to each othern is very important to the albums flow.

still, i like being able to hear a track on the telly, and have it in my ears a minute later.

if you want cds, they're there for you. personally, i dont by cds anymore because they take up too much space and since you have have thousands of albums on one little hard drive. its much better for me personally. i plug my ipod into my car, no more need to cart cds around with me when ive got hundreds of albums to choose from at my finger tips.

i always prefer hearing a new album through the hi fi speakers, and having the option of buying individual tracks has stopped me listening to full albums, which is a shame, because ui always thought how tracks are placed next to each othern is very important to the albums flow.

still, i like being able to hear a track on the telly, and have it in my ears a minute later.

if you want cds, they're there for you. personally, i dont by cds anymore because they take up too much space and since you have have thousands of albums on one little hard drive. its much better for me personally. i plug my ipod into my car, no more need to cart cds around with me when ive got hundreds of albums to choose from at my finger tips.

I suppose that's four ways of looking at it - LOL

@ Mothers Ruin and Film One. Why don't you buy vinyl any more? Plenty out there as I said before, you don't have to go with CD and mp3 if you don't want to; however, maybe you'll have to save your pennies as you did back in the day 'cos some of them are slightly dearer than the CD or audio file.
x

I still buy a fair bit of second hand vinyl and vinyl still outweights CD by about 3 to 1 in my collection. However I've found the modern stuff doesn't sound right. The best thing about vinyl for me is the dynamics but the way music is mastered and mixed these days really doesn't suit vinyl in my opinion. Plus labels don't put half the effort into the LP mix as the CD one, it's the opposite of the early days of CD. I don't blame them as vinyl sells about 1/20th (if that) of what the CD release does, but it's annoying.

Another issue is that a lot of re-presses are awful. Rumour has it that the dub-plate is cut from the CD of the album on many of them, which would make sense as many of them, particularly Simply Vinyl releases, sound terrible. A prime example of this is the 2004 repress of Darkside of the Moon I bought new from HMV, an old copy from donkeys year ago I got off a flea market sounds miles, miles better. The new pressing, although in far better condition, is flat and lifeless.

I remember borrowing my mates brand new copy of Lovehunter by Whitesnake, and carrying it home in a carrier bag on my pushbike.On the way I stopped at the chippy to get fish+chips. Carried them home in the same bag. The record looked like a big dipper on the turntable it was so warped from the heat .ha ha
I had to stick two 50p pieces to the stylus to get it to stay on the record. And I had to buy my mate a new one!.Aaah those were the days...