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The Joy of Vinyl Records

2023.05.08
  • Brett Morgan
  • Culture|Hobbies_LeisureActivities
  • Beginner
  • 2023
Photo Credit: Merve @ pexels.com

Many people today listen to music using streaming services like Apple Music or downloaded mp3 files played through smart phones. When I was a child in the early 1970’s, we mostly listened to music with vinyl records. Then cassette tapes became popular because they were more portable, and you could record your own music onto them. Later in the 1990’s, CDs became the most popular medium for music. My favorite way to listen to music is the vinyl record. In recent years, records have become trendy again, partly due to their popularity with DJs. I am not a DJ, but I have several other reasons why I like vinyl best. 

If taken care of properly, records last a long time. I have several hundred records; most of them I bought in my youth or came from my father’s even older collection. Today I listened to the very first record I ever bought – Led Zeppelin IV. It still sounds great, even though the vinyl record is over 40 years old. None of the cassettes from my childhood work at all now, and even some of my CDs from the 1990’s don’t really work well anymore. My old records; however, have become some of my most prized possessions. 

I believe the analog format of vinyl records provides a better, warmer sound than digital formats. Even the pops and crackles you hear on scratched or dusty records can have some nostalgic attraction for people of my generation. Many audiophiles think analog records contain a wider range of sound waves and give a rich, truer, more authentic sound. 

Finally, and most importantly, listening to music with records is a more involved, satisfying experience. First, I have to physically find a record by looking through my record collection. The artwork on the record covers trigger memories and helps me choose what I want to hear. Then I have to take out the record from its sleeve, decide if I want to hear side A or B, put the record on my turntable, and manually place the needle at the song I want to hear. Often, I will start from the beginning using the automatic function. This makes me listen to all of the songs in the order the artist intended, something I think is mostly lost today when we skip through and just pick single songs from our mp3 collection. As I listen to the record, I usually spend some time looking at the artwork and the information printed on the album sleeve, and sometimes I can read the lyrics to the songs if they are printed on the sleeve. I think listening to music with records is a more focused, complete, artistic experience than using other formats. When I play vinyl records, I can most fully appreciate what I am listening to.

Questions:

1. Which of the following is the oldest music medium? 
A. CDs 
B. Streaming Services 
C. Vinyl records 

2. In paragraph 4, what is an ‘audiophile’? 
A. A professional musician. 
B. A notebook with notes about music. 
C. A person who is enthusiastic about high-quality sound. 

3. Why does the author like vinyl records? 
A. Because they are very convenient. 
B. Because the author thinks they provide a better listening experience. 
C. Because the author is a DJ.


Scroll down ↓ for the answers








Answers:

1. C
2. C
3. B

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