For our generation, listening to music takes nothing but the click of a button. We go on our phones and log into our Apple Music or Spotify accounts, and we can search any artist, any song, or any album at ANY time.
While it is great to have every song at my fingertips wherever and whenever I want it, sometimes the purchasing of Premium accounts or updating my Apple Music library just to listen to an auto-tuned artist with computer-produced beats in the background gets overwhelming, and honestly, a little irritating.
At times like this, I start to appreciate the music that my dad has blasting around the house as he is constantly telling me that his music is “better than that stuff you listen to”. He might just be right.
Rather than just telling Siri what song I want to hear, opening up a record is an actual experience. Being able to physically hold the music and the songs that the artists worked on for countless hours is something that our generation cannot get any more.
The art on the covers and the flaps is always something different and unique to the artist and the album itself; they are filled with colors and pictures and photographs of the musicians that were all inspired directly by the actual art that is inside: the music.
Of course, I listen to just as much Drake or Taylor Swift as any person my age would, but there is something about the needle hitting the record and the soft scratch that starts a song that you can't find anywhere else.
Artists like The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, and all of the other music legends intended for records to be the way that their music was heard; two sides each, every song once in order, and all with just the drop of that little needle.
We missed out on an era of art, expression, and excitement in the music world. We missed out on the experience of going to a record store and picking out the latest vinyl that your favorite band released. It's disappointing and sad to see how much times have changed ever since our technology came along. Thankfully, if you've got a dad like mine, records are nowhere near being gone for good.
