When did vinyl become mainstream again?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by SixOClockBoos, Feb 22, 2017.

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  1. rich100

    rich100 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Middle of England
    A fair bit of my collection is from reissues, I probably bought a few turkeys early on when I started buying LP's again but I think I've educated myself to spot the bad ones now. I've tried second hand shops but they are hyping the prices too much to the point I'd rather have a reissue with the option to send it back if naff, rather than pay a premium price for something which is either scratched up or in a tattered sleeve. I have had a few lucky s/h purchases but few and far between. I had one last week where I asked how much for a certain 80's LP, he said I'll go price it up and came back (presumably after checking ebay) and asked for £15!! I used to scour the boot sales, perhaps I should try again this summer.....

    Some reissues are really worth having, eg Tori Amos reissues
     
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  2. onionmaster

    onionmaster Tropical new waver from the future

    Vinyl's always been around in the indie, dance and reggae scenes, and the 2006 Hoffman mastering of Stadium Arcadium was a significant influence on people getting into it. The catalyst for it getting so mainstream even some supermarkets sell it now was Daft Punk's Random Access Memories in 2013. Even the casuals bought it on vinyl, it was part of the a e s t h e t i c.
     
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  3. e.s.

    e.s. Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Yeah, the notion that albums weren't being released on vinyl during this period is completely insane. You only have to check Discogs to see the release history for albums from the '90s / '00s and it becomes pretty clear what was / wasn't pressed.
     
  4. Schoolmaster Bones

    Schoolmaster Bones Poe's Lawyer

    Location:
    ‎The Midwest
    Sure, but could you say it was mainstream during the '90s~'00s?

    Just to hijack this discussion back to the original question...
     
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  5. troggy

    troggy Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow

    Location:
    Benton, Illinois
    People always say this. It's complete nonsense.
     
  6. Schoolmaster Bones

    Schoolmaster Bones Poe's Lawyer

    Location:
    ‎The Midwest
    In other news: Shoes aren't easy to tie.
     
  7. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    You're spot on about having to be quick. I was in the shops many times at opening time on release day knowing they'd only have 2 or 3 copies of vinyl albums delivered. Quite often they'd ordered more but only received a couple. I remember seeing piles of Oasis - Definitely Maybe on vinyl in HMV, hundreds of them, which was very unusual then. It had an extra track not on the CD.

    Mirrorball is very scarce on vinyl. I have a friend who has one, the only copy I've ever seen.

    I managed to get Time Out Of Mind a few months after release but bought Love and Theft on release day. That one disappeared very quickly.

    I thought the Nick Cave vinyl albums were kept available for years. I could be wrong, but Mute didn't tend to delete much. The same friend who has Mirrorball phoned Mute records and got a lot of Nick Cave vinyl directly from them in the early 2000s. This included The Boatmans Call as that is his favourite Nick Cave album.
     
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  8. e.s.

    e.s. Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    I have a copy of Mirrorball. Last new Neil I liked, despite all the "return to form" hype piled on later albums. Sadly, I paid a pretty penny for mine, since I missed it first time around.
     
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  9. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    They often were, but they also often sounded great. Even though they were thin I don't remember ever getting off centre pressings or a lot of non fill and crackle. The original Depeche Mode - Violator isn't flimsy and sounds amazing to me.
     
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  10. troggy

    troggy Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow

    Location:
    Benton, Illinois
    The 90's and early 00's are some of my favorite times for vinyl. I bought lots of new records during that time. It was pretty much all indie stuff because I didn't like much that was coming out on majors during that time anyway. And, despite being produced in small quantities, it was still reasonably priced, often cheaper than the CD.

    Thank goodness for the indies. They've always been the true believers.
     
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  11. e.s.

    e.s. Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Absolutely not, yeah.

    And I'm actually not sure I'd call it mainstream now, honestly. Nor am I sure being mainstream is necessarily a good thing.
     
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  12. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    Same with me! I think a lot of people were down on it because Pearl Jam were on it. I'm not a Pearl Jam fan at all but liked Mirrorball a lot more than I ever expected too. I only have the CD.
     
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  13. e.s.

    e.s. Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Yeah, I actually can't stand Pearl Jam on their own, but they worked great as Neil's band for that album. I bought it on CD at the time, because -- and in keeping with the topic -- I was buying mostly CDs then. There were records I bought because I really wanted them on vinyl, but everyday listening was mostly on my work commute, so I bought loads of CDs. I even stupidly sold off a lot of vinyl in 2000 when Amoeba opened in LA. Didn't fully return to vinyl as my format of choice until 2009.
     
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  14. ANALOGUE OR DEATH

    ANALOGUE OR DEATH Forum Resident

    Location:
    HULL ENGLAND
    I'm totally with you on some re-issues.When there is a perfectly acceptable re-issue available of an otherwise unaffordable or hard to find record then the re-issue is obviously the way forward.But for albums that are so easily available that you are almost falling over them,it makes no sense to me at all.If you are having trouble finding original copies of these type of records in your local second hand record shop then I can only suggest that you try a different shop.Records should be priced up in a good shop before going on sale.None of this 'I'll go and check the price' rubbish.The records should be in at least VG+ condition.The owner should operate a no fuss return policy.

    I don't really understand your point about scratched records or records in a battered sleeve.Surely you wouldn't but these anyway would you?

    Maybe I'm lucky in that I have a great second hand shop not too far from me.He cleans everything he puts out on an RCM.He grades accurately.Every record is put in a high grade PVC sleeve.His £1 boxes contain numerous excellent condition copies of big selling 70's and 80's records,so there is no need to pay £20 for a copy.

    In my experience of buying records over 35+ years I can genuinely say that I have had many more problems with records bought new mail order than from a good second hand shop.Especially over the last 5 years or so when the quality control on new pressings has gone tits up!

    With second hand you can thoroughly check the record before buying.If the album you are buying is less than say £15 then it is usually cheaper than a re-iss.It can very often also be an original copy which 99 times out of 100 will blow the re-issue out of the water sonically.
     
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  15. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    Yeah, I was trying to be diplomatic. I can't stand Pearl Jam either! Almost all my Neil Young is on CD. He'd hate that! But they were mostly deleted on vinyl when I was buying. Most of them still are. Considering how quick he is at churning out mediocre albums over the last decade or so, his reissues and Archives are very slow moving.

    The only Neil Young vinyl I have is Time Fades Away, UK 60s first pressings of his first two albums, originals of Tonight's The Night & Zuma with the inserts and Trans from a £1 box from a record fair. I've had a lot more of them through my hands and sold them. A lot of them to my friend I mentioned. His Neil Young vinyl collection is incredible.
     
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  16. ANALOGUE OR DEATH

    ANALOGUE OR DEATH Forum Resident

    Location:
    HULL ENGLAND
    Correct.
     
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  17. ANALOGUE OR DEATH

    ANALOGUE OR DEATH Forum Resident

    Location:
    HULL ENGLAND
    To name just 3:Dylan,Neil Young,Micheal Jackson.In small quantities and you needed to be quick,but they were there.
     
  18. elgoodo

    elgoodo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Jersey City, NJ
    Vinyl became mainstream again the day Jane and Becky each bought copies of Adele's 25 to sit next to their wave radio.
     
  19. bataclan2002

    bataclan2002 All You Need Is Now.

    Ya know? I was really baffled when I saw John Denver Back Home Again reissued. Plenty of those in the cheap bins from the first time around!
     
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  20. ANALOGUE OR DEATH

    ANALOGUE OR DEATH Forum Resident

    Location:
    HULL ENGLAND
    Unfortunately this whole 180 gram thing is a total red herring.The weight of a vinyl record has almost nothing to do with how good it will sound.
     
  21. ANALOGUE OR DEATH

    ANALOGUE OR DEATH Forum Resident

    Location:
    HULL ENGLAND
    I got my copy of Boatmans Call from Track Records in York (R.I.P).Unfortunately it became a victim of my great 90's vinyl album purge of about 6 years ago when lack of finances dictated sales of Nick Cave/Neil Young/Supergrass/Pulp/Oasis and others to allow upgrades on hi-fi and pay for anniversary holidays.
     
  22. DeRosa

    DeRosa Vinyl Forever

    It's true that weight of the vinyl gets conflated with quality all the time, mostly by newbies.
    There are great quality pressings of any weight of vinyl. I think the '180 gram' thing is really easy to market
    because the average joe can be easily convinced heavier is better, it feels good and solid so it must be better.
    At the end of the day, as long as the plants press it properly, it's good. Given how tricky that is, to get high
    quality consistency, i'm not against picking 180g as the standard weight of vinyl and going with that.
    But let's be clear, as you pointed out, the 'heavier=better' thing is a myth.
     
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  23. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    It's not mainstream at all when compared to everything else. It's far cooler and it gets way more press but in the grand scheme of things it's not really mainstream. It's no where near the dominant delivery system of music.

    Supermarkets selling it doesn't make it mainstream. Just because there's money to be made doesn't mean it's mainstream.

    Yeah and then they used their streaming method of choice to actually listen to the music. lol
     
  24. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    You'd be surprised, or maybe not, how many people just prefer to pay $30 for a new record instead of buying the $2 used record. I think a lot of people who buy new records now don't even go into a record store to do it. I was speaking to a couple of people who sell hi-end audio gear and one them said that he only buys new remastered lps and doesn't buy used at all. Which actually surprised me(!)
     
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  25. Rocketdog

    Rocketdog Senior Member

    Location:
    ME, USA
    Nope. "Fad" is a terrible choice for a wording, as it implies that the fascination with it is of a brief time, or fleeting. Vinyl's resurgence has been anything but, with sales on a continuous upward tick for over a decade now. If it was a fad, it might have lasted a year or two, three at best. Yet the fact that not only are new record sales are up, but as previously pointed out, used record pricing has increased as well, that you find it being sold in more and more places (plus turntables, even if they are cheap ones) prove it is NOT a fad. It's like when I hear people say - "Oh, I guess vinyl is making a comeback?", I have to correct them with - "No. It's already made a comeback." Just because some are oblivious to it, doesn't mean it hasn't happened.
     
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