If you follow the music scene at all, you will almost certainly have come across the latest trend to take the commercial side by storm: ‘Back To Black’. Essentially this is a revival of the prevalence of vinyl records. The question is, is this any good, and are they here to last?
According to Nielsen Music, 2014 was a big year in terms of shifting sales in the music industry. 2014 saw a 54.5% increase in music streams over 2013, with a huge 78.6 billion streams, whereas digital sales overall fell by 9.4%. Most worryingly, shops suffered a drop of a fifth in all digital and CD sales. However, through all of this doom and gloom, there is one glimmer of hope: sale of vinyl records rose 51.8% over 2013 sales, equating to 9.2 million records.
For those who have grown up in the iTunes generation the idea of music being any more than a background activity might seem a bit odd. All you have to do is stick your headphones on and press play. Vinyl however requires much more attention and is therefore bringing the music back to the forefront, making listening an activity, as it always had been pre walkman era. Reading the sleeve, adjusting the speed and turning the record half way through all mean that listening takes time and requires attention. All of this means that you are more likely to listen to the whole album, from start to finish, which is something that iTunes has taken away from us. However, the ease of accessibility to music remains, with free mp3 codes coming with most new vinyl records, allowing for casual listening at home and out and about. This certainly seems to give us the best of both worlds.
As I’m sure everyone would agree, listening to an album from start to finish is the best way to take in a band. Take Quadrophenia as an example, if you were to take 3-4 minutes of it isolated, you would leave the experience condemning The Who and probably never listen gain. As with so many bands, an album is a story, which is painstakingly put together to flow from track to track. Vinyl opens this up to the listener, and encourages you to engage from start to finish, taking in all the transitions and breaks- just as the artists intended you to. Why did we ever leave it behind! 
This revival then, all sounds fantastic. But is it in danger of going too far?
A quick google search for vinyl albums shows the extent of the problem. Page after page of results, from every band, artist and DJ you could imagine. This may sound great, but the prices of these albums are only going to go up as demand and production increases. You can now expect to pay upwards of £25 for an album. It’s become a gimmick. It’s a marketing venture for every name in the business. Step into a high-street music store and the shelves won’t display a select few alt/indie bands, they’ll be filled with every chart song that’s pushed through the radio 24/7. Some would argue that this surge in popularity and availability has taken away the joy of searching through charity shops and car boots looking for that one golden find. I, however, think this surge in popularity is a great step forward. Die hard collectors can still search for their rare first editions, whilst everyone else can enjoy the same great music through re-issue prints in the way they’re meant to be listened to. The whole craze for buying music has been revived, and is now an event, from admiring the art, to loving the sound! Yet you can never judge an album by its cover!
The only fear is that, as with many revivals, the craze may die out, leaving only the few true fans supporting a huge industry. However, thanks to events like Record Store Day, vinyl seems to be ever expanding. The vinyl craze is exciting, and luckily it looks like it’s here to stay! Cameron Gipp
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