// Behind the Music…//

I’m thinking about buying a turntable (if I get a job so I can have the cash to buy one). I miss listening to vinyl. It would be nice to kick back in my room and enjoy the sound better since vinyl has better sound quality. Also, there is just something about having a physical recording that I like. MP3 players are convenient, but I miss looking at cover art, actually having lyrics on the cover, etc. Most of all, I miss having a story to tell about when and how you got the record, cassette tape, or CD.

For instance, back in 1992, when I was four, I was given my very first music player- a sony walkman. I grew up listening to music, as my folks were fans of music and loved to watch MTV, VH1, CMC, etc. so I got exposure to a lot of different genres. One artist that they loved, and I came to love, was Michael Jackson. So, when I got the walkman I also received a cassette of Michael Jackson’s Dangerous album. I don’t remember the details of how I got it, but what I do remember was the feeling I felt when I first put those headphones on my ears and listened to the album for the first time. It was magical. Before this point, music, to me, only existed on TV and on the radio really. Now I had my own device, which played what I wanted when I wanted it. Because of that walkman, I got to enjoy entire albums instead of just the singles and videos that I heard on TV. And to be able to say, I got this cassette before any of my friends was pretty cool.

It’s something that you can’t really do now. It’s easy to get albums in digital form, which is great in many ways, but now-a-days you don’t get to have stories about getting a digital album or single. I remember my mother telling me how she got Whodini’s Escape album. A friend of her’s who she had jones for gave it to her while they were working at McDonald’s. Not too long afterwards he joined the millitary. They kept in touch during that time and got closer. One night he was out and was hit by a drunk driver and died. She said that she couldn’t listen to it for a long time after that because it reminded her of him.

See, while that’s a tragic story, I think it’s sort of nice that the physical form of the music can bring back memories like that. The song can carry memories too, but there’s something about that added element of the story of getting the 45s, cassette, or CD that I like a lot and sort of miss.