Why are you obsessed with vinyl? We asked experts

These days, vinyl is everywhere.

In the early 2000s, vinyl records were the dusty relics of a forgotten era, gracing only the shelves of garage sales and thrift stores. Now, new artists are pressing fresh vinyl and placing their records into aesthetically pleasing displays at stores like Urban Outfitters and Barnes & Noble. 

According to the Recording Industry Association of America, record sales in 2015 were up 32 percent to $416 million — the highest since 1988. 

These numbers beg for an answer to the question: what caused the revival of vinyl?

Jay Reeves, a lifetime lover of vinyl and the owner of Vinyl Perk — a temporarily displaced local record store that now sells online — has what he believes is the answer. 

Reeves said digital music is just an “invisible music experience,” but vinyl records are a full sensory experience. He said this difference is what draws listeners to vinyl records. 

The tactile weight of the record, the album art, the warmth and the nuance of analog sound all combine to create an experience that is more engaging than just pressing play on a digital device, Reeves said. He thinks even the unintentional pops and crackles of the vinyl add to the reality of the experience.

“There’s something about putting a record on, and then letting the entire record play," he said. "It takes a little time. You have to make a commitment to that record."

Mark Katz, a music professor and director of the UNC Institute for the Arts and Humanities, spoke of something called technostalgia — a yearning for a simpler time when people listened to music in a simpler, more authentic way.  

Katz compared the current vinyl nostalgia to his own interest in his parents’ experiences with radio in the 1940s. 

“I imagine that’s the same thing for people who didn’t grow up with vinyl but hear people talk about it, waxing poetic about vinyl, and they feel this pull even though it’s not for their own past,” Katz said.

Katz also described musical trends as cyclical: a new technology arises, people reject what came before it, but then they inevitably go back to the older technology. 

This is what happened to vinyl.

Katz said the next thing in the music technology cycle is cassettes. In fact, Urban Outfitters is already carrying new releases of music on cassettes.

When asked about how a DJ fits into technostalgia, Katz said vinyl never really went out of style.

Jess Dilday, who is teaching the "Art and Culture of the DJ" class at UNC this semester, has been a DJ for almost a decade. Dilday said the use of vinyl by DJs is less for the sound and more for demonstrating turntable technique. 

“I think a lot of DJs are revisiting vinyl because there is a saturation of DJs, and people are trying to set themselves apart,” Dilday said.

Dilday's expertise incorporates both digital and vinyl DJ styles.

“I think the sound (of vinyl) is a lot warmer, but the crates also get really heavy to lug around,” Dilday said. 

There might not be a definitive reason for the revival of vinyl, but it is clear that a passion for the archaic music form is still alive.

“Records are the most important experience I’ve had," Reeves said. "Well, besides my children.”

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