Passion for plastic in a digital world

A strange thing happened to me the other day – I found myself buying a second-hand LP from the 70s in preference to downloading the same songs online, or purchasing a CD.

And I am not alone in this.

It seems retro is cool, with 33-rpm LP (Long Playing) records and 45-rpm (Singles) records  (both new and used), making a massive comeback.

All over Perth, music outlets, from JB HiFi to the tiny Rhubarb Records in North Perth, are stocking up on these previously forgotten or unwanted musical relics.

Walk into any ‘hip’ café in central or suburban Perth and you are likely to find at least one box of dusty, used 70s or 80s music LPs.

Original copies of Queen’s ‘A Day at the Races’, Hunters and Collectors’ ‘Human Frailty’, Australian Crawl’s ‘Sons of Beaches’ and INXS’s ‘Listen Like Thieves’ are now back in favour with many of Perth’s listening elite.

And many of these records aren’t cheap.

They retail for prices not much less than when they were new – and that was (often) more than 25 years ago.

Even the cheapest, second-hand (popular) LPs start at $15-$25 – with brand-new, vinyl albums mostly retailing for more than $45.

This means many are selling for nearly double the cost of the iTunes or CD version.

But this doesn’t present a barrier to most buyers.

My 19 year-old (who wasn’t even born when LPs were the norm), recently jumped on the bandwagon and purchased brand new albums by Tame Impala and Jamie xx – both in the previously ‘prehistoric’ LP (Long Play) format.

Consequently his turntable, which he inherited from his mother and had previously lain dormant in the music cabinet for the past 20 years, suddenly got a new lease of life.

So what is it driving this extraordinary spike in LP record sales of late?

Could it be the coolness of retro music (the 70s and 80s in particular) espoused by the ‘hipster’ generation of the past few years?

Or could it be (and this seems unlikely) a possible return to older-style traditional values, where even the ‘younger generation’ are recognising the value of ‘real sound’, complete with audible dust ‘crackles and clicks’, that are only obtainable on vinyl.

Whatever the reason the musical boom is on, with seemingly no end to this passion for plastic – in the near future at least.