FEATURE:
Leave the Needle Down
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Appreciating the Album in Its Entirety
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THIS sort of ties into…
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my recent love of vinyl and how sales are increasing. One might think that, as many record shops have been closed or offering online deliveries, fewer people would be buying albums on vinyl. Instead, there has been this boom in sales and a real appetite for vinyl! 2020 was a very successful year for the format. This article from The Independent looked back on a huge year for vinyl:
“Sales of vinyl and cassettes surged once again in 2020, as music fans spent much of lockdown discovering new favourites to add to their collections.
The BPI, the organisation that represents the UK’s recorded music industry, reports Official Charts Company data showing that fans bought nearly 5 million vinyl LPs in 2020, marking a 21st century record and the highest total since the early Nineties.
Cassette sales are set to double by the end of the year, their highest level since 2003, as artists offer their music in a greater range of formats.
Both classic and contemporary artists enjoyed bigger record and tape sales, from Fleetwood Mac and AC/DC to Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga.
While streaming still accounts for four fifths of music consumption, fans appear to be increasingly looking for other ways to enjoy their favourite music.
Vinyl albums now account for almost one in five of all albums purchased in the UK, with sales generating twice as much revenue for the industry as music video streaming platforms such as YouTube”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Lady Gaga/PHOTO CREDIT: Adriana M. Barraza/WENN.com/AAP
I think that, as many people are turning to vinyl and there are problems with streaming and how sites pay artists, more and more people are embracing albums in its entirety. I think that, in lockdown and whilst we are waiting for life to return to normal, people are exploring albums in more depth. Not to say that people will draw away from streaming and only listen to individual songs from albums…but I think that many music lovers are setting time aside and delving into albums more than usual. This brings me to an article from The Guardian, where they discussed deluxe albums and allowing ourselves more time to digest music; artists releasing several versions of the same album:
“A good record deserves breathing room, something that artists, like the rest of us, have had their fair share of recently. After Covid put the kibosh on planned tours from the Weeknd, Lady Gaga and the Killers, they will (hopefully!) be taking their 2020 albums on the road this coming year instead. At best, these shows could feel like a victory lap for albums that had, through necessity, time to breathe in a fast-paced streaming world. It has created an inadvertent yet welcome return to the elongated album era of the 90s and 00s.
An increase in time to refine and rethink was all over pop last year, most prosaically with the uptick in deluxe album editions, a 2020 trend as omnipresent as smugly homemade sourdough on Instagram. Jhené Aiko released and rereleased her Grammy-nominated Chilombo in the span of a few months, while the young R&B veteran JoJo’s May-released album had three versions by the end of the summer”.
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Last year was a tremendous one for music, so I do hope that we get deluxe versions and re-releases of some of the best from 2020. I think there is something about vinyl that demands your focus and dedication. It is hard to breeze through tracks and only listen to fragments of others. Some might say that people buying vinyl do so because they want something physical and it is not necessarily anything to do with listening to an album in full. I feel that we will see more and more people turn to vinyl, not only for the physical pleasure and bonding with music in a more real way; I feel people will attach more significance in the album as a long-playing form, rather than hand-picking tracks and succumbing to the worst habits of those who stream music. I am finding myself listening to albums for a longer time, rather than choosing to hear the odd song. Maybe I will revert when things are a lot better, but, as I say, music is providing many people with comfort and company at a hard time. I think the album as a concept and a thing to be cherished has become less relevant today than decades ago and, whilst we will not see a revival of times past, it is encouraging that vinyl sales are going up and it seems like lockdown means people are immersing themselves more committedly in music. Let’s hope that this continues strong…
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THROUGHOUT 2021.