I’m going to preface this by saying that I am stealing part of this from a response that I wrote to another blog. I have ben embroiled in the rather heated discussion as to whether vinyl DJs are the only true DJ;s, or if there is room in the world for Digital Jocks. I happen to believe that there is room for both, and have taken that to heart in that I am about 50/50 in my music collection between vinyl/Mp3s. So anyway, this is going to sound kind of disjointed and weird in the way it is preented, but its more of a flow on consciousness than an essay. deal with it.
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When it comes to the battle currently happening between those DJ’s who use vinyl (the way god intended) and those who have switched to digital media, there are many different factors to consider. While I will be the first one to admit that I use CD’s sometimes, I would much rather use vinyl.
I heart vinyl. I always have, and I always will. Be it purely for the audio fidelity of a brand new press or simply the effect that the vinyl under my fingers has on me, I will consider myself a purist. (though mainly it is the sound) The problem with this, I have been told, is that it makes me somewhat of a dinosaur. I am seen by all of these new, young, technologically savvy DJ’s as a throwback to a time when a DJ’s kit consisted of headphones and big metal cubes filled with overly heavy and expensive plastic disks. At the same time, I have found myself judging and seeing them as kids who take shortcuts in finding their music and presenting it. The glow of a laptop has replaced burnt fingers from using a lighter to see into the darkness while flipping through your record crate. This is a true travesty to me, one that is not only inevitable but happening right before our eyes.
Its kind of a catch 22 in that way, and unfortunately I don’t think that anyone is truly right or wrong. It boils down to the same old argument discussed in historical circles (if I may get nerdy for a minute) as to whether or not “progress” (for lack of a better word) and the invariable advancement of technology, and thus culture, is truly a good thing or not. People from the old guard will see the new ways of doing things as a perversion of tried, true and good methods and traditions and the newer generation will see the old ways an anachronistic and passe. So like it or not, the new ways are here to stay and people will either have to adapt, stick to their guns and be hard-dancing anachronisms, or wither on the vine and die out like the dinosaurs.
I guess that my main sentiment is that there is something to going out and searching for that one perfect piece of vinyl; that one song in the stacks of records in the little hole-in-the-wall store, the one that you KNOW will destroy the dance floor, was made in 1993, and gives you hte same feling as the first time you saw the woman of your dreams. Going online and downloading from beatport or stompy doesn’t have the same experience, the same feel… the same SMELL as a record store, and that is a shame.
