With vinyl record sales at their highest since 1988, new publications are appearing with some rapidity. Paul Winters takes on the challenge of keeping up with the fast moving subject matter while writing this book (p. xi), which aims to unpick such ‘pressing matters’. Winters looks at how technological aspects of the vinyl format feed into the social context of consumption, from a postmodern view. He examines core areas such as fidelity of sound, counter-hegemonic attitudes, authenticity, aesthetics, collectorship and commodity fetishism as well as the role of the internet and social media in recent mainstream usage, arguing that the resurgence is attributable to ‘both an outgrowth of and a reaction to the explosion of digital media and the information revolution’ (p. xv). Key contributions to the field are acknowledged, such as Eisenberg (Reference Eisenberg1987) and Sterne (Reference Sterne2003).
The book starts from ideas of fidelity using the metaphor of Barraud's famous 1898 painting ‘His Master's Voice’, which advertised the gramophone and subsequently the music shop of the same name. One key insight is explored: ‘taming technology is only ever partial, and it requires constant renegotiation in order to retain its place in the parlour’ (p. 4). A fascinating description of the Edison Realism Tests in 1916 shows fidelity and technological advance intertwined with marketing tactics, with participants being primed to change their response to fit in with Edison's own expectations of the cylinder and its fidelity to live sound. Fidelity ‘not only trains listening subjects in what to hear, it also trains them in what they should be listening for, what to expect and anticipate when they are listening’ (p. 5). Fidelity cannot evoke the original aura of the performance but is, rather, a new creation devised by the technology involved, which has sparked ongoing debate to the present day among audiophiles chasing the ‘dream of sublimity’ (p. 15).
The second chapter extends Benjamin's aura with The Beatles as a case study: ‘it might be worth noting how much the question of aura plays into aesthetic assessments of recording entities, and in fact the entire idea of who the Beatles are as a cultural phenomenon’ (p. 32). Vinyl records are reproductions devoid of the original time and space, but might ‘encourage new experiences and generate new traditions’ (Katz, Reference Katz2004, 15, quoted on p. 32). There follows an intriguing discussion of the control kept by the Beatles’ rights owners, in terms of selling on i-Tunes but retaining monophonic mixes as much as possible. Mono mixes on vinyl with little intervention are considered the most authentic as opposed to the ‘bastardisation’ (p. 38) by Capitol, with the Beatles being the only artists to go from analogue to digital and back to analogue, albeit in a very different world. Aura then becomes a ‘social construct’ (p. 38) conceived differently to Benjamin but still aiming to replicate the original.
Chapter 3 introduces potential reasons why vinyl has become popular again, owing to its being ‘comfort food’ (p. 47) in a vacuous world, anti-industry backlash, the enjoyment of rituals and searching for the rarest record, or nostalgia. This chapter explores authenticity and, in the search for such truth, asserts that we ascribe modern day values to what could be deemed ‘junk’ (p. 51) in an era of imitation. What we need to aim for, it is suggested, is the middle ground, with some ‘focal’ things in a ‘device ridden’ world (Borgmann, Reference Borgmann2009, p. 78, quoted on p. 54).
Chapter 4 examines ideas of illusory digital ownership, asking the valid question, ‘how can you reify something that takes no physical form?’ (p. 70). No full answer is provided but a detailed discussion of autonomous collector behaviour follows, including accounts of bootlegging and blogging. Chapter 5 goes further into Marxist ideas of substitute gratification with a debate on whether reissues are preserving musical heritage or merely record companies looking to make a few bucks. The fine line between art and commerce is prevalent, more so than with any other format, including the example of Record Store Day.
Chapter 6 looks at the world that the vinyl consumer constructs, or the ‘habitus’ (p. 112), which is argued to be a ‘socially conditioned subjectivity’, again much like Edison's Realism Test. This is seen as a Foucauldian discipline, in terms of audiophile practices such as maintaining the stylus, which was recommended as far back as the Victrola Talking Machine in 1924 and continues to this day as a ritual behaviour. Gendered notions of vinyl are discussed briefly and exemplified by Rockwell (Reference Rockwell2012, quoted on p. 127): ‘it took real men to get high fidelity’. However, the chapter extends into a discussion of vinyl-philia pet hates such as ‘entry level gear’ (p. 128) and also observes preferences based on the ‘powers of suggestion’ (p. 130) that specific technology such as certain connecting cables make perceived differences to the sound.
Finally, Chapter 7 examines the role of the internet in the revival of vinyl and how it has enabled ‘counter discursive aesthetic practices to emerge and flourish’ (p. 156) with a word of warning from Feenberg and Bakardjieva (Reference Feenberg, Bakardjieva, Feenberg and Barney2004, p. 18, quoted on p. 154): ‘The technology and its social institution have not yet reached the point of stabilization’. The extensive online communities that have developed for vinyl enthusiasts are profiled, revealing the sense of community and control that the You-Tube Vinyl Community, for instance, has provided new and old consumers. The book concludes by asserting the unpredictability of the vinyl resurgence, making no future speculations as to what may happen next. This is a thought- provoking look at how we interact with music by format, and discusses many threads of interest offering a strong theoretical grounding for further study. It does not try to provide all of the answers to why this format has found new life but it does provide a strong reflective picture of the current status quo.
