What Makes Vinyls Special?

In the past couple of years, there’s been an increase in the popularity of vinyls. They have been around for as long as music has been commercially sold, but recently, vinyls have become more of a novelty for passionate music fans.  

According to CBS, vinyls have even overtaken CDs in terms of sales this past year for the first time since 1987. 

Everyone consumes media differently, but there are so many more convenient ways to listen to your favorite music than with vinyl. 

Hundreds of thousands of songs can be played instantly through the phone in your pocket, the computer at your desk, or even the TV in your living room. 

So why would anybody want to buy a bulky record player to play giant vinyls that you need to flip constantly just to listen to one album? 

It’s simply special to everyone for different reasons. 

Local music producer, Luis Bustos, talks about how he’s not much of a collector but deeply appreciates the vinyls he owns. 

“I have a connection or personal attachment to the vinyl I get. Like, I barely use my vinyl player, but it feels really good to just have a physical thing that I can associate to some of my favorite songs.” 

To most people, it’s not about having music you can play in your room. Like Bustos, many simply love to decorate their walls with music that makes them who they are and expresses that side of themselves. 

Photo by Arturo Flores.

Fairly new collector, Nestor Magana, collects vinyls that he can’t even play yet. 

“I don’t have a record player yet, but it’s nice to have a few and have them around my room like that,” says Magana. I’m picky about the ones I get. I barely got like four, but it feels more authentic than some poster.” 

Others simply love to collect and preserve rare finds. Because of the digital age, there is the inevitable fear that one day some of your favorite music might be delisted from Spotify or Apple Music, never to be heard again. 

While it’s rare, it’s still a possibility, and many people in any entertainment medium work hard to ensure that physical media is preserved, and that’s especially true for vinyls. 

There’s a whole culture around preservation and maintaining the proper condition of your vinyl, ensuring that you brush the records and sleeve them with the best protection around both the vinyl and the packaging it comes with. 

Photo by Arturo Flores.

However, some get vinyl for the memories they have for each record they own, and have some of the most heartwarming stories to tell about why they bought each album they hang on their wall, play in their room, or simply put away on a shelf. 

Whether for nostalgia or because it takes them to a safe place, music has a special way of affecting people. 

For me personally, one of the first vinyls I purchased was hip-hop artist J. Cole’s, “4 Your Eyez Only,” an album I deeply associate with the passing of a close family member, but also an album that taught me a lot about perspective. 

For recent UCI graduate, Rahnya Moubayed, her first and only vinyl purchase was for Ed Sheeran’s album “Divide,” which she only got for a single song that she associates with the people she loves the most. 

So it doesn’t matter if you collect one or 50 different records, there’s something for everybody to feel a connection with. 

That’s why vinyl records can be so much more impactful and important than any other song you can play on your phone– for the memories, emotions, and self-expression that come from any given record.