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Overheard a guy at a thrift store say vinyl is just for hipsters now
I was digging through a bin of 45s at a Salvation Army in Omaha last Tuesday and this dude next to me goes "vinyl is just for hipsters who want Instagram props." I almost laughed but then I thought about it for a sec. I got into records back in 2009 because my uncle gave me his old Dual turntable and a crate of 70s funk. Now I see people dropping $40 on a scratched copy of Rumours just for the aesthetic. Makes me wonder how many of those folks actually listen to side B, you know? Has anyone else noticed more people buying records just to hang on a wall instead of playing them?
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angela_allen531mo ago
Man, emery_taylor, your buddy Mike's "three-listens" rule is exactly the kind of thing I've been thinking about. I have a similar story actually. My friend Carla started a rule a few years back that any record she bought had to be played all the way through while she was cooking dinner before it could go on her shelf. She'd put the needle down and if she couldn't finish it because the food was done or she got bored, that record went straight to the donate pile. It was brutal at first because she had a stack of pretty looking classical albums she never actually sat through. But now her collection is all stuff she genuinely digs, like old soul singles and weird 80s synthpop she found at flea markets. It really does separate the people who love music from the ones who just want a cool backdrop for their Instagram stories.
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emery_taylor1mo ago
My buddy Mike had the same issue with his record collection back in 2015. He started a rule where you can't hang a record on your wall unless you've actually listened to it three times through. It's a simple check that sorts out the serious listeners from the decorators pretty fast.
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My friend Sarah tried something similar but with a different approach. She bought a vintage turntable and made it a rule that any record she brought home had to get at least one full spin before it could go anywhere near her wall. She told me the first month was brutal because she kept finding cool looking records at garage sales that turned out to be terrible. But she stuck with it and now her wall is all stuff she actually loves, not just things that look nice. Her setup has this weird mix of old country, some punk rock, and random jazz albums she actually discovered through that rule. Your buddy Mike's three-listens idea sounds even more hardcore though, that would definitely filter out the casuals real fast.
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