In a Wall Street Journal article called “Why Millennials Want Their Parents’ Vinyl Records” by Marc Myers, he states “Sales of LPs soared during the pandemic as younger listeners discovered their nostalgic and sensory appeal.”
After reading the story, I regret getting rid of my vinyl collection. When I was in high school and college I spent a small fortune on albums. I had a pretty impressive stereo system thanks to my parents’ graduation present. I hauled my collection of albums that included Rod Stewart, George Harrison, Elton John, Beatles and David Bowie all over the country.
It was after my son was in college that I cleaned out a book case that held all my albums. I decided to get rid of them. I had no way to play them anymore. My son asked for a record player with built-in speakers for Christmas at that time, so I let him take what he wanted from my collection and gave the rest to the thrift store Angel View, a few blocks from our house.
Here’s an excerpt from the article:
In December, I bought my 32-year-old daughter the gift she truly wanted—an easy-to-use turntable and amp with built-in speakers. She asked if I still had my David Bowie LPs, and I happily handed them over. Then, as an afterthought, she wondered if my Steely Dan and George Harrison albums were still around.
It turns out that several of my baby boomer friends are getting similar requests and have found themselves hauling heavy boxes of LPs out of storage at the behest of their adult children. The vinyl revival began more than a decade ago, with budget turntables and a limited selection of albums sold in trendy clothing stores. But last year, the format’s popularity surged in the U.S., selling 41.7 million units, up from 21.5 million in 2020. LPs outsold CDs for the first time in 30 years, as well as digital albums, according to a report from MRC Data-Billboard.
The spike has been driven, in part, by younger listeners nostalgic for an era when music—and maybe life in general—seemed more hands-on and fun. Since the Covid-19 pandemic began in early 2020, young people have been forced to postpone many of the things they looked forward to most—campus life, parties, travel, weddings, even having children. During this period, records became a nostalgic lifeline. In 2021, 87 new albums sold more than 50,000 vinyl copies, up from 51 new albums in 2020. Adele, a millennial favorite, topped the list, selling 318,000 vinyl copies of her album “30,” despite a price tag of nearly $40.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-millennials-want-their-parents-vinyl-records-11647061260?mod=life_work_minor_pos4
I loved listening to albums and reading the album covers. I’d play the same records over and over. I have memories of listening to certain records with my closest friends. Then the casette tapes came into play.
Do you still have your albums? What artists were your favorites? Do your kids like vinyl too?
