The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
b-side
Thursday, March 8, 2018 — 3B
You’re a teenager and it’s your
first day back at school after a
wonderful summer vacation.
The air is still warm and your
excitement about the coming
year dominates any malevolent
feelings you may have toward
the early mornings and the
monotonous schedule of lower
education. In the fire drill line,
you notice Vinny from math
class last year.
But this isn’t the same Vinny.
He
looks
different,
handsomer.
Maybe
it’s
the
summer tan — who knows.
Either way, Vinny is the new talk
of the town, and you give your
best 007 impression to sneakily
slide up a few spots in line to ask
him about his summer.
In
elementary
school,
everyone
wanted
Vinny;
however,
once
the
middle
school years hit, Cam was the
prize and poor Vinny’s stock
took a tumble. But with this
new Vinny — this rugged,
mysterious Vinny who wears
flannels and has a five o’clock
shadow — people begin to lose
interest in clean-cut Cam and
his hard-parted undercut and
American Eagle graphic tees.
Vinny is back on top. He has a
warm, honest persona that fake
Cam simply can’t pull off, and
he’s just offbeat enough to be
cool.
Vinny’s return to glory can
be equated to the phoenix-like
rise of another v-word (how
convenient): vinyl. Since 2009,
the vintage music format has
experienced
a
260
percent
growth in sales. The scene
inside any Urban Outfitters
store has enough evidence of the
phenomenon: walls lined with
both modern and classic vinyl,
from Led Zeppelin to Kendrick
Lamar, with record players on
sale to match. But what’s behind
the
spontaneous
resurgence
of vinyl in recent years? The
answer to this question is a little
more complex than the acne
cream and good ol’ maturation
of Vinny’s case.
To provide some insight, The
Daily enlisted co-owner of Ann
Arbor’s Encore Records, Jim
Dwyer. According to Dwyer,
the driving force behind vinyl’s
rebirth is sound quality. When
CDs were introduced, they were
marketed as a cleaner-sounding
alternative
to
vinyl
that
wasn’t prone to the warping
or scratching which plagued
records. As audiophiles began
to have their way with the
digital format, however, they
noticed this marketed “clean”
sound was cold and compressed
in reality. Dwyer explained
the vinyl sound is simply more
palatable.
“When you have a room with
microphones and a band, the air
is vibrating and it goes into the
microphone. When the process
is reversed, you put a needle on
the record and the vibrations
the
microphone
picked
up
are now coming out of your
speaker,” he said.
Conversely, with a CD, a
recording is digitized into a
string of zeros and ones that is
etched into a disc as a series of
bumps and non-bumps. A CD
player shoots laser light at the
disc to reveal these etchings and
play their respective sounds.
This electronic process results
in a smooth and samely sound
that lacks the warmth and
authenticity of a mechanically
engineered and played record,
and people have begun to notice.
Dwyer also pointed toward
the cyclical nature of culture,
i.e., “everything old is new
again,”
to
explain
vinyl’s
comeback. We all know this
generational trend; vintage has
an appeal — just ask any hipster.
Today, it’s simply cool to have
and play a record. What’s
more, records aren’t “old” for
millennials; vinyl is a novelty to
young adults, as they grew up in
a digital age dominated by CDs,
iTunes and streaming services.
Additionally, vinyl provides
a listening experience that has
been lacking in the digital age.
To start, a listener can actually
see and interact with the cover
art, an aspect of albums that has
become virtually obsolete due
to thumbnail images of album
covers and technology’s size
limitations. Playing records also
ensures the listener experiences
the tracks of an album in their
intended sequence, as opposed
to blasphemously shuffling or
adding singles to a playlist.
As it pertains to Ann Arbor,
Dwyer
mentioned
vinyl’s
resurgence has not been as
dramatic because records never
really died out in the first place.
A hip college town, Ann Arbor
has always hosted students
and
non-students
eager
to
experience the listening culture
of yesteryear. With that said,
there was a brief period in the
’90s when Encore experienced
dwindling demand for records
and converted much of its
inventory to CDs. The digital
disease ran rampant, and even
the mightiest of record stores
stumbled. But thanks to vinyl’s
renewed
appeal,
Encore
is
thriving once again.
“Customers come in from
outside the area and say, ‘Oh
boy, there’s nothing like this
where we live,’ and they’re
always shocked when I tell
them that Ann Arbor actually
has four record stores. So, we’re
lucky,” Dwyer said.
Conveniently paired with
vinyl’s revival is the influx of
records into the vinyl vortex
due to the inevitable aging of
Baby Boomers, the original
record collectors. Dwyer ended
our conversation on this point,
analogizing the vinyl experience
to casual fishing, during which
one catches a fish, basks in the
triumph and returns the fish
to the water to be caught by
another
triumphant
person
in the future. Like fishermen,
he explained, vinyl collectors
never really own their records;
they borrow them, experience
them and return them to the
listening community, either at
the end of the week or at the end
of their lives.
“I’ve begun to realize that, at
the end of the day, nobody gets
to keep their records. You’re the
caretaker of those records, and
then when your turn to let it go
comes, somebody else becomes
the caretaker of that record,” he
said.
Fundamentally,
it
is
this
personalized, rich, cherishable
experience that has brought
listeners back to vinyl after far
too many years of digitized,
purified,
impersonal
sound
— just like your revamped
attraction to Vinny from math
class.
Vinyl is back, but why?
MIKE WATKINS
Daily Arts Writer
SINGLE REVIEW: ‘‘TIL IT’S OVER’
No one does summer
romance better than Ander-
son .Paak. His expertly
crafted mix of hip hop, funk
and neo-soul sounds best
when paired with a bottle
of champagne sometime in
mid-July; the multi-instru-
mental pop and fizzle of
albums Malibu and Venice
speak to long stretches of
golden beaches and all the
heated passion that comes
with warm weather flings.
It’s music that quite literal-
ly bursts with charisma — a
breezy personability that is
mirrored by .Paak himself,
if his Tiny Desk perfor-
mance is anything to go by
— and the reason why we
all were eagerly anticipat-
ing the release of new music
after 2016’s Yes Lawd!
It’s 2018, a new single has
finally been released and it
does not disappoint.
Released as part of a
Spike Jonze-directed Apple
ad, “’Til It’s Over” takes
all the sunny, shimmer-
ing vibrancy that .Paak
is known for and adds a
hypnotic twist. The song
finds .Paak stretching to
savor the last few moments
of a relationship. The end
is in sight, yet .Paak holds
no regret, softly singing,
“Only one more night in Los
Angeles / I really thought
I could handle it,” over an
R&B groove that is remi-
niscent of older songs “The
City” and “Room in Here.”
The beat rises until .Paak
utters the words, “Imma
ride it ’til it’s over,” and
then all noises cease. The
only thing that is left to
echo around in the cavity
left behind is an ambient
synth progression, growing
and building on itself until
the song seems to take a
life of its own — organically
shifting from one verse to
the next. “’Til It’s Over” is a
psychedelic daydream that
you can’t help but be pulled
into.
- Shima Sadaghiyani,
Daily Music Editor
APPLE MUSIC
DOMINIC POLSINELLI / DAILY
SECONDARY
“Til It’s Over”
Anderson .Paak
Apple Music
While shamelessly analyzing
the outfit of someone across
the room or on the streets, how
is it that so much emphasis
falls on the aspect of an outfit
that is viewed last? Forget the
shirt, jeans or jacket that blend
with this accessory — or maybe
they don’t even blend. Often
times, outfits are centered
around
just
one
aspect:
sneakers. Yes, that’s right:
those Nikes, Adidas, Vans,
Pumas, Reeboks, Converse or
any other brand that you feel
are almost a part of you. This is
the aspect of fashion that more
than anything seems to take
the spotlight of streetstyle and
beyond.
In fact, it is this idea that
seems to drive the world
that is sneaker culture. The
integration
of
seemingly
effortless athletic looks into
everyday settings is one that
truly is revolutionizing the
fashion game. However, it is
this emphasis on effortless,
thrown together “athlesiure”
that saturates the premise of
sneaker culture with irony. In
all honesty, keeping up with
sneaker culture is really not
effortless at all. It’s a ton of
work.
Perhaps it’s the apparent
brand orientation that innately
comes with shoes or the way
sneakers
have
transcended
culture beyond just gym floors,
but the focus on having the
latest and greatest is at the base
of sneaker culture. Historically
used
for
more
pragmatic
purposes,
sneakers
started
as just another shoe worn for
athletics. Take Converse high
tops, for example. The iconic
red, white and blue, identifiable
from anywhere, were once
worn by basketball players in
gyms across the United States.
Stan Smiths too were inspired
by the need for a pragmatic
shoe on tennis courts. With an
emphasis on simply fulfilling a
task, sneakers have not always
been the spectacle we view
them as today.
As society has become a
world of consumers, a world
centered around media and
material, sneakers made their
way out of the gym, onto the
streets and into the aesthetics
of
everyday
life.
With
a
twisted form of pragmatics in
mind, sneaker culture serves
as blatantly ignored source
of
complete
consumerism.
While it is often common that
sneaker fans are loyal to one
style or brand — those old Air
Force 1s or checkerboard Vans
— a huge pressure to have the
latest version, the next best
thing, is ever present. Even
though each of us claim we
have an old, beat up pair of
sneakers we are loyal to, we
still desire the next model,
the next trend, whether it be
within or beyond the designs
of our favorite brands. These
companies know sneaker fans
will fall victim to this. How is
it that one could feel the need
to own Air Force 1s in high top
and low top, or the same Pumas
in a platform and regular sole?
This is sneaker culture. It’s in
the details. It’s in the constant
changing of designs that we
will never, no matter how hard
we try, be able to keep up with.
So yes, stay loyal to those
Adidas or Nikes that have
quite literally been with you
through it all. There’s just no
denying that new styles and
collaborations put out by these
brands
won’t
be
tempting
or eat away at your inner
“sneakerhead” as you convince
yourself the latest Nikes are
an absolute necessity to your
shoe closet. Sneaker culture is
built on this craving, this need
for the new styles and new
options. And scarily enough,
without complaint, consumers
do not appear to be running out
of options anytime soon.
The never ending cycle
of today’s sneaker culture
MARGARET SHERIDAN
Daily Arts Writer
FLICKR
Sneaker culture
is built on this
craving, this need
for the new styles
and new options
Dwyer also
pointed toward
the cyclical nature
of culture, i.e.,
“everything old
is new again,” to
explain vinyl’s
comeback. We
all know this
generational
trend; vintage has
an appeal — just
ask any hipster.
Today, it’s simply
cool to have and
play a record
“I’ve begun
to realize that, at
the end of
the day, nobody
gets to keep
their records.
You’re the
caretaker of those
records,
and then when
your turn to
let it go comes,
somebody else
becomes the
caretaker of that
record”
Vinyl is making a comeback in today’s art culture, so The
Daily investigated this phenomena at Encore Records
STYLE NOTEBOOK