Do you miss the album art/liner notes which accompanied vinyl/cassette but not digital download and rarely CD?
Looking over all the liner art, song lyrics and personal thanks printed on the music packaging was always part of the thrill of getting home and listening to a new album for the first time. Most cassette tapes had fold out inserts which reproduced all of the album print. CDs rarely do this and downloads don't even exist in the concrete world.
MQ: Do you miss this aspect of being a music fan? MQ2: Are you a pure digital age music fan and don't care? MQ3: What is your favorite combination of 1s and 0s? MQ4: Have you ever spent a day wading through shelves and bins of vinyl in a used record store?
Punch2009-08-13T22:29:14Z
Favorite Answer
"the day the music died...."
I remember going to a friend’s house to play one day back when I was about 7 years old and heard my first CDs. I remember they were Tear's For Fear's Songs From The Big Chair and Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA. They had a great system and the music sounded remarkable. Before too long I was buying CDs, the first ones we're the Beatles and Prince as I set about collecting all their albums.. Soon it was Jesus & Mary Chain, REM, Velvet Underground, Smiths, Stone Roses and Joy Division and the rest is history...
Sometimes people ask “why does music not seem as important as it used to be?" Well this is quite a debatable point, as music is very important to our lives. But for the sake of an argument, let’s say that something is missing, and I believe it has to do with CDs, lets face it they are cold and impersonal compared to how warm and inviting Vinyl records are. CDs are all top end and Vinyl's bottom end is clearly felt when you listen to it. I love the way certain voices sounded while analog recorded, and feel something is missing when these same artists record digitally.. And MP3s are even worse...
I loved spending hours losing myself in the liner notes and artwork on albums, I loved the b-sides discovered on 12inch singles, I collected vinyl pretty regularly until my terrific turntable was smashed during an earthquake one year.. Sigh.. Anyways, I thought it was a terrific question Simone, and I wanted to answer it in the best way I could!
MQ: yes MQ2: I wish I could find Neil Young’s quote about his feelings about digital recording,,, MQ3: interesting question because that’s about what the lasers are reading when it plays a stupid CD MQ4: yes, and those were some of the happiest hours I ever spent
Most of my CDs either come with a booklet or sometimes even a poster with all thei liner art/notes/lyrics/personal thanks and stuff on there. I really enjoy those all the time.
I don't really care about it with downloads because all the downloads that I get are for free and I sometimes end up buying a physical copy of the album. There's actually some albums on iTunes that come with a digital booklet
MQ: Not really MQ2: I still like collecting 7" records MQ3: The time-traveling code from Futurama MQ4: I've always wanted to, but there's no local record stores. I always spend as much time as I can in Best Buys with a good selection of CDs and Vinyls and I like looking at the load of 7" records at my local Hot Topic. I was about to buy some, but I was in a hurry the last time I went there.
I *love* album art and sleeve notes ~ always have! But I guess this is because I was fortunate enough to have access to my parents vinyl albums, complete with lyrics and notes.
I was very happy when Jethro Tull and Fleetwood Mac re-released several of their CD albums, complete with full lyrics *and* interesting notes about the albums {Ian Anderson wrote his own, but the FM notes were by other people}.
But I have been disappointed with other CDs I've bought that don't bother to include the lyrics {and these were studio albums, not compilations}.
MQ : Yes, I do :( I still love album art, and I'd very much like to design for people.
MQ2 : No! I still buy the majority of my music as CD, and really only download individual songs.
MQ3 : Ummm... binary was never my thing, but... 00100100100 MQ4 : It was only an hour or so, and it was over 10 years ago...
********* Punch : Ah... b-sides! And EPs and 'extended mixes' {aka 12" vinyl}...
I remember buying some old GN'R vinyl EPs and singles, which contained b-sides. I even bought the occasional cassette single with a b-side track...
My aunt bought me Michael Jackson's Thriller cassette for Christmas 1985. I then got Duran Duran's Rio. I only listened to those two for a while. In December 1988 and January 1989, I began listening to pop radio. Back then every thing from new wave pop to heavy metal was played on pop radio. I became addicted to glam metal (hairbands). They were really big back then. I bought Guns N' Roses, Bon Jovi, Poison, Cinderella, Skid Row, and many others. In 1989, me and my sisters joined the Columbia House music club. 12 cassettes for a penny. We split it up three ways. I stayed a cassette buyer until Christmas 1992 when I got my first cd player. I got Metallica's And Justice For All, and Garage Days Re-Revisited. I never got into vinyl. I was never around for the 8 track craze,,,,but my parents had many. Thanks for letting me tell you this, LOL. I have fond memories of 1989. I still think it's the best era of music. There was so many styles of music on the pop charts then. People really did have more of an open mind back then. When's the last time you've heard heavy metal on pop radio? Pretty crazy. Not too mention even the classic rockers like the Rolling Stones were on the charts in 1989 with a song called "Mixed Emotions". Pretty cool to see so many styles be accepted. We need to get back to that mentality of having an open mind.
No, because I don't download digital music. For some fool reason most likely to do with a desire to physically possess things that some adman on Madison Ave has ingrained in me in my youth, I still actually buy albums.
1: So that would be a no. 2: Not at all. I'm an analog dude, I hang onto old technology long past the time when everyone else has traded up. Examples: Walkman Old school Nintendo (The 16 bit one) Anyone up for Duck Hunt? VCR 3: 101, it's very pleasing. 4: Not so much the vinyl, but its smaller shinier cousin.