I remember as a young kid how music was presented for its lovers to enjoy at home. I have fond memories of paling around with different family members to specifically listen to their favorite genre of music. My dad was for the most part in tune with country. His loves at that time (which were the early 80s) consisted primarily of old style country by artists of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, and the one I absolutely enjoyed the most, Willie Nelson. My dad had a vast selection of vinyl Willie made fun music and I always enjoyed singing along to his unique voice. I am in no way a fan of modern day country or back then for that matter. For myself to start off with country is strictly based on good childhood memories intertwined with those days of innocence. I remember specifically my dad having a record called “Old Honky Tonk”. It was a 33 and it sounded so good once the needle made contact with the record. It reminded me of what would be playing in a saloon based in the Wild West. I couldn’t believe that the beautiful sound of music bounced off a thin black disk with lines that created grooves. I appreciated it because I knew what a good sound system was at an early age. My dad had a keen sense of what was needed to create a fine sound; a fine sound that sang its beauty throughout our living room. He had built his own speakers and purchased the finest components. It took more dedication in research of the perfect sound system than anyone could ever think in this day. Now I would like to return to my dads genre of music. He had a vast selection of vinyl which I would just gaze at for hours and especially enjoy reading the jacket and hoping one day I would own a turntable. For certain I would… My brother certainly raised the bar My brother followed in my dads footsteps in respect to the power of a state of the art sound system. My brother certainly raised the bar. The music was entirely different than my dads taste which ultimately coincided with mine. The record selection was at an epic premium and his musical epicenter consisted of a variety of components which varied from Pioneer to Techtronic and onto Panasonic, just to name a few. I loved when my friend would come over and I would show them the cockpit of stereos. Bragging rights belonged to the kid. Back then there was a knack for the perfect storm of electronics. I also recall he had a reel to reel which he used to record over records and eliminate the background scratches. Yeah, that was certainly hardcore. Along with a receiver was a tape deck, amplifier and equalizer which had so many buttons and settings that needed to be fined tuned depending on the specific type of music. This was legit DJ equipment and not your one-piece stereo system that many novices had, including myself as I had gotten older and was able to afford. I thought I had seen what home music would always be. I was obviously mistaken… My sister’s room was the land of Disco Onto my sister who had a simple stereo that additionally had an 8-Track player. It appeared cool. Records for me seemed so commonplace and an 8-track which is laughable the past 30 plus years, but keep in mind I’m making these references to the late 70s and into the very early 80s. My sister’s room was my entry into the land of Disco. I have disco pride even until this day and I must say that I am not ashamed of my embrace. Tavares to the Bee-Gees to Silver Connection to KC and the Sunshine Band and onto ABBA kick started me into the faux Studio 54 life. There was a great deal of FM radio love as well. Not the “push button locate a station” radio but the “turn the dial and wish for good reception” radio. There was a beauty to all of it. A sweet simplicity that in todays age is likely comical. Several years ago I was watching MTV which even then had very few videos, nonetheless they were music videos which were rare in the time of reality based television. In all reality, MTV would be an acronym for music television. Novel idea, wouldn’t you say? The 90’s started to fail with the lack of music videos ironically enough based on that music related station I had just pointed out. It was an ongoing joke that literally was a big joke and still gets comic critique to this day. I really don’t think that there is any real cry for videos anymore. It’s old and tired… CDs are irrelevant anymore as well. The way we listen anymore has been draped with a difference. However we are potentially coming full circle? Not completely… We are still enjoying our Smart phones with our favorite music apps providing our favorite artists giving us our wonderful playlists at the press of buttons. We now plug our devise into Beats or use our Bose speaker to get the most epic quality of sound. It sure makes compact discs fiercely dated and records a thing of the stone age. Many of us recall taking our primitive tape recorders and recording from one to another in hopes of not talking or giggling during this process. This was a great time for a kid who absolutely loved music. It took concentration and dedication for that tape to turn out in a decent way. I have had the pleasure to go through many phases of music and specifically the equipment that provides our blissful sound for our ears. Enter AM radio, FM radio, turntables, state of the art sound systems, compact sound systems, compact disc, mp3, and onto our smartphones that provide music unlimited. For the past few years I have found many stores that are now providing vinyl again. I initially chalked it up to Hipster nation buying into it. I wondered, Why would we revert to a record player (not portable) vinyl (again, not portable) and a step back in quality? After a couple of years of just thinking the entire discussion of reverting back to a turntable and vinyl being a dead issue, I then bought into the notion. The reason being is that people need a sense of nostalgia and with that comes happiness which is exactly what music brings. Many of my most memorable music pin drops have been through every aspect of the musical evolution. An example would be Woodstock 1969. Just because it was something of the past, we still love and embrace it. There are many other examples of why its coming full circle. Much of it is for people that have never had the pleasure to embrace the musical electronics of years past, but can now enjoy and get a flavor of what it was all about. As a matter of fact, I am going to purchase a cool turntable and listen to an album of my liking and remember the good times of music. Réagissez à cet article / Comment this article commentaires / comments
