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The excitement of buying albums...

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  • 28-12-2019 11:08pm
    #1
    Raconteuse
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,817 ✭✭✭


    Remember it?

    I used to pore over music magazines, save up for an upcoming album, experience such excitement when heading to HMV or Virgin Megastore or Golden Discs to buy it. I was totally obsessed with music - even getting part-time jobs in both HMV and Virgin at college (not at the same time obviously). I studied music at Cork School of Music and UCC too, and worked on music shows on community radio.

    It wasn't just the buying an album for its musical content - it was the artwork, the sleeve notes... it was kinda magical. Something you'd remember specifically (and it takes a lot to remember just going into a shop and buying something).

    Then of course that all changed - and I've no problem with it. YouTube and Spotify are the absolute biz. But I do find I'm not investing in albums at all anymore - not even for free. Just a song I like here, a song I like there... I haven't bought an album in years and years.

    Anyway, I got a €100 voucher for Golden Discs for Christmas and I'm so damn excited - I've got that "excitement about buying an album" feeling again and it takes me right back!


«13456

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    #2
    ILoveYourVibes
    Registered Users Posts: 15,176 ✭✭✭✭ILoveYourVibes


    Raconteuse wrote: »
    Anyway, I got a €100 voucher for Golden Discs for Christmas and I'm so damn excited - I've got that "excitement about buying an album" feeling again and it takes me right back!


    What are you looking forward to buying !?? Any recommendations? I am looking for new bands in particular! :)


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    #3
    milehip
    Registered Users Posts: 733 ✭✭✭milehip


    Get in,Golden discs have some nice offers on classic vinyl, free delivery over 50 Euro and arrive in no time,enjoy.


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    #4
    Raconteuse
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,817 ✭✭✭Raconteuse


    ILoveYourVibes wrote: »
    What are you looking forward to buying !?? Any recommendations? I am looking for new bands in particular! :)
    I'd say I'll just get albums I had on CD which got lost or stolen! :)


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    #5
    Sardonicat
    Registered Users Posts: 12,379 ✭✭✭✭Sardonicat


    Raconteuse wrote: »
    Remember it?

    I used to pore over music magazines, save up for an upcoming album, experience such excitement when heading to HMV or Virgin Megastore or Golden Discs to buy it. I was totally obsessed with music - even getting part-time jobs in both HMV and Virgin at college (not at the same time obviously). I studied music at Cork School of Music and UCC too.

    It wasn't just the buying an album for its musical content - it was the artwork, the sleeve notes... it was kinda magical. Something you'd remember specifically (and it takes a lot to remember just going into a shop and buying something).

    Then of course that all changed - and I've no problem with it. YouTube and Spotify are the absolute biz. But I do find I'm not investing in albums at all anymore - not even for free. Just a song I like here, a song I like there... I haven't bought an album in years and years.

    Anyway, I got a €100 voucher for Golden Discs for Christmas and I'm so damn excited - I've got that "excitement about buying an album" feeling again and it takes me right back!

    How many LPs would €100 get you these days?

    Would get a token for Christmas / Birthday each year in my teens - I must have been the easiest kid to please.


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    #6
    Raconteuse
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,817 ✭✭✭Raconteuse


    milehip wrote: »
    Get in,Golden discs have some nice offers on classic vinyl, free delivery over 50 Euro and arrive in no time,enjoy.
    Oh I'm gonna rock down to the nearest GD shop - keeping it old skool!


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    #7
    Raconteuse
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,817 ✭✭✭Raconteuse


    Sardonicat wrote: »
    How many LPs would €100 get you these days.
    On vinyl about four!


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    #8
    Sardonicat
    Registered Users Posts: 12,379 ✭✭✭✭Sardonicat


    Raconteuse wrote: »
    Oh I'm gonna rock down to the nearest GD shop - keeping it old skool!

    Don't forget to flaunt your LP shaped carrier bag (please say they still have those! ) .


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    #9
    ILoveYourVibes
    Registered Users Posts: 15,176 ✭✭✭✭ILoveYourVibes


    Raconteuse wrote: »
    On vinyl about four!
    That's still pretty good.

    Kind of nice to know the vouchers i give people are possibly useful for something before i resort to handing out cash!:o


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    #10
    Sardonicat
    Registered Users Posts: 12,379 ✭✭✭✭Sardonicat


    Raconteuse wrote: »
    On vinyl about four!

    Happy Days!


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    #11
    Strumms
    Registered Users Posts: 24,929 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    Raconteuse wrote: »
    Remember it?

    I used to pore over music magazines, save up for an upcoming album, experience such excitement when heading to HMV or Virgin Megastore or Golden Discs to buy it. I was totally obsessed with music - even getting part-time jobs in both HMV and Virgin at college (not at the same time obviously). I studied music at Cork School of Music and UCC too.

    It wasn't just the buying an album for its musical content - it was the artwork, the sleeve notes... it was kinda magical. Something you'd remember specifically (and it takes a lot to remember just going into a shop and buying something).

    Then of course that all changed - and I've no problem with it. YouTube and Spotify are the absolute biz. But I do find I'm not investing in albums at all anymore - not even for free. Just a song I like here, a song I like there... I haven't bought an album in years and years.!

    Every month I’d buy Uncut, Mojo, Q and The Word... pouring over articles and reviews in particular... I’d buy about minimum about 3-4 new albums a week, the odd time double that... I could be in Tower records on Wicklow St for 45 minutes...

    Now instead of just relying on somebody’s opinion your own one can be formed at the click of a mouse, Spotify... your entire collection at the tip of a screen. Handy, amazing but it takes a little of the fun away...


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    #12
    Raconteuse
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,817 ✭✭✭Raconteuse


    Aw yes, Tower Records. Spent many afternoons there when living in Dublin briefly.


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    #13
    EmmetSpiceland
    Registered Users Posts: 10,597 ✭✭✭✭EmmetSpiceland


    Golden Discs has always been a terrible music shop.

    “It is not blood that makes you Irish but a willingness to be part of the Irish nation” - Thomas Davis



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    #14
    A2LUE42
    Registered Users Posts: 2,534 ✭✭✭A2LUE42


    EmmetSpiceland wrote:
    Golden Discs has always been a terrible music shop.


    Have a look at their online effort.. It's like they are trying to not sell records.


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    #15
    Raconteuse
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,817 ✭✭✭Raconteuse


    EmmetSpiceland wrote: »
    Golden Discs has always been a terrible music shop.
    Oh no, much more variety now with HMV and Virgin gone.


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    #16
    Kansas City
    Registered Users Posts: 4 ✭Kansas City


    EmmetSpiceland wrote: »
    Golden Discs has always been a terrible music shop.

    Depends which one you go to. Some aren't great but the one in Newbridge has a great selection of vinyl. I've picked up the likes of Wilco, Sufjan Stevens, Velvet Underground, Rodriguez,, A Tribe Called Quest, Stiff Little Fingers and DJ Shadow over there. Always a good chance of picking up something decent there. I buy vinyl online but I do love having a browse through the records just like back in the day.


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    #17
    JohnnyFlash
    Registered Users Posts: 7,055 ✭✭✭JohnnyFlash


    There’s a lot of Creedence records being sold these days. Nothing wrong with that. They sound great on vinyl.


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    #18
    Dothebartman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 40 ✭Dothebartman


    Whats the big obsession with Vinyl in recent years does anyone know?


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    #19
    SEPT 23 1989
    Registered Users Posts: 43,028 ✭✭✭✭SEPT 23 1989


    We could never have dreamed of a YouTube back then but give me album covers sleeve notes and magazines any day

    You put a hell of lot into following bands back then

    Instant gratification now

    And onto the next thing

    It’s dead


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    #20
    satguy
    Registered Users Posts: 1,749 ✭✭✭satguy


    I remember Freebird Music, and downstairs in eassons,,, and if money was tight you had the Basement for some really good second had stuff.


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    #21
    Raconteuse
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,817 ✭✭✭Raconteuse


    What was the one on the quay around the corner from O'Connell Street? Was that Freebird? Used to love browsing there when visiting Dublin.


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    #22
    Raconteuse
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,817 ✭✭✭Raconteuse


    Dothebartman wrote: »
    Whats the big obsession with Vinyl in recent years does anyone know?
    Probably the whole "retro" thing. No harm imo though.


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    #23
    Strumms
    Registered Users Posts: 24,929 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    Dothebartman wrote: »
    Whats the big obsession with Vinyl in recent years does anyone know?

    I think it spiked with the whole retro thing... people were/are buying tonnes of the stuff... it sounds a bit better than Spotify but the whole labor intensiveness is just a ball ache...

    I’m here now, typing on iPad, match of the day on without sound and Spotify from iPad to wireless speaker... no fûcking way can I be arsed getting up and pissing around with vinyl... better sound or not :eek:


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    #24
    Jurgen The German
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,220 ✭✭✭Jurgen The German


    I'm 40 now and havnt bought a physical release of an album that I didnt already own in around 10 years. As a metal fan in the mid 90s in rural Ireland, the access to new music was finite so every single album I bought was a grail. The new tape and then CD was listened to ad nauseam with the lyrics read and learned by osmosis on every one without fail. The first one with vivid recollection is Far Beyond Driven by Pantera. That was released 25 years ago and when the songs come on spotify I'm in the car and belting along with Phil Anselmo. If I only put as much effort into studying I'd probably be a fcuking brain surgeon earning over a million a year by now.

    :rolleyes:


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    #25
    coolshannagh28
    Registered Users Posts: 1,476 ✭✭✭coolshannagh28


    The OP refers to it ,there is something tangible about vinyl and it reveals more of the music when played back unlike the more compressed formats more popular at the moment .


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    #26
    Arghus
    Registered Users Posts: 14,375 ✭✭✭✭Arghus


    Feel you OP.

    I'd say I bought an album a week for nearly fifteen years. Back in the day one of the thrills of visiting Dublin from the sticks was being able to scour Tower Records for the hard to find treasures.

    I think from a consumer perspective Spotify and the likes are fantastic. Basically more music than you could ever want for less than the price of an album per month. It is ridiculous.

    But, I can't help feel that something has been lost. I can listen to just about everything, but I feel like I own absolutely nothing. It all feels ephemeral and weightless and no matter how many times I stream an album the connection won't be there like there was with some of them that existed in living breathing plastic form in my life.

    I think it's lessened the centrality of music in people's lives. Do youngsters still form subcultures where what music they listen to was the central thing that brought them all together?


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    #27
    Raconteuse
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,817 ✭✭✭Raconteuse


    coolshannagh28 wrote: »
    The OP refers to it ,there is something tangible about vinyl and it reveals more of the music when played back unlike the more compressed formats more popular at the moment .
    Well vinyl was actually before my time and it was CDs that I used to buy, which had all the artwork and sleeve notes etc. A record is lovely though.


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    #28
    Church on Tuesday
    Registered Users Posts: 3,858 ✭✭✭Church on Tuesday


    Yup, can identify with this.

    Back in the day I could spend hours browsing in record shops with friends, it was almost like a pilgrimage.

    Music was much harder to come by then, which isn't all that long ago, so I think you appreciated it more when you got it.

    I still buy physical music. I have to have the artwork, the liner notes, lyrics, esp now with Vinyl which I have started collecting over the last few years. I have to listen to the "album" by itself if that makes any sense?

    I can still remember where I bought all my albums from and some of them have very great memories attached to them.


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    #29
    Dothebartman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 40 ✭Dothebartman


    The good old days of downloading music from Limewire, Imesh and Kaaza.

    So many viruses, oh so many.


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    #30
    Kansas City
    Registered Users Posts: 4 ✭Kansas City


    Dothebartman wrote: »
    Whats the big obsession with Vinyl in recent years does anyone know?

    For me, it's about taking time to appreciate music. There's almost a ritual involved in sliding the vinyl out of the sleeve, putting it on the record player and placing the needle down on the outer groove. If I'm sticking on a record, in listening to it right through as the artist intended and not bouncing about tracks based on a whim as I'm prone to with Spotify. I love album artwork as well and looking over the lyrics or notes that are on the sleeve. It all enriches the experience.


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    #31
    Jurgen The German
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,220 ✭✭✭Jurgen The German


    Dothebartman wrote: »
    The good old days of downloading music from Limewire, Imesh and Kaaza.

    So many viruses, oh so many.

    Man this thread is about the days when computer viruses were something your dublin cousins ssummer American foreign exchange student spoke about.


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