If you’re of a “certain age” you’ll recall the pleasure of hearing a new song from your favourite pop stars on the radio, then popping into town on a Saturday with your pocket money, wandering into a record shop and buying that precious piece of 7-inch or 12-inch vinyl. However … do you still own any vinyl records? And when was the last time you purchased one?

Over the last decade or so, vinyl has gone from being an almost extinct music format to being the must-have item in your music collection. With over a million vinyl albums sold in 2014, it’s not just middle-aged people reliving their youth, it’s also become THE trendy format to own as far as young whipper-snappers are concerned. But why?

Turn Over & Die

The seeming demise of vinyl began in the 1990s. Everyone was snaffling up CDs like hot crumpets. With their space-saving size and their “digital” quality, CDs sounded clearer, were more portable and you could fit more of them on your shelf. As for poor old vinyl in the ‘90s, all except its die-hard fans felt the black groovy things were too cumbersome, too large, sounded too hissy and you had to turn it over halfway through listening to it. Surely its time was over…? Well, not quite...

Those die-hard vinyl fans will tell you that the old LPs sound warmer, look better and they are highly collectable. Record fairs are springing up all over the country, there’s an annual Record Store Day and the sole surviving major music store chain, HMV, is once again stocking brand new vinyl albums and singles. And let’s face it, vinyl records just LOOK better. All of the iconic album artwork comes from the vinyl age: Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, Queen’s Queen II, The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – they all came to us during the LP’s heyday of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Despite numerous re-mastered reissues on various formats over the years, the album artwork doesn’t look as good when it’s reduced to a CD booklet or the thumbnail of a digital download. With the good old LP you could spend ages looking through the sleeve artwork, reading the lyrics and sleeve-notes and gazing at the artwork as you take in the music … without the aid of a magnifying glass.

One Million & Counting

The resurgence of this music format has been such that in April 2015 The Official Charts Company announced that it was compiling vinyl only charts for the first time. One for albums and one for singles. 2014 saw vinyl album sales of over 1million. 2015 could see that figure double. The first quarter of 2015 saw new albums by the like of Noel Gallagher, Arctic Monkeys and War On Drugs in the top 10 vinyl albums chart. However, mixing it up were new vinyl reissues of classic albums from Led Zeppelin (Physical Graffiti and Led Zeppelin IV) and Pink Floyd (The Dark Side of the Moon).

So it’s plain to see that music from all eras for all ages is blossoming on the reborn format. The vinyl resurgence has been growing year on year for the last 7 years and it doesn’t look as though it’s going to slow down any time soon. The parents love the nostalgia of it all and their kids think it’s cool. Also, when you tire of listening to it, just stick it in a frame and hang it on the wall. Music on vinyl is art. In every sense of the word.

Turn Over & Die

One Million & Counting

For more info on the new vinyl chart, check out the website of The Official Charts Company: http://www.officialcharts.com/home/