Finally done up our multimedia news site on the local vinyl scene, its revival and such. Actually our topic ain't all that original (but neither were those of our classmates), but all of us started from scratch -- you just have to be proud of your own work right. Anyway, becos of this project I started to reassess my sensitivity toward music, this connection which had diminished especially in the past year or so. As in I really feel when I played my CDs like say in secondary school, because the albums I liked I buy, they helped me get through tough times. And they cleansed the soul, so to speak. But I realised these days I never really get down to listening. It's auto-pilot mode when I plug in the earphones on the train, but over time the songs only act as background music either to my wandering thoughts, or to me stoning. So no, I haven't been truly listening for a long while.
We talked to this record store owner, and he attributed this syndrome to the digital age, the side effect of having the convenience to download songs whenever you want. You can download anything, delete it from your iTunes, and still won't feel the pinch because the song will still be there on the internet. And I think people expect everything on the net to stay on the net forever more (like how I want to still be able to read back on my blog posts a good fifty years frm now if I can even live that long). But you don't just throw out CDs. I still keep the first one I bought -- 2002 Elva Hsiao's 爱的主打歌 • 吻. That and all the subsequent albums I bought + those that Sis bought, we two used to really sit together beside the player and sing our lungs out. The lyrics book was our textbook. That kind of memorizing power was unprecedented and in later years, unachievable. Good times then.
And with the supposed vinyl revival, it seems people are again taken with the idea of "owning a piece of music". Had never come close to a turntable before, but the other day another record store owner taught me the basics, and I carefully placed a Bee Gees record on before setting the needle down, trying to locate 'I Started A Joke'. Song tracks follow the grooves of a record you see. It was quite something to listen to vinyl, maybe only because I've never done so. But I still don't get how analog sounds better than digital! Lol, see I'm not pretending to be a hipster okay.
Anyway, food for thought : "Vinyl isn't cool. Music is."
(Even tho I secretly think vinyl is cool hehe)
^ This was at Junquan's house the day before we sought out record stores for interviews. Just when I thought the Chinese oldies I listen to are 'old' enough, this guy here takes it one generation further. With vinyl records, no less. His balcony is the epitome of true Chinese retro; very amazed. In a way, he actually sparked our decision on the vinyl topic. Because we would alr have someone we know (Sis knows him frm poly) who could grant us an interview, and he really help out in every way he could. So very thankful for that. There's even a guestbook of sort for this space of his, now that's true commitment to the past.The whole project experience had been really good, from talking to people who know about their stuff + when they veer off topic like when one record store owner started talking about his personal life which was also nice to hear, to the writeup and creation of the site. You know how every semester, there would be one baby project that stood out from the rest. Last semester was Gao Hong's whereby we compared LKY and his son's political+body language. This semester, this is it. Vinyl Days ^^