Finally we come to the vinyl. For those of you under 30, who probably have no idea to what I refer, here’s the dealio: once upon a time artists recorded their Music on vinyl platters that looked like black, overgrown CDs. These “records” were spun around on a “turntable” while the information recorded thereon (analogly not digitally!) was read by a diamond-tipped needle. Yes, it was a very primitive method, but it worked.
Records came in two sizes: the 12 inch “album” (equivalent to a modern CD) and the 7 inch “single” which generally contained two songs. Records were by no means user-friendly. Unlike CDs, records had Musical tracks on both sides. That means that to play the whole thing one had to manually turn the record over. And listening to a particular song required locating on which side of the disc the song was recorded and then (again manually!) placing the needle at the beginning of the desired track. Those raised on CDs don’t have any idea how good they have it!
I have included here some of the artists represented in my (dusty) collection. Those which I still desire to listen to have been replaced with CDs as I haven’t a turntable anymore. Almost all of my records come from my junior high, high school and early college years; the majority are from bands that were considered New Wave, with a significant number from the New Romantic sub-genre.