This isn’t a rant about quality of digital vs vinyl. That’s a lost battle, each side being perfectly accurate in their respective rebuttals. There’s no win. This is about the idea, to me at least, that vinyl has become a genre of music. Let me explain.

I own a large amount of music in what could be considered “digital” media. I’m going to include CDs in this group, as they are technically digital right along with MP3s. I have iTunes purchased music. eMusic purchased music. Some directly purchased music from artists that gave digital downloads for the effort. At times, I get quite subjective in these purchases, cherry picking the best music that suits my auditory pleasures. I’ll preview it on iTunes or somewhere else. Read a review over at Pitchfork or take a friends word for it. Basically, I’m selective and buy only what I like, which is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

But vinyl. That’s a whole different platter of wax. (HA!) There’s a small gas station up the road from me that has an amazing collection of old vinyl, collected over the years. I take the kids every Wednesday after school. They get candy, I get vinyl. I browse the stacks, checking out every title for any familiarity. A name. A cover. Anything that might grab my attention. An old album my mom used to have (though I now have all those…) An album by a group that did a song I liked once, even though I can’t remember the name of the song. Heck, any group I’ve even heard of, referenced in some obscure TV show or movie that suddenly jumped into my head. I buy it. Yup, just like that, I grab it off the shelf, give it a quick quality control check and pull out my cash. I rush home and throw on the turntable to give it a listen while the kids eat their candy. I’m amazed each and every time I do this. I could put any one of the LPs I own on the table and sit and listen to it end to end. Any one of them will also make wonderful background music.

The point, if indeed I have one, is that it doesn’t seem to matter what’s on the wax, just that it’s there, and that makes it wonderful. Now, listening to NIN and Beastie Boys on vinyl? Pure heaven.