HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) – His 16-year-old daughter and her friends couldn’t identify the round black disc.
“Is it an overly large CD?” they asked Shane Jensen.
How it could even play music was another matter.
“All they knew were cassettes and CDs,” he said with a chuckle.
Yet, from the turntable his brother bought him a few years ago, the 39-year-old has been playing the tunes of Earth, Wind and Fire and Freddie Jackson on what else but vinyl records.
Maybe it’s nostalgia of his childhood for this Gen Xer – a yearning for a time when music was much more than just background noise. Moreover, those vinyl records collecting dust in a cardboard box in many an attic might be worth something.
He’s not the only one who is partaking in the vinyl renaissance of sorts. Vinyl record sales reached 1.9 million units in 2008, and then grew to 2.5 million in 2009, according to industry tracker Nielsen SoundScan. CD sales, meanwhile, have dipped, being replaced by downloading services such as iTunes. Nielsen estimates sales dropping about 20 percent in 2009.
Vinyl’s resurgence, as it continues to climb, hasn’t gone unnoticed by local businesses.
Ron Klassen, with Hayes Sight and Sound, said he’s seen an uptick in sales of new turntables. Customers also are bringing in their old consoles from the 1970s that have been sitting in garages or storage for years in an effort to get them working again.
At CD Tradepost, manager David Thornhill sifted through a box of vinyls he plans to start selling – original 33s with the covers for bands such as Foreigner, the Eagles, ABBA, Peter Frampton and Fleetwood Mac.
Topeka and Wichita stores began selling vinyls earlier this year with much success, he said.
“The way we listen to music is changing for a lot of people,” Thornhill said, adding that many want a warmer, richer sound of vinyl that can’t be found on a digitally mastered CD.
They want the sound they grew up hearing, he said, complete with the pops and cracks of a record that has been played over and over again.
Even some artists are putting their newest releases on records, which can be purchased at Hutchinson’s Hastings. Aisles at many record stores hold new records – from classic rock to the vinyl versions of recently released tunes such as popular artists like Lady Gaga and 50 Cent.
Jensen, however, prefers browsing secondhand stores and rummaging through garage sale tables to find his classics – sometimes getting lucky and finding vintage items for cheap.
Those jumping on the trend would find it fortuitous if they ran into Terry Manche’s sale at his home on Carole Street, where a small portion of his 20,000-record collection was situated amid books, tools and trinkets.
For $1, bargain hunters could buy 45s containing the songs of Bing Crosby, Wayne Newton, Tony Bennett and the Rolling Stones – all still within the original sleeves.
Jensen, who worked the state fair and trade show circuit from 1974 to 2000, selling fossils, antiques and collectibles like records, said it was time to “declutter.” Autographed records, however, will stay put in storage, at least for a while.
It doesn’t surprise him that vinyl has made a comeback, he said, noting he still plays records on one of his jukeboxes.
For him, the medium never left.
___
Information from: The Hutchinson News, http://www.hutchnews.com
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
AP-CS-04-26-10 1022EDT