Cover story |
It cannot get more ironic than this. A fortnight after Record Store Day (April 23), Apple announced that they are discontinuing the production of the iPod. That iconic gadget that changed the way we listened to, stored and shared our favourite songs, has gone silent. If anyone had kept a scorecard on May 10, it would have read Analogue: 1, Digital: 0.
While it’s true that most of us stream songs on our phones and computers, a steady stream of music lovers around the world are swapping algorithm-based music for the intimate and tangible joy of the vinyl. The format that rode high in the 70s, had dipped in the 90s and almost disappeared with the arrival of the new millennium. It should have gone extinct, à la the iPod, but that’s where it gets curious. Stacked away in shelves and dusty corners of antique shops, the vinyl managed to stay alive until, sometime in the past decade, curious millennials began digging up records that reminded them of summer holidays spent with the grandparents, a gramophone playing in the background.
