Prologue: Escape from the perfect sound
| Text: mmr | Theme: Why do people abandon digital perfection and return to analog imperfection?Exploring the psychology and culture of returning to records |
Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music. We are now in an era where sounds from all over the world are available with just a tap. However, amidst all this perfect convenience, a strange backlash is occurring.
–It’s the revival of records.
It’s not a temporary boom like cassettes, but Nowadays, LP discs are definitely regaining their cultural status. The action of dropping the needle, the feel of opening the jacket, the fluctuation of the surface of the board. It’s more like a ritual than “listening.”
Why do people return to inconvenient media?
The psychological desire for contact'' andmemory circuits’’ are deeply involved.
Chapter 1: Memories of “touch” taken away by digital
When the CD was introduced in 1982, the world rejoiced. Noiseless, long-lasting, and highly durable.Music has become data, and media has become transparent.
However, that transparency was the “problem”.
Digital sound is so perfect that it lacks a sense of presence. Sounds you can’t touch, playlists you can replace. What psychologist Winnicott calls a “transitional object” In other words, the presence of a ``stuffed toy’’ that makes children feel safe has been lost in music.
Records are the exact opposite. The discs are heavy, absorb dust, are sensitive to temperature, and even spin out of order. It is like a ``living thing’’ and will not make a sound unless you touch it. This troublesomeness actually creates attachment.
Chapter 2: Memories in Noise – Analog and Nostalgia
The moment the needle drops, there’s a ``sah’’ noise. For some reason, many people feel nostalgic just by listening to it.
This phenomenon is psychologically called the “Proust effect.” This is a phenomenon in which stimulation of the five senses, such as smells and sounds, evokes memories. The noise of the record makes the passage of time itself audible. In other words, the act of listening to a record is also ``an act of reuniting with the past.’’
If digital sound is “currently ongoing” sound, Analog sound is the “reverberation of memory.”
Chapter 3: Analog nature sought by the body - from the perspective of brain science
Human hearing has the ability to detect “fluctuations” in continuous waves. Analog sound is a physical waveform, Contains fluctuations that are closer to “natural sounds” than digital sounds.
This subtle fluctuation (1/f fluctuation) is It is known to resonate with alpha brain waves and produce a relaxing effect.
In other words, analog records are comfortable noise for the body. Unconsciously, we seek a sound that is not too formal.
Chapter 4: Media Archeology - Music as Material
Records are also sound sculptures. The act of carving out sound is to confine time into matter. Friedrich Kittler stated this in ``Media Archeology.’’
“Media determine our situation.” (The media determines our situation)
As sound evolves from “recording” to “playback”, Records remained as the only medium that allowed us to touch time.
When you put the needle down, it makes a sound, and when you raise it, silence returns. Within this simple mechanism, there is a dialogue between time and the body.
Chapter 5: Why Gen Z is dropping the needle - A new sense of ownership
Generation Z record buyers Actually, I don’t know about the “analog era”. Still, they “buy” records and “display them” on their shelves.
For them, records are not archives'' orcollections.’’
Rather, it functions as “evidence of experience.”
The artistry of the jacket, the act of turning the disc over, Physical steps not in the app. This is also an expression of anti-transparency culture in the digital age.
Chapter 6: Future Nostalgia ─ Analog Emotions in the AI Era
Music can now be generated infinitely thanks to generation AI. Fluid ``generative music’’ where you can never play the same song twice. As a reaction to this, people are starting to seek fixed substances.
“Analog regression” is no longer a nostalgic thing. That is rediscovering ``humanity’’ in the age of AI.
Final Chapter: Records teach us “happiness of imperfection”
The sound of records is not perfect. Distortion, dust, and deterioration of the disc – all of that is etched into the sound. But that’s what a “living sound” is all about.
Psychologically, people tend to “attach to imperfections” rather than to perfection. Accept that imperfection as part of yourself. That’s the appeal of it as the “ghost of analog.”
–Records are not tombstones for music. Rather, human memory itself is a rotating device.
Chronology of evolution of analog music media
Conclusion: Sound is not a thing, but a relationship.
The analog ghost is more than just a retro hobby. It is a symbol of the question of how humans interact with memory, touch, and time.
The ``soul of sound’’ that resides at the tip of the needle continues to rotate quietly.
References (English original)
| Title | Author | Publisher | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain | Oliver Sacks | Vintage Books | Amazon |
| Noise: The Political Economy of Music | Jacques Attali | University of Minnesota Press | Amazon |
| Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction to Its Own Past | Simon Reynolds | Faber & Faber | Amazon |
| How Music Works | David Byrne | Crown Archetype | Amazon |
| Vinyl: The Analogue Record in the Digital Age | Dominik Bartmanski & Ian Woodward | Bloomsbury | Amazon |
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