Music lovers are setting the record straight about vinyl

For Lydia McWilliams, vinyl records are a family tradition.

Her grandmother loved Frank Sinatra and played his records. Her dad loves Billy Joel, Elton John and hair metal bands from the 1980s and plays their records.

McWilliams is more into 1970s stuff like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Fleetwood Mac and the Carpenters.

Uh, the Carpenters? “Yeah,” McWilliams says with a laugh as she rifles through the vinyl LPs at McKay’s used book and record store.

For the unfamiliar, the brother-sister Carpenter duo played soft, melodic, your-mom-would-like-them pop.

At 28 years old, McWilliams stands on the younger end of the age spectrum of those who love vinyl albums and are buying them in droves these days. In 2022, for the first time since 1987, vinyl records outsold CDs, according to the Recording Association of America.

“It’s just fun,” McWilliams says. “My boyfriend is big into bluegrass, so he has a ton of those and old country albums, and we would much rather listen to our record players than iTunes and Spotify.”

On the other end of the spectrum are members of the 60-plus crowd who grew up when vinyl albums were the only option besides radio. They are returning to the sounds of their youth.

Flipping through the racks at McKay’s, Steve Rava, 67, says he has bought albums by Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Pink Floyd and other late ’60s, early ’70s stuff. There are a few newer bands in his selections, but …

“I’ve got to admit I’m pretty much living in the past,” he says.

The rise in vinyl’s popularity is no secret. Sales have been going up every year for the past 17. At 251,000 copies, Taylor Swift’s “Midnights,” which came out in October 2022, is the bestselling vinyl record of 2023.

The question is: Why?

Unlike the drop-it-in-and-let-it-spin convenience of a CD, you can’t put an album on a turntable and get 45 minutes of uninterrupted music. After about five songs, Side One is done, and you have to turn the record over for the songs on Side Two.

Vinyl isn’t cheap, either. A used copy of “Destroyer,” the 1976 album by Kiss, is $39 at McKay’s. A new copy of Taylor Swift’s “Evermore” from 2021 in green vinyl is $48 at Walmart.com.

Rava thinks the “cool factor” of vinyl is one of its drawing points, especially for those who grew up in the years when LPs were dinosaurs.

“I think there’s definitely a fad kind of thing for the younger kids. But for me, fortunately, I never sold my turntable,” says Rava, a professional musician for more than 40 years.

Keith Wilson, owner of St. Pete Records, which sells both used and new vinyl and CDs, says his customers cover a wide range of ages.

“It’s not just millennials; it’s not just Gen X; it’s not just older people. It’s everyone, and it’s been great to see,” says Wilson, who started St. Pete Records about six years ago in — naturally — St. Petersburg, Florida, and moved to Chattanooga about 18 months ago.

With the increasing love of vinyl, an age-old clash also has revived. Some insist vinyl inherently sounds better than CDs. Some use the word “warmth” to describe vinyl, while attaching “cold” to CDs.

Audio studies, though, don’t back up that assertion, and some studies say vinyl is actually limited in its sound-reproducing abilities in ways CDs are not.

Bottom line is that each has its strengths and weaknesses, so when all the back-and-forth playback is finished, it comes down to a simple question: Does it sound better to you?

For vinyl lovers, that sound can include the snap, crackle and pop sometimes heard when playing vinyl records, especially used ones.

“I hear that quite a bit,” Wilson says. “Most record collectors are accepting of that. They find that to be part of the charm; that it’s not perfect.”

Kyler Boyd, 33, while shopping at St. Pete, said the pops are part of the “experience.”

“It makes you more present,” he says. “You actually listen to it. It’ll take you to a different time, when things were simpler.”