Screw 'Fascist' iPods, Get Vinyl

Author of 'Go the [bleep] to Sleep' says analog is still king
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 13, 2012 12:07 PM CDT
Screw 'Fascist' iPods, Get Vinyl
'The studious observer can drop the needle on the drum break with the precision of a surgeon making an incision.' - Adam Mansbach   (Shutterstock)

Some things have never been improved upon, and if you ask Adam Mansbach (author of the hit book Go the f--- to Sleep) one of them is the vinyl record. "Vinyl is democratic, as surely as the iPod is fascist," Mansbach declares in Salon. "Vinyl spins like the Earth on its axis, the planets around the sun, the hands of a clock. Unspools like time itself. Our ability to control it symbolizes a power greater than any we have over our own lives."

A skilled DJ, armed with vinyl "can alchemize the incidental into the infinite." It's easy to spot one who was trained with an iPod full of 50,000 songs. "You can spot him because he sucks. His sets lack logic and flavor, conviction and shape." Vinyl forces you to tangibly interact with music. It "occupies physical space honestly, proud as a fat woman dancing," unlike the songs goose-stepping in single file on your iPod. "Trust me," Mansbach says, "There is a reason digital rhymes with douchenozzle." Click for Mansbach's full column. (More vinyl stories.)

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