IN THE GROOVE: The Vinyl Record and Turntable Revolution
VARIOUS AUTHORS (listed below)
Motorbooks International
$40.00 hardcover, available now
Rating: 5* of five
The Publisher Says: Celebrate the 75th anniversary of the first commercial LP with this authoritative, highly illustrated, and multi-faceted look at the history and culture of vinyl record collecting and turntables.
Vinyl records continue to be hot commodities among everyone from obsessive audiophiles to newbie collectors getting their toes wet. In the Groove: The Vinyl Record and Turntable Revolution is the book for both—and everyone in between. Published to mark the 75th year since the introduction of the commercial LP, In the Groove is written by a roster of well-known music journalists, vinyl junkies, and stereophiles teaming up to present a gorgeous tribute to the vinyl LP and the culture it has spawned:
Richie Unterberger explores the history of the 33 1/3 LP, including its predecessor, the 78rpm record, the first commercial LPs, the pressing process, stereo vs. mono, and formats like the 7-inch/45rpm record.
Gillian Gaar tackles those temples to the turntable: record stores. Inside, she examines the history of LP merchandising everywhere from department stores to headshops, Record Store Day, the artist in-store appearance, and swap meets and record shows.
Martin Popoff pens a paean to the physical object itself, discussing the advent of the sleeve, the great LP covers, famous sleeve designers, liner notes and packaging, colored vinyl, and more.
Matt Anniss looks at the collecting hobby and topics like obsessive collectors, what makes a great listening space, playing and caring for vinyl, collecting and vinyl in DJ and hip-hop cultures, and the mixtape phenomenon.
Ken Micallef, a top hifi journalist, has the gearheads covered with explanations of turntables from portables to audiophile-quality units, the workings and parts of a turntable from motors and tonearms to plinths and cartridges, and the components of a system.
In the Groove is illustrated throughout with images of gear, listening spaces, record stores, sleeve art, and celebrities and musicians enjoying the vinyl hobby through the decades. Brief, entertaining sidebars cover topics like famous labels from Stax to Sub Pop, famous EPs, well-known record stores, milestone LP covers, a beginner’s guide to grading, and formats that have challenged the supremacy of the LP, including 8-track, reel-to-reel, and cassette.
Feel the groove with this effervescent ode to vinyl.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Collecting vinyl records was about listening to the recordings to me, back when they were ubiquitous, and had mass-market stores dedicated to their sale. There have always been people who collected the objects as objects but, back in the 1970s when I worked in a record store, I was even then not tempted to join their ranks.
All that said, I was not the most likely person to read this book cover to cover, or drool over the photos in it. It seemed to me to be one of those love-it-or-leave-it things. I was surprised at how piercingly sweet the nostalgia for that wonderful feeling of being surrounded by things I had no idea what they were about, and having the chance to discover whole new-to-me areas of music, would be. The infrastructure of turntables, speakers, speaker wires, amplifiers, needles!...so many needles...came rushing back. It was a lovely, immersive experience.
The record stores the authors discuss were mostly familiar as names to me. I loved my time in the world of vinyl because I wanted the music in my ears. The vinyl collectors will, I feel sure, be just as transported just for other reasons.
Enjoy some lovely page spreads below.
The collector, the older relative, the nostalgic Boomer are all likely to enjoy the read, and the look, of this book.
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