the possible psychological affects of buying a record player

yes, i have bought a record player! well, my mom did. but it was due to my suggestion. and my dad is giving my his old records, so i can now listen to aretha franklin, the neville brothers, charlie parker, cat stevens, la pachanga, bob marley and the wailers, the beach boys, frank sinatra and duke ellington, duke ellinton's jazz party, great hits of the '60s, grateful dead, john davidson, linus the lionhearted, james taylor, brazilian byrd and charlie byrd, chicago, tommy dorsey and frank sinatra, julian lennon, bobby hutcherson, prince, the cannonball adderley quintet, abba, and mgmt (i received this one from my mom as a promotion present).

so, is this gonna alter my mind? i dunno. maybe it will make me have a slower pace of life, but my pace of life is already pretty slow. well, what about other people? what if we randomly picked up like 100 ipod wearing teens and said "i'm taking your ipod away, for the next 2 months you can only listen to music on this record player but you have unlimited credit at your local record store. come back and meet me here in 2 months." would they all have musical epiphanies? would they share their experiences with others? would they even know how to work the record player?

yah, itunes is super awesome, and its cool to be able to find more obscure music online, but i think we're missing something when record stores close. i mean, for the older generation, remember the thrill of finding something you were expecting not to find? and it's gonna become more and more difficult to connect with strangers without record and bookstores. you can't strike up a conversation about someones tastes in the checkout line online.

record and bookstores are closing really quickly due to amazon and itunes. are the services these companies provide worth the potential loss in culture and human connection? i don't think so. lately, artists are releasing lp's with online download codes. i think that's cool, cause you can garnerthe benefits of both technologies. but hey, you decide if you wanna let itunes and amazon accidentally kill records and books. what are they worth to you?

due to all of the above, i think the psychological effect of buying a record player is more social awareness. i think it makes you make more human connections. i also believe having to work for your music a bit more makes you appreciate it more. so if you've got some spare money laying around, think about it.