I have a love for vintage audio. I long for the days of spending an hour or more in record stores as a kid looking for something interesting. I have hundreds of records today, so it was natural for me to hunt for an image that shows my hobby. The sound, while not always something you hear on a record, especially a brand new, clean, well pressed one, is still reminiscent of those record players I had as a kid when I could not afford the high-end stuff and bought dollar records out of the used bin at the shop.
Hi Andy,
My general reaction to the image selected was it had a nice focus point of the record player on the needle. I enjoy these kinds of images where it is blurry all around, but it frames a single area of the photo get the attention of the viewers. My reaction to the audio selected was it made me believe that I am getting prepared to listen to the start of a song.
When viewed separately, the image is aesthetically pleasing to look at. The color and contrast fit well as if it was taken from the 1970’s. When only listening to the audio, it feels like I am getting ready to listen to the beginning of a song on the vinyl record. But when combined together it enhances the meaning of the image. It fits perfectly because usually when I think of vinyl record players, and first putting down the needle (stylus?), I usually hear that scratching like noise. Then after a few seconds of silence, the song should start playing.
Another audio choice that I can think of that might create and interesting meaning when combined with the image would be Funk or Hard Rock genres. I would think keeping the 1970’s vibe from the image would match perfectly with the popular funk or Hard Rock audio. Usually when I look at vinyls, these kinds of music come to my mind first.
I noticed under your audio, there is no label for “licensed under.” Overall, you did great with your choice of image and audio. It fits well together as if I was at a record store.
This was an interesting concept. I admit that I’ve not thought of records in some time. I found the image to warm my heart and lead me back to my youth when I would make mixtapes on cassettes so that I could listen to my favorite music on a portable cassette player. That is to say that the image was certainly evocative in my opinion.
The colors in the image work very well, too. I find it interesting that the photo also features an older record. It looks like a 78, but very well could be a 33 1/3.
The sound of the LP reminded me of something in particular, which is that it’s time to turn it over.
I guess the disconnect for me was that it was exactly what I would expect to hear from a record player at some point. That said, I’m old, so there’s that, and I’m not sure everyone would expect the “noisy silence.”
I think what I might not expect would be something new and out of the ordinary for LPs like video game music.
Also, thank you so much for posting this, Andy! I hope you are enjoying our class!