Vinyl is irreplaceable. Back in the 80's, the thought was that if you wanted good sound, you got a CD, and we were all about CDs back then. We all thought vinyl would die a quick death.
But vinyl has survived for 30 years after digital media, much like print magazines have survived and thrived. Independent record stores now stock mostly vinyl. Because, there is simply nothing like the sound of a vinyl record.
Radio was thought to have been dead once television arrived. It didn't die, it evolved.
Like everything else in life, things change, but they continue to live on in one way or another.
Very good post, and I agree completely; the arrival of a new means of communication does not mean that the older one is obsolete - often, they continue to co-exist, and cater to different groups.
Re vinyl, it may have been because it was an era when people had less money, but I remember planning to buy vinyl records, saving up for them, and, when I finally bought them, hardly able to wait to play them, and then savouring them.
I also well remember the sound of sliding the record (carefully) from the inner sleeve, recall enjoying the (sometimes amazingly creative and colourful) album art and reading the detailed notes with which albums were increasingly supplied - and then listening to the sound of the turntable starting , and the stylus slowly swinging across on its angled arm, the gentle thump as it landed in a groove, followed by the occasional scratchy crackle, and then the deep resonance of a vinyl record in full play....
When my parents were dating, my father bought my mother an excellent Phillips box record player (this was the late 50s) for her record collection. She treasured it and it lasted until the mid 1970s, by which time my brother and I - young teenagers - had worn it out, we used it so much.
Nice thread - brings back memories and reminds me to get a stylus........
