When did the "resurgence" start?

[Josh]

Some say vinyl never went away and some say it's coming back... let us know what you think!

I personally say that vinyl went away for a while after CDs were getting popular but are now gaining in popularity again due to the quality, novelty, price of the classics, and the vinyl "feel"...

I say we will only see vinyl go upwards and onwards

[herofix]

If I hadn't moved to the UK in '96 I would agree with your take on it, Josh.  Prior to that, my only experience with music on vinyl was old music (1980's or before).  It came as a really pleasant surprise to see that the habit had never really died amongst a certain clique over here though.  Maybe you could say the same for people who were into underground music in the US, too, but I didn't have any experience with that.

To put it in a nutshell, though by the mid-90's very little of most music sold here was on vinyl, a certain mindset amongst the record labels who were influenced by punk or post-punk just kept on pressing copies of new music on wax, and a few of the more popular releases on vinyl would be displayed at the chain stores, and most cities had at least one independent shop full of new music on vinyl (the mom and pop record shops hadn't yet really started being wiped out by this point).

Also at about this time, the Britpop movement was the single most influential sound in the UK, with lots of indie bands crossing over to the mainstream.  So it's telling that the one thing which really kickstarted my habit was buying the new Blur single (for 99 pence no less!) when it came out.  If I could buy the new stuff I loved on that format, I thought to myself........anyway, there was no looking back. 

tl;dr I think that the stronger commercial influence of punk and post-punk in Britain kept the vinyl flag waving just enough in the UK that I would say it never really died here.  There wasn't an era where a guy couldn't find most of his stuff on vinyl if he wanted to basically, provided his taste in music was in line with the tastes of the New Musical Express, Melody Maker and Q magazine.

[Josh]

Thanks for that insightful reply. It is interesting to compare the resurgence (or maintenance) of vinyl in different countries.

[herofix]

You know the more I think about this, the more I wonder if the phenomenon of scratching on early hip-hop and house music was another area (besides the skinny Limey guys with guitars area) where vinyl kept its head just above water in the late 80's and early 90's until the real resurgence started.  They had a turntable (well, two turntables and a microphone) and they were spinning and scratching the old stuff, so there must have been some guys into that scene who were putting their new stuff out on vinyl as well.  I don't know any big electronic or hip-hop heads, but it sounds plausible.

[Josh]

I agree with you there too, but in my mind I have always kinda put DJs in their own category...vinyl is part of the trade.