Most consumers who have music on Vinyl from the 90's or earlier typically associate the word 'Record' as a 33/45/88RPM Vinyl that is played on a turn table. However, while the Vinyl is pretty much obsolete in most music stores, the Record continues to live on. Some stores such as Tower Records keep the 'Record' in their titles as a Record is actually defined as a medium which contains recorded sound or visual images. A record can stand for a single or album also.
The music industry still continues to associate 'Record' with recordings, regardless of the medium, such as a Gold Record to represent a 1/2 million copies sold. However the producer is rewarded with a framed gold-tined CD instead of a Gold-painted LP Record in the early days. At present, most of the younger generation do not know what some of the Vinyl terms mean, e.g. 45, 78, SP, LP and so on, while some may know that a Record is what DJ's use.
With music downloads and online music download services becoming very popular, the CD format is starting to see its age by some, especially with CD Singles falling way behind of Digital Single downloads, much like the days when the record was starting to become phased out. However, even if it comes to a time when most music released is by digital download, the term 'record' still lives on as a neutral word for recorded music.
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"What about tapes?" she asked. The associate rolled his eyes, informing her that prerecorded cassettes, too, had gone the way of thermal fax paper. Exasperated, she sighed, "Whatever you call those things they put music on these days." Finally, the clerk pointed her to the CDs, which is what he should have done in the first place. If he had had any doubts, he might have gone outside and looked at the name of the store: Tower Records. Since the fadeout of vinyl, most major record stores have adopted generic names like Musicland or For Your Entertainment. But Tower has clung steadfastly to "Records" because the word still accurately describes its wares: recorded music. It doesn't matter what kind of medium the music is recorded onto, be it a vinyl 45 rpm single or a 33 1/3 LP, a shellac 78 rpm platter, an eight-track tape or a plastic CD. Those formats all fit Webster's definition of a record: "something on which sound or visual images have been recorded." Much of the music industry continues to use "record" to refer to recordings, no matter the medium. The businesses that sign, develop and promote musical artists are still known as record companies, although most record labels are now subsidiaries of conglomerates with the word "media" or "entertainment" in their names. Read the full, rather lengthy story here. |
Even until this day, I still commonly think of a music store as a 'Record Shop', even though it has been well over 10 years since most stores in my area last sold a vinyl record. While calling a CD, MP3, tape or other recording a Record doesn't seem quite right, apparently the word Record does indeed stand for a text document, voice recording, video recording, database item (record in a database) or other physical evidence.
While the Vinyl Record has long been replaced with what the music industry calls the superior quality, virtually indestructible CD, apparently I have come across several people who still insist that the record was superior to the CD, especially the current releases (if released on record also). For example, a CD's waveform consists of 65,536 steps sampled at a rate of 44,100 times per second. Vinyl on the other hand is a continuous waveform.
As CD's have a physical volume limit due to the 65,535 steps max between lowest and highest part of the waveform, some labels amplify all the music, including quieter sections to maximum level to make their music 'stand out' such as when played in a CD-changer, however it starts to sound like noise after a while due to no kick or nothing 'standing out' track after track. However, with a record there were no changers apart from Jukeboxes, so the music's amplitude was not tampered with.
Source: HoustonChronicle
