There is this movie called 'Threads' filmed in Sheffield for the BBC about nuclear war. Made back in the 1980's it has a scene in it with a record player that I

There is this movie called 'Threads' filmed in Sheffield for the BBC about nuclear war. Made back in the 1980's it has a scene in it with a record player that I can remember. The record player and records are not understood by the post-nuclear survivors, they don't know what it is for. It is a metaphor for culture and what it is to be human. Early 90's dance music was the soundtrack to my student life. The records of the 'rave era' didn't have much going on with the sleeves. Compared to the rock and roll records of the previous generation or guitar based 'Indie' music the sleeves were very different, you would be lucky to have 33 or 45 rpm written on the record correctly. Something had been lost in that the sleeve artwork didn't have the same value. However, the logo for the label (printed on the record's A-side label) did look cool rotating around at 33 or 45 rpm. Having an actual record player was not strictly necessary as, in student life, you would be somewhere else most evenings where 'decks' existed. I knew a few people who had the latest and most hard to obtain records but had no record player. They certainly didn't do tapes either. Records could be bought unheard by them in the store and played for the first time in a venue with the big speakers and a crowd. People could DJ that way, all their money in vinyl, nothing spent on audio kit and willing to subject unsuspecting victims to new music. In those days and in that genre it was £5 - £8 for a 12" single that would have one song and inevitable remixes. A £50 a week budget was reasonable on student means. Nowadays I can't imagine anyone paying that much for their music. CDs were available but the reasons for not buying them were many. The mixing thing was one factor, you couldn't play a CD at 'plus 8' (rpm) unless you bought one of those CD players for DJ things. But the most compelling reason not to buy the CD was that you wanted the limited pressing of a thousand vinyl from a small label, not the printed by the million CD from a major label. By the time the successful original vinyl made it from the small label to the big label (and on CD) music had in fact moved on. Plus the major labels somehow washed all life out of the music they published. Decks were important - Technics 1210's - but there was something cool about just having a basic record player that had no sophistication whatsoever, not even auto return. To get up, walk across the room, find the next track, swap the records over removing fluff from the needle and sit down again had something to it that you don't get with an mp3 player. The recall to find a song in a sizeable collection when all the sleeves were ambiguous was also a skill. There was also a certain amount of filing, putting everything back when every wall space had records stacked against it was inevitable tidying up after a good night. Returning to 'Threads' and where the world is going with C19, I worry about students today not being able to get their music the vinyl way at house parties. Having every song ever made on Spotify is great, particularly when you have Discogs, but the mystique has gone.