Vinyl Me Please Essentials

gaporter said:
This is the best advice to give someone who is starting a vinyl collection, and one I wish I would have taken to heart when I first started. I wasted so much money on records I didn't really like that much when I first started collecting under the idea that they were "essential" to have in your collection. Or just albums that other people told me were good and I believed them without stopping to think for myself.

I've made a major turnaround this year and last where I decided not to follow others curation or opinions and make my collection truly my own. I've started buying more weird stuff, more trashy pop, more things that others would scoff at me for owning but that I truly love and want to listen to. And that has made a huge difference in my outlook on the hobby. There was a period where I was becoming disillusioned and feeling like I was wasting my time collecting things, but that was because I was still too self-conscious and trying to conform to the tastes others told me I should have rather than what I knew I actually liked.

This more than anything has made me realize how little use I actually have for company-fuelled curation. Do VMP occasionally pick good albums for one of their tracks? Sure. But settling for whatever VMP has in the store will never make more happy than buying something I actually want to have. I ended my subscription to VMP for two reasons, 1) the whole forum drama and me feeling they don't value me as a customer, and 2) I fell on hard times around that same time, and the $80something a month was something I just couldn't afford or justify. And when I had the disposable income again, I realized there were better ways to spend my money than gambling on the hope that a record club will have something I want that month. I don't have a lot of money to spend on records as it is so why would I take the risk throwing money to VMP monthly when, in my time as a customer, they almost never actually had anything I wanted? I get others can comfortably spend that money and be fine, but that's not my situation, and so I feel more fulfilled by using the money I do have to buy records I know I want.
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This is a fantastic post. I recently started going through our collection during my re-sleeving project and have already pulled quite a bit including some VMP releases.
 
Joe Mac said:
I think arguments around “stealing the blues” are reductive and if it happened it was 60-70 years before now. My argument would be that early White Stripes were raw, emotional and frenetic and that had a sort of magnetic energy that drew me in. In contrast I find someone like Meyer soft, sappy and sleepy which turns me off and becomes boring. If someone enjoys it they gotta get it and enjoy it, i just struggle to see how it has any curatorial merit.
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I agree. That's pretty much my take on it. Beyond that, you have to show some respect to the culture that you're mining from at bare minimum. I've seen Jack White demonstrate a ton of reverence toward black artists, but I haven't seen him spout a bunch of racist shit about them. If someone wants to point me to that, I'll have a similar take about him, too.

To claim that it doesn't matter, because it was years ago, doesn't really hold up, either. He was saying that stuff well after he made Continuum.

How about this gem?

"What is being black? It's making the most of your life, not taking a single moment for granted. Taking something that's seen as a struggle and making it work for you, or you'll die inside. Not to say that my struggle is like the collective struggle of black America. But maybe my struggle is similar to one black dude's." "
 
Dead C said:
Actually, I've been pretty clear that when I see people excited about something, I'm happy for them, but I'm not seeing a lot of excitement in here for it. Also, as someone who is not a white man in South Carolina that took "my girls" to see Mayer, I don't really have a reason to defend a guy who literally used the term "n***ger pass" in and said his dick was a white supremacist in an interview, while getting a ton of shine from essentially mining the formula of black artists. This is his blues and soul record that they're selling right now. Now sure if you're aware of what's going on in the world right now, but to frame it like me bringing this up is an unfair attack at him for being "an easy target"... that's one way to spin it.

Not sure who's arguing whether or not VMP is going to sell a LOT of copies of this album. That seems like the entire point of doing it.

For the record, I also don't give a shit about Eric Clapton.
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Dude, I’m fully aware of what’s going on in the world right now. My whole post is about the music, and the music snob reaction to his music. I took my girls to James Brown for their very first concert when they were 6 and 10, I certainly don’t agree with all of the stuff he said or did throughout his life, but I love his music. VMP doesn’t have to make a social statement every month for me to enjoy this club and the music. The music is the sole reason I’m here on this forum, you’re welcome to join me on my fb page if you want to know what I’m doing to combat racism, hate and injustice.
 
Cheesefry said:
I seriously think John Mayer might just sell out, and A LOT of people are going to love getting this record.
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Without a doubt, it will sell out. Personally I think VMP is trying to attract more subscribers with it, but I do think it's popular enough alone to sell out before August. At the end of the day, Mayer is just one of the more divisive "love em" or "hate em" musicians. Kinda like Phish or the Dead.
 
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What's important about John Mayer? musically? culturally?.... anything?
John Mayer may be fine. I've literally never heard one of his songs so I can't speak to it.
Does that make me a snob? I haven't actively avoided John Mayer it just hasn't crossed my path.

I'll happily drink some lawnmower beer and put a slice of Amurrrhican cheese on my burger... but it aint cheese and it aint a German Pilsner... it still might taste good going down, but it's a shit product.... and most people like it because they've never sampled the real thing / or don't have access to the real thing or they're trying to prove some ridiculous political point.

Some people used to buy up those Thomas Kincaid "paintings" at the mall like hot cakes. Some people buy Van Gogh prints of starry night and put those on their wall. Both might be art (debateable in the Kincaid case), but neither is a curated experience. Neither is something that is representative of the best example of the thing.

That's what curation is. It isn't subjective "hey I like thing." It's this stuff is critiqued and thought of highly because X,Y,Z... by people who dedicate their existence to considering X,Y, Z. We don't have to agree with, like, or spend our money with regard to X,Y,Z, but to put out records that are the equivalent of a Thomas Kincaid painting or a Kraft single or a Yankee candle, and not recognize it as such, and call it curation is dumb, or disingenuous... it's the opposite of curation... it's the absence of taste.

That's the difference between a retailer and a "club" or a "curation" service. VMP is a retailer 1st and foremost. Second, they are a business that reissues certain records in color variants. Picking interesting music is somewhere below that in their business priorities.
 
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Cheesefry said:
Dude, I’m fully aware of what’s going on in the world right now. My whole post is about the music, and the music snob reaction to his music. I took my girls to James Brown for their very first concert when they were 6 and 10, I certainly don’t agree with all of the stuff he said or did throughout his life, but I love his music. VMP doesn’t have to make a social statement every month for me to enjoy this club and the music. The music is the sole reason I’m here on this forum, you’re welcome to join me on my fb page if you want to know what I’m doing to combat racism, hate and injustice.
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I don't give a fuck about your Facebook page. You're literally referring to my statements by discussing "music snobbery" and saying that you don't understand why someone would comment about Mayer "stealing from the blues," if they don't attack Jack White for the same thing. So, you're inferring a lot and twisting things. I specifically commented on him taking from a culture, while making racist comments about that exact same culture.

So... in the context of your post, Mayer is an "easy target" for music snobbery, because he said some stuff in the past and has an "off putting" personality. It's not a big deal to you, because he did a great concert for your family.

You can like John Mayer and you can enjoy his music and you can even not care about his past comments and all that's fine. But to dismiss that as an issue and explain why it isn't an issue, when you aren't someone that was ever affected by his statements in the first place... not really your place. If you were a black man explaining to me that, although he's done racist things in the past, you believe that they are in the past, you're over it, and you are a fan; that's a completely different situation. Instead, you are a white man, explaining why another white guy's racist statements are perfectly fine, because you think he rocks, and implying that anyone who takes issue or offense in his actions is just a snob taking shots at an "easy target." If you can't see the issue with that, that's the problem. In fact, in that interview, he was kind of making the case for why he's allowed to be a racist shithead in it.

No idea why you're mentioning James Brown, unless that's supposed to prove that you aren't racist. It's super left field and irrelevant. That being said, we can use that as an analogy. Let's say that we were in a situation where the world was coalescing behind an anti-domestic abuse movement and VMP opted to release a James Brown record at that moment. A woman on the forum comments that, as someone who either experienced or grew up around domestic violence, she questions the timing of a James Brown release right now. Then a man pops in to joke about music snobs and how easy it is to take shots at James Brown, but you saw him once and he's a great dancer. Doesn't matter.
 
KenKaniff said:
Like John Mayer or not, but between nostalgia and social media targeting they will be fine.
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Yeah, I'm sure they will. Personally, my concerns were never about if VMP wasn't going to make money.

I was literally asking if anyone in here was a big fan of this album and, if they were, was hoping for their take on why it was a good choice. Usually, there are a lot of people that really love something to go along with the haters. I was seeing a lot of general indifference from both sides. That's why it felt lazy, uninteresting, and safe to me. When other people are stoked on something, the merit for releasing it is pretty clear. This kind of seemed like a top 40 release that just sort of floated past, sold a lot of copies, but didn't really leave much of an impact. It sold a lot the first time and will probably sell plenty this time, too. For anyone that is excited, good for you. Glad you got it. There are two other tracks out there and plenty of variety this month. We've had months that were pretty weak across the board and I think there is some range here for people to select from.
 
I think y’all may be underestimating the generational significance as well. To a lot of people around my age (25) John Mayer was seemingly everywhere and was a massive pop culture icon whether you liked it or not and I recall people and peers swooning over his music and I imagine he is remembered fondly by members of my generation. The vinyl community is now made up of a lot of people my age who have been reveling in this past-time and a John Mayer record may indeed strike them as essential. To me it strikes me as THE essential John Mayer album to own and I always planned to have his music in my library at some point so I’m happy to get it through VMP treatment. We always have to look at these things subjectively where possible, for me Stevie Nicks was not essential based off enjoyability alone but that may be in large part due to my lack of associations with her i.e. nostalgia, generational relevance, etc etc. That being said with all the nasty racially fueled comments from JM this is an incredibly tone deaf ROTM and should’ve been weighed a bit further when it came to having this be the VMP sound track to another civil rights movement. I don’t think John Mayer is a genius songwriter but I do find his music to be the good mix of nostalgic, fun, and easy to listen to. We have all spent our money on albums that tick those boxes and have therefore deemed them essential records, I think perhaps this is a case of missed connections between generations. They’re probably trying to further scoop customers from my generation and this is a good album to do that with!

Also it seems while the N&G community has been relatively quiet on this pick Reddit seems to be stoked (at least when I checked yesterday). Perhaps people here are discouraged from showing their love due to the massive dumps that were taken upon this pick instantly and they feel they’ll have to defend their subjective music taste. Perhaps there are just few John Mayer fans on N&G, who knows?
 
KenKaniff said:
Merit? Lol.
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Yep. There still seems to be a group of people that have faith in them and the fact that they are curating for them. There are others, such as me, that think they’re just a store. A pick like this seems to troll the first group. I think we’ve had a pretty interesting discussion about what we see curation and artist merit to be and why you are your own best curator. If you disagree, that’s up to you but I care about as much as I care about how many boring guitar man records they sell.
 
Ghost said:
We have all spent our money on albums that tick those boxes
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Yes definitely.


Ghost said:
have therefore deemed them essential records
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No completely not, don’t follow the logic. I’ve bought a fair few of those records and enjoyed them, to deem them as an essential record that I think a set of people should have in their collection isn’t necessarily a logical next step.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Nostalgic for the last time I shopped for a pair of pants at the mall.
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Maybe but for me I distinctly remember Waiting On The World To Change as getting a lot of airplay during some event (perhaps it was the 2008 financial crisis) I was too young to understand but had my parents stressed out and I remember watching the music video and feeling better about shit in my little brain and I’m sure a lot of people my age have similar memories!
 
Joe Mac said:
Yep. There still seems to be a group of people that have faith in them and the fact that they are curating for them. There are others, such as me, that think they’re just a store. A pick like this seems to troll the first group. I think we’ve had a pretty interesting discussion about what we see curation and artist merit to be and why you are your own best curator. If you disagree, that’s up to you but I care about as much as I care about how many boring guitar man records they sell.
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I look at as a mixture. Times where they want to go a little deeper for music and stories. Ayalew Mesfin, The Silvertones, etc. Then the opposite spectrum of Biggie, Moby - just massively popular names.

There's albums that VMP search out for specifically because they want to do them. Then I'm sure there's albums that get presented to them and they go along with. but not necessarily "Essential" ones they'd search out. Maybe for Herbie Hancock they would of chose a different album from him if up to them, but maybe Herbie's team reached out thinking VMP would be a good fit and they had this certain album they want reissued through VMP. Take it or leave it if you want to be in the Herbie Hancock biz.

It is what it is. I think people that get their hearts broken here tend to be those that want one thing from VMP, or think there's some imaginary rules. For example - The people that want VMP to dig deep when VMP doesn't dig deep that month

Also the people who think there's some rules: "VMP wouldn't do that album, they repressed it a few years ago". "It's widely available and goes for $15, of course they wouldn't do that one". You've heard them all.
 
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