Educational Media Reviews Online

Sales of vinyl records have increased in the past few years with a healthy trade at brick-and-mortar stores, flea markets, thrift stores, and on auction sites. The annual Record Story Day in April celebrated its seventh anniversary in 2014. The New York Times said in 2014 that record sales have climbed from 2.9 million in 2008 to 9.4 million in 2013. Vinylmania is about the personal, social and cultural experiences that accompany vinyl: the art, ownership, and the community of listeners. It's a road trip through today’s world of vinyl.

Our first stop is a record pressing plant, in an unguided but mesmerizing tour. Along the way, there's a heavy rotation of DJs, including the narrator, with performances in San Francisco, Tokyo and New York. There’s a London DJ who plays only vinyl and is opinionated about the difference between analog and digital sound. Then on to Asia with the manufacturer of a laser turntable and a DJ who makes music with the turntable as instrument. Another DJ says: “You have a personal relationship with the vinyl. It’s a love affair,” describing how the he selects records live in the club.

One question asked is that of ownership. The London DJ vehemently maintains that downloading is not the same as owning, and only physical possession means the music truly belongs to the owner. Throughout, there are lively album covers, flipping through crates of vinyl, late night clubbing and dawn raids on flea markets, and excursions into the politics and art of vinyl. Triumph over finding is contrasted with the loss of whole collections. Vinyl collecting is not simple nostalgia but a world of its own.

"Mania" suggests crazy, frenetic activity, maybe obsessive, maybe pointless, but those beguiled by vinyl are quite purposeful and ordered, with enthusiastic buying, restoring, organizing, and playing of records. The final scene in a record store looks like it’s underwater, quiet and peaceful, but going on forever. This film is not a comprehensive history or status report; it's more impressionism than journalism, an appreciation of a cultural and social practice. Like books, there is a community around the format, not just the content. One limitation is that the film is set entirely in the northern hemisphere and large cities, without the rural or Third World record experience. The audio defaults to Italian narration with the choice of English narration or Spanish subtitles. There is no chapter index.

Awards

• Official Film of Record Store Day 2012