· By Tel Ganesan
BEST RECORD STORES AROUND THE WORLD
Cheerfully remembering his childhood records collection, with shiny vinyl on the cover, Gram found the record store that would change his life: Record Bar, a sprawling vinyl emporium with enormous bins of records. A short wait later he found a long-awaited record he wanted to buy, a compilation of the jazz record label Blue Note.
"Of course, I came home and found the record was pure vinyl vinyl with a vinyl record store across the street, so I could easily find a replacement record to go with the album I already had," Gram says. "And I bought the vinyl record."
Moments later, he proudly showed his record store purchase to his girlfriend, who was impressed and mildly disgusted by the strangeness of vinyl records.
Moments later, Gram proudly showed his record store purchase to his girlfriend, who was impressed and mildly disgusted by the strangeness of vinyl records.
At that moment, his girlfriend was the first person Gram had introduced the concept of vinyl to. "People who are into vinyl are happy that I have it, and my friends' parents can be happy that I am too," Gram says. "But the last thing I want to do is force my friend to bring over his record collection for us to share."
Vinyl has come a long way from the simple wall-mounted phonograph record player of the 1940s. Records are now permanently recorded onto sheets of vinyl.