![]() "I don't think CDs will replace the memories these records represent," he says. He rails against what he describes as "mindless robotics" in current music and becomes defensive about the threat to vinyl from new technologies. Today's conventions are the musical equivalent going to a "Star Trek" convention before "Star Trek" went Hollywood.Īt a recent show, vendor Bud Newman from Arlington wore a button to broadcast his musical bias: "Back to Mono." Newman, a record collector since 1971 and a convention regular, specializes in top 100 chart merchandise. At a record show, merchants and consumers of every musical taste, from punk to opera, blues to bluegrass, Rolling Stones to 101 Strings, converge to intellectualize about, pan over, hype, put down, nurture and dismiss out of hand both good old sounds and slick new sounds. The real difference in a record convention, though, is not sales, but salesmanship. ![]() The convention, coming less than two weeks after the singer's death, featured dozens of vintage Nelson items for sale - LPs, photos, magazine covers and 45s with original color sleeves - all assembled with an efficiency and haste that would make K-Tel Records, those masters of musical dispatch, green with envy.Īnd at a recent two-day Record Convergence at Tysons Corner, vendors came prepared to satisfy an unusually high demand for albums by Peter, Paul and Mary, an interest no doubt sparked by the group's 25th aniversary performance at the Kennedy Center the same week. January's Vinyl Event, on the other hand, was something of a merchandising tribute to rock and roller Rick Nelson, who was killed in an airplane accident in Texas on New Year's Eve. At last summer's shows, most vendors' tables screamed "Bruce!," displaying an overabundance of Springsteen paraphernalia. Perhaps most characteristic of conventions is their chameleon-like ability to reflect the musical preoccupation of the moment. And recent shows have given high-tech its due by offering for sale both compact discs and live concert videotapes. The merchandise is only as limited as the vendors' imaginations, which is to say, unlimited. Walk into a record convention and you're immediately struck by the wide variety of non-record material on display - books, magazines, paperbacks, photographs, posters, TV and movie nostalgia items, buttons, jewelry, pennants, T-shirts - all jammed in nooks and crannies not taken up by hundreds and hundreds of boxes of records. How does a vinyl gathering differ from the neighborhood record store? Chances are in every way - selection, price, atmosphere and salesmanship. This weekend, the Washington-Baltimore area hosts two record get-togethers, including a record convention at the Holiday Inn in Crystal City. Those who have experienced one will tell you it makes shopping for music at the mall positively anemic. ![]() On a handful of weekends a year, these basement-terprises meet and blend into a kind of hot wax stew, a Vinyl Event, a Record Convergence, a Vinyl Meet generically, a record convention. THEY HAVE NAMES like Sonic Junkyard, Rockpower Records, Annapolis Oldies, Mad Doctor's Records and Intergalactic Garage.
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