Editorial

From Bill Boyd

I just finished reading another article on vinyl. In an article in the Orlando Sentinel Business section Sarah Skidmore reports that LP’s and vinyl sales in general are rising. This is not only true for the Oldies, but new releases, jazz and Classical as well. We in the Square and Round dance world might pay attention. Everybody knows that hauling those old heavy turntables is more difficult than the modern light weight computers, but, is the sound any better? To answer the question, “Yes”, emphatically “YES!” Sound reproduction is not just better, but usually of a much higher quality on vinyl. Now the debate, does it make any difference to my dancers? The answer is, probably not. However, most speaker companies, most turntable companies and most amplifier producers work to give us the ability to reproduce a good high quality sound reproduction system. Vinyl records give us a better chance to use those systems to their full capacity. I should mention, I do not own or produce any records. If I did, I would also make the recordings available as MP3 and downloadable formats. Why, you ask? Because we need to keep our music current. Even the old songs can be recorded with a more modern rhythm. Club callers can not continue to call the same songs over and over year after year and then wonder why the dancers look for other recreation outlets. This is like calling the same dance sequences so often that our dancers don’t need a caller, just put the record on and they will dance the old familiar patterns. One of the greatest compliments that can be paid to a club caller is, “I have never heard you call the same dance twice.” Could we add to that, “I love your music, it is different every week.”