From the Source
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Photos courtesy of Mark Goodwin
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I recently had the pleasure of getting in touch with Mark Goodwin, the manager of Young Ones Records in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. I’ve become somewhat of a monthly visitor of the shop, seeing Mark every other visit, so I knew he would be the perfect guy to reach out to with some questions about vinyl records.Â
Growing up in Wales until he was 10 years old, Mark states that he always had a love for music. He shares, “In 1980, I told my mom I wanted Adam And The Ants : Prince Charming. We hopped on the bus and went to the nearest record store to buy it. In the later 80’s and 90’s I shifted to mostly cassettes and CD’s, however I did keep buying some records here and there.”Â
Since then, Mark has amassed a collection of around 1,200 LPs. About 150-200 of these records fall into the category of movie scores, which he says “gets played the most at home.” His favorites are horror, fantasy and sci-fi scores, with Halloween III by John Carpenter being one of his coups de cœur. When asked about his all-time favorite album, Mark declares Master Of Puppets by Metallica, of which he owns an original pressing. He also cites Reign in Blood by Slayer as a close contender, admitting, “to pick out a favorite album is really tough. I grew up with metal, punk and hardcore, then shifted to liking other genres also.”
After inquiring about Mark’s relationship with vinyl, I decided to hit him with the long-debated question of whether vinyl records sound better than digital or CD formats. He responded with, “People will argue this until the end of time.” According to him, what really matters is the quality of the device the music is being played through. For example, “A Crosley turntable with built-in speakers isn’t going to sound better than a “Boombox” CD player. A boombox isn’t going to sound [as] good as a CD player / turntable with receiver and speakers. Then turntables can sound different, cartridges on the turntables, receivers / amplifiers can sound different, speakers can sound different. It all comes down to what is entering your earholes.”
Mark explains that vinyl itself is nowhere near a perfect medium, referencing the crackles and pops that many records inherently present. He notes that he owns a mostly vintage stereo system that he has built over the years, which he favors for its “warm” sound. What he loves the most about vinyl is how it practically “forces you to experience [the] artist’s full picture.” The inability to skip tracks, coupled with the ability to peruse the physical artwork and liner notes of each album, is what makes the experience unique for him.
When asked about the recent rise in vinyl’s popularity, Mark recalls exponential growth over the past 20 years, with the first Record Store Day taking place in 2008. He recollects the initial fall of vinyl, stating, “The end of the 90’s and early 2000’s saw the emergence of the online music sites, such as Napster, and formats such as MP3’s really started to change the music scene. The “collector’s market” had cooled and many stores were struggling.” Mark theorizes that what brought back the love for vinyl was the introduction of limited edition colored vinyls and a “backlash to online media from people who wanted physical copies of an album.”
One aspect of vinyl collecting that I find myself constantly revisiting within this blog is the growing obsession among younger generations. Getting Mark’s perspective on this was of great interest to me. He infers that “the parents' love of music has something to do with it. Music has never stopped. And again, it is something to collect. There’s a good chance that a black/green splatter colored record will rise in value, as long as there aren’t many made, and the owner keeps it in good shape. And it’s fun to show your friends.”
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Special thanks to Mark Goodwin for his insight and to Young Ones staff for passing on my inquiry.
