My friend texted me with the news: he had procured a vinyl edition of the recently released reissue of “Ram,” Paul McCartney’s second solo album. The album, initially released in 1971, contained the hit Admiral Halsey (“Hands Upon the Water”) and was the last of the “homemade”
albums before Wings’ 1973 hit “Band on the Run.”
What makes all this remarkable is the endurance of the Beatle brand and the market that has sprung up around old technologies. My friend was using a 21st century technology–texting–to tell me he had snared a record album–a 20th century technology–to listen to a bunch of songs written some four decades ago. Technologies never die, they simply get recycled.
There are now Atari apps to access games of Pong and Space Invader on iPads. Vinyl records have made a completely unanticipated comeback not only with Paul McCartney fans, but with younger generations whose Hip Hip and DJ music uses turntables as part of the act. As a result, vinyl record stores are popping up in various artsy neighborhoods and on mass marketing Websites like amazon.com. Why vinyl? Certain sound purists will tell you the medium produces a warmer, deeper kind of vibe than a CD or digital rendering.
Retro flair doesn’t come cheap. A reissue of a popular album can run about 12 pounds–or around $25–depending on the outlet and the demand for the recording. Certain Japanese and rarity album fetch prices in the hundreds. The “Ram” reissue comes in several packages from a standard CD to various box sets crammed with DVDs, booklets and other throw-ins that run the deluxe set up to $249.
At the bottom of it all, though, is the enduring popularity of the music. It doesn’t hurt that McCartney continues to tour, and continues to make new albums, in addition to re-releasing old albums, as these three revenue streams feed each other over distribution platforms that range from 1960’s style LPs to digital streaming over networks like Rhapsody.com.
Or, it may be simply that a dependable percentage of the vast Baby Boom audience will pay as much as $250 for an up-to-date recreation of the real thing. This phenomenon is hardly restricted to Beatle albums. Retro chic can be seen everywhere from popular TV shows like “Mad Men” to old-fashioned, new-fangled concoctions of iced tea.
Marketers of these brands realize that familiarity breeds comfort, especially in times that seem alien or upside down, as the amount of change and adjustment to it appear overwhelming. Perhaps the idea or product that had been mothballed can be reinvented and made relevant in a new environment.
The divisions between generations is not so sharp as it once was. Kids are moving back in with their parents. Older people frequently enjoy newer bands that remind them of older bands–the Fleet Foxes–and younger people are used to hearing 60s tunes on commercials. It may be a brave new world, but we’re going there with a Beatle strumming a ukulele.
