I was amused to see a recent article on Variety.com about Baby Boomers and their harsh feelings toward making the word vinyl plural — as in ‘vinyls.
‘You can buy or play a record, but you can’t buy or play a vinyl,’ the argument goes. ‘There’s even a popular T-shirt that reads: The plural of vinyl is vinyl.
Well I call B.S. on this feigned outrage.
It was (us) old people who started in with the ‘Internets,’ a derisive joke making fun of President George W. Bush’s use of the word. Soon it became a phrase used by many with a wink wink, nod nod.
And for no extra charge, I’ll give our youngsters who say vinyls even more information/ammunition.
The word ‘album.’
I grew up where an album meant a multipage book with pockets that you slid photos into, or a stamp album that displays many pages of stamps. Everybody had a ‘family’ album.
But that word has evolved to mean everything from a single 33 and 1/3 vinyl record to a compact disc with songs on it; or even a cassette. ‘What’s you got on tape? Oh I have the new Replacements album.’
I think the word mutated with the advent of LP’s. Before them were 78’s, which were made of thick acetate and usually had one song per side. These records often were sold as ‘albums’ in which multiple records were placed in sleeves into what looked like a book.
Variety says it seems the Gen Z crowd is behind the vinyls. Well Gen Z-ers now you have a counter to the Baby Boomer ‘outrage.’