The term "vinyl"
- Thread starter saltland
- Start date
Will S.
Super Member
"Record" is a word with two different pronunciations and two different meanings. If the emphasis is on the second syllable, it's a verb for the process of making a recording. If the emphasis is on the first syllable, it's a noun representing a single document of a recording. In this context, it refers to a single sound recording artifact on the once-popular analog vinyl recording format.
"Vinyl" in regards to recorded artifacts is a collective noun. Consequently, "vinyls" or "a vinyl" are nonsensical expressions.
"Tape" as a generic noun simply refers to a long strip of ribbon which may or may not be adhesive, magnetic or possessing other specific features.
You're welcome.
BLAH BLAH
Super Member
Too right, had a small tear in mine and tried to repair it with CrO2 tape but it fell off!
Mojo Warrior
Reality Star
In 1980 my favorite record store in Los Angeles (Hollywood) was Vinyl Fetish. Best selection of imported and domestic rock music/alternative/New wave/etc.
an audiophile record player = turntable
an audiophile record player = turntable
Sharpstik
Stuck in the 70's
This settles it.
A STICKY statement .
No, it doesn’t. As people explain to me when I don’t like a change in language, language changes. If people call records in general vinyl then to call a single record a vinyl, and plural vinyls, sensibly follows.
Look here, if I have to put up with jaspers saying “begs the questions” instead of raises the question, fitment instead of fit and usage when they should use use then you guys can put up with vinyls. One understands the umbrage of the vinyl cultists; their cliquey term has been turned general, the masses are in on the game and it’s lost it’s sense of exclusivity. Once everyone is hep nobody is.
Last edited:
And a tape refers to a recording on magnetic tape whether cassette, 8 track or open reel. The plural is tapes. And people will say “I kept a bunch of tapes in my car”.
Which raises the question if the general to the individual with tape was accepted why the pushback with vinyl?
Sharpstik
Stuck in the 70's
Sure just go along with the masses dumbing down the proper dictates . You go hang out with them . I won’t .
Will got it right . Argue with him . I don’t think you’ll win .
grillebilly
Empty Head
No one should care what somebody else calls it, as long as you know what they are trying to get across.
Maybe another couple pages before heads explode?
Maybe
But all I know is my vinyl playback system is bad ass...
Sharpstik
Stuck in the 70's
Mine might . Where’s Wigwam Jones when I need em?
No one should care what somebody else calls it, as long as you know what they are trying to get across.
Maybe another couple pages before heads explode?
Actually I don’t think the vinyls thing is dumbing down; I think it’s something new rather than a corruption.
BLAH BLAH
Super Member
I'm inclined to agree just for the record!
Will S.
Super Member
I should clarify since I made a terminology (though not a conceptual) error. "Vinyl" is a mass noun, not a collective noun.
It's like "luggage". You don't pluralize luggage as "luggages" or talk about having a luggage. I understand that mass nouns can be difficult, but they are a valuable concept that we shouldn't discard because some people struggle with them.
DaveVoorhis
Addicted Member
There are no "proper dictates" in language, only conventions that a few people hold dear enough to -- briefly, in the grand scheme of things -- try to make into rules.
It doesn't work. Language changes in spite of rules, and sometimes to spite the rules.
Over time, language evolves. If it didn't, we'd all still be speaking whatever came before whatever came before whatever came before proto-Indo-European. Language evolution is how a smattering of Latin mushed up with various Germanic and Norse dialects became what we currently call "English".
It's how the English we're speaking now will, in some hundreds of years, inevitably become something else.
$1 each.
