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I don't get "vinyls"

Arkay said:
Actually, there plural of vinyl isn't vinyl. There IS NO PLURAL for vinyl, because vinyl is not countable. It's an amorphous substance, like tar, air or water. Would you say "There are more water in this bottle than there are in that bottle"? No, it is non-sensical, because water cannot be counted.
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But isn't it common (I don't know about "correct") to refer to multiple glasses or bottles of water as "waters"? ("Waiter, could we have three waters, please?") I'm sure it would be more correct to say "bottles of water", but common speech shortens these sorts of things all the time.

That said, "Vinyls" sounds odd to me too, and this thread is the first I heard it in plural form.
 
My music teacher used to call em "records" but pronounced the same way you'd pronounce the word in "Let's RECORD an album".

Weird.
 
Marshwiggle said:
But isn't it common (I don't know about "correct") to refer to multiple glasses or bottles of water as "waters"? ("Waiter, could we have three waters, please?") I'm sure it would be more correct to say "bottles of water", but common speech shortens these sorts of things all the time.

That said, "Vinyls" sounds odd to me too, and this thread is the first I heard it in plural form.
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Of course, when you say "Waiter, could we have three waters," it's understood you are counting the glasses or bottles, not the water.

Now, back in the heyday of vinyl, you may have said something like, "Oh, I have that on vinyl" as opposed to having it on tape but you never would have said, "Oh, I have a vinyl of that." It's just not normal. :D

Doug
 
Or, you may have said, "I have a lot more vinyl than tapes." but never, "I have a lot more vinyls than tapes." Capeche (or however you spell it)?

Doug
 
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Just to muddy the waters a bit more... there were early (1950) 33s that were 10" and marked "Long Play Record"... they usually had 8 songs on them. Or you could get the same songs in a 78 "Album", which had only one song on each side of multiple records. :music:
 
When I hear the word "vinyl", I think of a puke green, 4 door 1971 Ford Torino with vinyl top and dark green interior.
 

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I don't like it either.

Methinks we've turned into old fuddy-duddies.

Someone beat me to it with the definition of an 'album' as a binder full of 78s. Do you suppose that in 1960 they were calling those newfangled 12" 33's 'albums', and the older generation was appalled because OBVIOUSLY that's not an ALBUM, it's only got one disk, you stupid kids!
 
And no-one's proposed reviving what Emile Berliner first called his discs: plates.

Long ago I saw the first combination radio/phonograph my parents had (or for our UK readers, a radiogram) after they were married: a Philco 51-1732. They'd got it in 1950; the three speeds on its changer (Philco's first three-speed model) were labeled SP, 45 and LP. (SP=Standard Play.)

I remember my dad referring to all records by their speeds, thus he called LPs '33s'.
 
being here in north american france,no one..except for my fellow anglophones, says records..all the francophones say vinyls (say it vin-NILS, no long vowels). Gotta admit I was taken aback at first, but..if Im at the flea market and want records..Im gonna be asking for vinyls for my table-tournante
 
Record players play records (78 rpm, 45 rpm or 33 1/3 rpm). CD players play CDs. Tape decks play tapes (cassette format, reel-to-reel format or 8-track format). There are no such things as a vinyl players. Therefore, the vinyl discs that play on a record player (or turntable) are records.
 
My wedding album sounded horrible on my turntable. That’s when I decided to get divorced.
 
Here in Portland we have a really nice jazz station that has a steady rotation of five morning DJ's. One of them always prides herself in spinning "a Vinyl" and comments on its crackles and pops. Guess the radio station didn't take care of their records. Whenever she does this though, call them vinyls and revel in their noisy obsolescence, she's undermining everything I care about in analog music.
 
The first time I heard "vinyl" being used to describe records was back in the mid-1980s in radio. See, as CDs were coming in, radio stations were slowly transitioning their 45s, LPs, reels and carts over to CDs. So, in order to differinciate between the formats, the term "vinyl" was tossed around. As in, "Oh, we have the new Phil Collins (ugh) on vinyl only." That kind of thing. I only use the vinyl term to mean more than one. Saying "vinyls" sound stupid and wrong to me. It's either vinyl or nothing.

So, my point is that this term was not invented by the younger generation at all. Radio people have been saying "vinyl" for a long time.

-MTC
 
Nobody is saying the term "vinyl" was invented by the younger generation.

What they DID do is add the "s" on the end, making the term "vinyls" which, to us older people, sounds strange (and it IS).

Also, it wasn't just radio people who were privy to the term "vinyl". It has always been a fairly common term when one refers to one's general record collection. Such as, "I have lots of vinyl."

Doug
 
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Maybe it was the same folks who think that "Runs Batted Ins" is a valid baseball statistic, or the ones that thought it a good idea to get information on certain audio gears in AK. The abuse of plurals is almost as common as the the ending of a sentance with a preposition or confusing "ed" for "ing".

The "ing" thing still trips me up when I am not paying attention but I always try to improve. I often regret having paid so little attention in English class. :D

mike
 
DanBa said:
When I hear the word "vinyl", I think of a puke green, 4 door 1971 Ford Torino with vinyl top and dark green interior.
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I think of our (then) brand new 1974 Plymouth Valiant. Vinyl seats, vinyl dash, vinyl floor covering and vinyl mats over that. It really stunk like cheap vinyl, especially when we were stuck in traffic in the middle of summer. Oh, and it was all puke green, too.


Mr. Lin said:
Vinyls: if I could ban one word from the English language this would be it.
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How about "refutiated"?
 
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