Miami-bred musician Jorge ‘Tekilla 23’ Gomez wears the look of a careless, if not, unfinished soul– his black hair styled straight frames his face, a hoop ring on his lower lip and leather boots splash attitude onto his punk garb — as he walks through the doors of a coffee shop in Sunny Isles Beach, Fla.
Unprovoked, Gomez wastes little time in pronouncing his distaste for anything having to do with school, after pulling up a chair to the counter.
“I was never really into school much. It just wasn’t for me,” said Gomez in an interview with VOXXI. “It never was and never will be. I don’t even know what the inside of a school looks like now a days.”
But if anybody, young or old, needed a refresher course on landing or bargaining for the
purchase of their next vinyl record, the 20-year-old high school dropout would undoubtedly be at the top of the list to teach it.

What younger generations find in vinyl records

Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King and ACDC Vinyl Records. (Photo Courtesy)

The black disc long cherished by old school DJs and baby boomers is now experiencing a resurgence spearheaded by music enthusiast of all ages.
In tune with the digital era but closer in age to Justin Bieber than practically any artist alive, Gomez, who keeps a hearty dose of rock rotating on his iPod, has a collection of over 500 LPs. It’s a hobby he started four years ago at Red, White & Blue Thrift Store in North Miami with a $2 “Orange Hurricane” album and David Bowie’s “Stardust,” which set him back $40.
His searching in hundreds of album crates since 2007 has been rewarding in that he’s bargained for the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” and AC/DC’s “Back in Black” along the way. But beyond just searching for some of his favorite artists’ albums, it’s the entire nostalgic
experience vinyl records offer that has Gomez and many others like him hooked.

Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin and The Blackhearts vinyl records. (Photo Courtesy)

“You can hear all the instruments on an album…from corner to corner, and that to me is mesmerizing,” said the Peruvian-born Gomez, who grew up listening to rock, folklore and his mother’s Beatles records, yet also has Celia Cruz and Hector Lavoe in his collection.
“A lot of the time it’s hard to imagine I am so young considering my music taste. It’s like I was born in the wrong decade or something,” he told VOXXI.
Gomez forms part of a growing list of youngsters who grew up shaking their hips or beating their heads to music coming out of electronic and digital devices, but crave the authenticity of vinyl records, considered old and worthless by the mid 80s, that have been on the comeback trail in recent years.
For many vinyl fans it’s the allure of searching through hundreds of albums to find the “one” or to be able to soak in the cover art or put the needle to the record.

Sales of vinyl records climb in recent years

Vinyl records. (Photo Courtesy)

And the proof is in the numbers, as 1.9 million vinyl records were sold in 2008 before doubling in sales to 3.9 million in 2010, according to Nielson SoundScan. Overall sales have increased each year since 2005 even though the purchase of vinyl still lags behind that of CDs. Where CDs normally range from $10 to $14, a vinyl record can set anybody back $15-$25, and even more if it’s a double-album such as “Back in Black.”
But those numbers could come closer together in the coming years, especially with the growing popularity of salsa in Europe and South America, not to mention the ample collection of reissues featuring 70s Fania headliners Hector Lavoe and Celia Cruz, said New York-based DJ Bobbito “Kool Bob Love” Garcia, who has seen the evolution of music over the last three decades as he’s traveled the world and continues to expose listeners to music he grew up with in the 70s and 80s.
“I love playing seven-inch records. The authenticity is wonderful,” said Garcia, who grew up partly on Willie Colon, Eddie Palmieri and Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez, and helped organize a three-city Fania tribute in 2008.
“All those Hector (Lavoe) records will always have a special meaning because it’s what I grew up on, but at the same time whenever I play a Latin gig it’s what people want to hear and I will continue to expose it all over the world,” Garcia told VOXXI.
Despite the struggling music industry’s attempts to survive the crippling effects of free downloading, the mainstream public is finding it easier to buy and relive their youth and, now, a younger generation is hooked as vinyl records have resurfaced into the pop culture consciousness over the last decade.
“The vinyl record has become popular among all people who love music because its
representative of so much more than just the music,” Garcia explained. “There’s the art, the story and the time factor. They’re ageless.”
New York-born Cassandra Arias, 45, was initially exposed to vinyl as a teenager listening to Colon, Lavoe and Ruben Blades on the radio. She would go on to take the small-sized collection of Fania records her mother kept in their tiny apartment before moving out two decades ago. Her collection today includes everything from 1990s freestyle to 1970s Spanish ballads with a little hip hop mixed in between.
“More than a hobby, it’s a passion,” said Arias. “This is the music I love and being able to
preserve the records means a whole lot to me.”
The nostalgia felt by collectors such as Arias is what keeps business on the upswing for record shop owners like Lauren Raskin, of Miami’s Sweat Records.
“I really think it’s the personal experience beyond anything else that has turned people on to vinyl records,” said Raskin, “They come in to search for it, pick it up, observe it and then go home to listen to it. They’re getting a truly real experience from start to finish and I really think that’s part of the fascination.”


Read more: http://www.voxxi.com/people-young-and-old-grooving-vinyl-records/#ixzz2KERa4dcj