In the Groove: The Vinyl Record and Turntable Revolution

by Gillian G. Gaar, Martin Popoff, Richie Unterberger

Celebrate the 75th anniversary of the first commercial LP with this authoritative, highly illustrated, and multi-faceted look at the history and culture of vinyl record collecting and turntables.

Vinyl records continue to be hot commodities among everyone from obsessive audiophiles to newbie collectors getting their toes wet. In the The Vinyl Record and Turntable Revolution  is the book for both—and everyone in between. Published to mark the 75th year since the introduction of the commercial LP, In the Groove is written by a roster of well-known music journalists, vinyl junkies, and stereophiles teaming up to present a gorgeous tribute to the vinyl LP and the culture it has
 
In the Groove is illustrated throughout with images of gear, listening spaces, record stores, sleeve art, and celebrities and musicians enjoying the vinyl hobby through the decades. Brief, entertaining sidebars cover topics like famous labels from Stax to Sub Pop, famous EPs , well-known record stores , milestone LP covers , a beginner’s guide to grading , and formats that have challenged the supremacy of the LP, including 8-track, reel-to-reel, and cassette.

Feel the groove with this effervescent ode to vinyl.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History

192 pages, Hardcover

Published October 31, 2023

About the author

I write regularly about music, entertainment, and travel. I enjoy taking pictures for my articles and books as well. My very first book was "She's A Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll," first published in 1992, and updated in 2002; Yoko Ono wrote the book's preface, and it still gives me a thrill to see her name on the cover. Other areas of expertise include Nirvana, the Beatles, and Elvis, all of whom I've written books about. I've also written for a variety of publications around the world, including Mojo, Rolling Stone, Goldmine (where I had regular Beatles and Elvis columns), and many others. I was also a senior editor at legendary Seattle music publication "The Rocket."

Reviews

[Evelina | AvalinahsBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss

As a pretty recent convert into the world of vinyl, I was excited to see this review copy on Edelweiss and I snatched it up quickly, loved it instantly. It has sooooo many amazing photos, but not just that. I really enjoyed the random snippets about albums and their covers and the short commentary on legendary record stores.

Maybe for those who have never abandoned this hobby while the rest of the world looked elsewhere this won't be too much new info, but seeing how vinyl is growing these days, it's a great coffee table book for those who love their records. It has certainly answered a lot of my questions about why certain things are this way or that way, why they're called this or that, how they work. Also, as a new collector, it's always nice to nod along with the things you've just discovered and how they make others feel exactly the same way as you.

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

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[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a great coffee table book , lots of cool photos and short features break up the chapters. As noted in my progress, the section on turntables got a bit too nerdy for me, but otherwise tracing the evolution of the LP and its market was a fun read for me.

Maybe the Remarkable Record Stores feature should have been a whole other book, because I think they missed a few. Rose Records in Chicago was very well known in its day, the suburban library where my mother worked would send her there to buy for their AV collection (pre-internet times).
They also left the Electric Fetus off the list. Maybe it was too hard to choose when the Twin Cities has so many. As cool as the Fetus is, I don't shop there as often as another store that is easier for me to get to, and very similar in some ways. However, I feel the Electric Fetus should have been mentioned if only because Prince shopped there. There is also the charm of the creaky wooden floors and hippie merchandise in the gift area: incense, clothing, gag gifts, personal care and "paraphernalia". And while several local record stores feature in store performances and listening parties, the Fetus has the most pull for well known artists.

Then there is Down in the Valley, where I shop most often. These folks have outstanding customer service and run Record Store Day flawlessly. While other stores set themselves up for chaos and strife on Record Store Day, Down in the Valley keeps an orderly queue and limits what you can buy in each pass. But if you are hardcore, you can go back to the end of the line and start again!!

[Richard Derus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Celebrate the 75th anniversary of the first commercial LP with this authoritative, highly illustrated, and multi-faceted look at the history and culture of vinyl record collecting and turntables.

Vinyl records continue to be hot commodities among everyone from obsessive audiophiles to newbie collectors getting their toes wet. In the Groove: The Vinyl Record and Turntable Revolution is the book for both—and everyone in between. Published to mark the 75th year since the introduction of the commercial LP, In the Groove is written by a roster of well-known music journalists, vinyl junkies, and stereophiles teaming up to present a gorgeous tribute to the vinyl LP and the culture it has spawned:

Richie Unterberger explores the history of the 33 1/3 LP, including its predecessor, the 78rpm record, the first commercial LPs, the pressing process, stereo vs. mono, and formats like the 7-inch/45rpm record.

Gillian Gaar tackles those temples to the turntable: record stores. Inside, she examines the history of LP merchandising everywhere from department stores to headshops, Record Store Day, the artist in-store appearance, and swap meets and record shows.

Martin Popoff pens a paean to the physical object itself, discussing the advent of the sleeve, the great LP covers, famous sleeve designers, liner notes and packaging, colored vinyl, and more.

Matt Anniss looks at the collecting hobby and topics like obsessive collectors, what makes a great listening space, playing and caring for vinyl, collecting and vinyl in DJ and hip-hop cultures, and the mixtape phenomenon.

Ken Micallef, a top hifi journalist, has the gearheads covered with explanations of turntables from portables to audiophile-quality units, the workings and parts of a turntable from motors and tonearms to plinths and cartridges, and the components of a system.

In the Groove is illustrated throughout with images of gear, listening spaces, record stores, sleeve art, and celebrities and musicians enjoying the vinyl hobby through the decades. Brief, entertaining sidebars cover topics like famous labels from Stax to Sub Pop, famous EPs, well-known record stores, milestone LP covers, a beginner’s guide to grading, and formats that have challenged the supremacy of the LP, including 8-track, reel-to-reel, and cassette.

Feel the groove with this effervescent ode to vinyl.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Collecting vinyl records was about listening to the recordings to me, back when they were ubiquitous, and had mass-market stores dedicated to their sale. There have always been people who collected the objects as objects but, back in the 1970s when I worked in a record store, I was even then not tempted to join their ranks.

Foley's records looked a lot like this in 1979
All that said, I was not the most likely person to read this book cover to cover, or drool over the photos in it. It seemed to me to be one of those love-it-or-leave-it things. I was surprised at how piercingly sweet the nostalgia for that wonderful feeling of being surrounded by things I had no idea what they were about, and having the chance to discover whole new-to-me areas of music, would be. The infrastructure of turntables, speakers, speaker wires, amplifiers, needles!...so many needles...came rushing back. It was a lovely, immersive experience.

The record stores the authors discuss were mostly familiar as names to me. I loved my time in the world of vinyl because I wanted the music in my ears. The vinyl collectors will, I feel sure, be just as transported just for other reasons.

Enjoy some lovely page spreads below.




The collector, the older relative, the nostalgic Boomer are all likely to enjoy the read, and the look, of this book.

[J Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the Groove: The Vinyl Record and Turntable Revolution, penned by several writers with overlapping areas of expertise, is an informative history and great source of nostalgia for many readers.

Like many people my age (I was born in 1958) I grew up listening to and buying vinyl of one form or another. I had parents who had a decent size collection of 78s and 33s, mostly jazz, swing, and pop standards as well as older (11 and 12 years older) siblings who were part of the big initial wave of teenagers affecting the marketplace well beyond music. I ended up getting my parent's collection and quite a few of my sibling's records as well, plus the ones I bought or had given to me. I was particularly fortunate in living near some older couples who liked a kid listening to their music who also gave me numerous records. By graduation I had a modest collection, about 1000 albums and maybe 200 singles. When I joined the Navy, I hit the motherlode! I knew a few guys who bought albums and had great sound systems (an advantage at the time of being in the military, quality equipment at reasonable prices). They chose to record their albums on cassette, usually two copies, then get rid of the albums for pennies. I bought these in groups of anywhere from 10 to 150 and my collection ballooned. It never became particularly large by some standards, but by the time I got out of the Navy I had just over 4000 albums and probably the same number of 45s I started with. All of this is to say that this book brought back so many wonderful memories and the joy I used to experience collecting, organizing, and listening to the albums. I remember a housemate and I arranging two chairs and my speakers, two of which were the old reliable Klipsch corner-horns, so we could enjoy music in our listening room, which was actually our living room, but music was living back then.

Whatever your personal history is with vinyl, from long ago or as a more recent collector, this book will be an enjoyable read. The history is fascinating, from the discs themselves through the technology and the many changes in listening preferences. Even if you have no desire to collect records you will gain a better appreciation for how listening to music has evolved over the last century, as well as buying music.

Highly recommended for both the information (with many sidebars highlighting labels, albums, record stores, etc) and the photographs (people, albums, equipment). I'd also suggest looking up some of the music itself, even if you aren't listening to it on vinyl. You can find different quality recordings if you search not only YouTube and other usual places but also the Internet Archives and Library of Congress websites. Beware, you will likely go off on many tangents, all of which will be fun and educational.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Paul Sutter]

For those like myself, who grew up in the sixties, IN THE GROOVE holds a special significance. The vinyl record was a part of my life, and before the decade was out, I had amassed likely more than 250 45’s, and countless albums of my favorite musicians.
IN THE GRROVE takes us back to the earlier days of vinyl, when it became available, and traces its evolution, along with the classic turntable. Five very knowledgeable writers band together, to create a classic work, filled with lots of photos and information that helps us step back into our personal time machines. But the fact that vinyl has made a resurgence over the past decade or so, makes it all the more special for music lovers past and present.
The history of vinyl is noted, including the fact the first commercial 10 and 12 inch disc was released by RCA Victor on November 17 1931. But they did not last long, being discontinued within a couple of years, because of the inferior sound quality, and the cost of equipment to play it on.
The vinyl LP made its debut on June 18 1948, thanks to Columbia Records. It was not long after nearly 100 Columbia LP’s were available, the majority of them of the classical variety. RCA not to be outdone, created their own vinyl version, which was a 7 inch record that was 45 rpm. Not long after that, Capitol and Decca created their own versions of both the LP and the 45. The 78, was soon to become extinct, though many say it was superior in sound. Its weight and fragile nature made it expendable.
The authors has created a most thorough look at the history of vinyl, including looking at some of the most notable record stores throughout the world, that were key players in the vinyl revolution. As well they feature what they considered the most iconic covers of albums. Record labels themselves are featured in detail, among them Stax, Island, and Immediate.
But what would an LP be without those who design them, and these people too are given their due, in this most fascinating book. No lover of vinyl should be without this incredible trip down memory lane, offering the true vinyl fan a chance to rekindle the past, and think affectionately of those discs we watched turn endlessly on our turntables.

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful book looking at the history of the record and how it evolved to 331/2 from putting a roll onto a machine and listening to music. Also, look at the stores when they were just there for buying records, or even recording yourself, and even listening to the 45 before buying it. Here, though, the book looks at the artwork from the album covers and sleeves how even some of those have become classics themselves. Then, the equipment has evolved. This is an underful book, and for someone like me who is a collector, I appreciated the entire book, and some parts brought nice memories. Very much worth the read.

[Vnunez-Ms_luv2read · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fan of vinyl, this book brought back so many memories. Going to the record store, browsing through the bins, listening to the record/album before buying. This book gives you so much information about vinyl records but also well known record stores and album covers that have stood the test of time. Awesome read. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the author for the ARC of this book in return for my honest opinion. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on my review.

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Groove was a fun and quick read. My parents bought a stereo console in the late 1950’s. One of the first LP’s they bought was the Smithsonian’s Folksongs collection. The first album I ever bought was by Joan Baez. This is a great history of how the vinyl disc changed our lives!! Everyone had their special artist that they collected as we grew up. We still have a large LP collection and our 1977 turntable. Thank you for the ARC, I loved it!

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book for my vinyl collecting daughter. Of course, I had to read it. It covers history of vinyl, review of turntables and other equipment, LP art (my favorite section), record store significance, and record collecting culture. Interspersed throughout the book are photos and a brief description of iconic record covers, record stores and record labels. In the Groove is a highly enjoyable read.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick, easy read on a subject that interests me greatly. There are plenty of fun factoids about the history of recording equipment, record stores, and famous collectors. I especially liked the Martin Popoff essay regarding album cover art. I'll never have the means or the space to be a serious record collector, so I enjoy it vicariously through those who are.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a (new) vinyl collector. This book was a fantastic read and filled with some awesome history and images. I plan to get this book for a good friend of mine's birthday this year - it's the perfect gift for the music lover and vinyl collector in your life.

[Doctor Occulator · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great entertaining read, wonderful pics and also very informative on the long history of vinyl.
A very handy book for any serious collector of vinyl.

[James Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would be a fun gift book for someone just getting into vinyl, but there's no new ground here for long-time enthusiasts.