Food For Thought

[gramophone-georg]

The problem with 78 rpm's is that most of its content does not identify with young people

I completely agree with you. For me, the key sentence of the article was as follows: "Participants valued a physical copy of The Empire Strikes Back more than a digital copy, for instance, only if they considered the Star Wars series to be films with which they strongly identified."

Although I have tried to introduce young people to the hobby of collecting early recordings and phonographs over the last 20 years with lectures and as a university employee, not a single one has become a collector to my knowledge. Those who are active today started it decades ago as children or teenagers. Every now and then I get to know one of my few competitors and almost always they are old white men. If I stayed with my hobby for another 30 years, I could certainly buy a lot of collectibles from estates, which are financially unreachable at the moment. But what comes after me? My son, who just started his studies, but has never bought a physical copy of a record in his life and will probably never do so, would have the problem of having to market a bunch of items that were once valuable, but are now hard to sell. I'd better leave him shares in the Universal Music Group.

On the other hand, generations of kids grew up watching "Looney Tunes"... and the first reaction I get from kids to the sounds of my jazz and early swing records is a very intrigued "Ooooh... cartoon music!", so it isn't that they're totally oblivious or have never been exposed. In fact, their first reaction is childhood memory, and what kid doesn't look back on cartoons with fondness?

Who out there actually cannot pick up on the melody of "The Merry Go Round Broke Down" even if they have no clue what it's called?

[need4art]

They are different...This month I have been in Texas and am now in Denver. In both cases it is with family, and both have a girl and a boy. Being in the art restoration business means that I work with my hands and eyes on physical items, some of which have value in terms of money, others in terms of sentimentality but both exist in the terms of the real world.

For years we have been buying our grandkids art items-pencils, crayons, watercolor paints etc and books, and we have encouraged both them and their parents to make sure that they get used. and they do BUT...

Their parents, my son and daughter both read to the kids each night, and they do read books but the real emphasis is digital. The only real books they have are the ones we bought, both parents in each home play games, by themselves and with the kids, they have no records, CD's or DVD's everything is Netflix. They buy music and store it on their phones as well as movies. My kids understand why I want to "own" something but laugh at us. They all have phones, there are TV monitors in every room in the house, outside on the patio and yes in the bathroom as well.

This year we bought model car kits for the boys and embroidery kits for the girls, and it is like pulling teeth to get them to interact and work with on the stuff. We finally worked out an hour of each, games, TV etc and then model car and embroidery. But each time we return nobody knows where the stuff is from the last trip...

My older grandsons-yes there were prior marriages for both, own cars but have no idea how to work on them-but worse no interest in how to learn. and in retrospect most calls that I get from young people who inherit art want me to appraise it
so that it can be sold-and I believe that most of what the pros in our hobby are selling comes across to them in the same way.

Is there no hope in sight?-yes, there will always be those who value craftsmanship, will want to collect and do things with their hands to hold and touch items that came before them-but it will be something that they have within themselves. It is not what is taught in most schools, it is not in the field trips that are now in most cases no longer done to museums, but it will need to be carried on by us-on a person to person basis.

That is why when I talk to a client about buying-not investing in art for their own pleasure i tell them that even if they can get just a small part back of what they spend they will have held, touched and enjoyed their art for long as they want and that it will just not disappear. That is how I feel about our hobby-I love most of what I own but place very little value in it for the future unless the sense of tangible value returns.

Just 50 years of looking back at what I have invested most of my life in and I have no regrets most of what I have restored, sold and done is still in good hands.
Abe

[alang]

On the other hand, generations of kids grew up watching "Looney Tunes"... and the first reaction I get from kids to the sounds of my jazz and early swing records is a very intrigued "Ooooh... cartoon music!", so it isn't that they're totally oblivious or have never been exposed. In fact, their first reaction is childhood memory, and what kid doesn't look back on cartoons with fondness?

Who out there actually cannot pick up on the melody of "The Merry Go Round Broke Down" even if they have no clue what it's called?

Whenever my colleagues ride in the car with me they always say they're reminded of the old Little Rascals series.

Going back to the value people put on tangible vs digital items, this is the same effect that was seen when companies moved from paying salaries in cash, then paychecks, then direct deposit. The satisfaction of receiving the same amount in cash is higher than receiving a paycheck, and both are much higher than direct deposit. On the reverse side, it is much easier (hurts less) to pay via credit card than handing out cash. That's why experts suggest to get excessive spending under control by going back to cash transactions. Cashless transactions have been around for a long time, but the human brain doesn't change that quickly.

Another aspect to consider is the tendency of the latest generations to value experience higher than "things". This goes from online games to travel to extreme sports. Many are over-fed with "things" from a young age and don't have the personal connection to individual items like our generations have. I am not sure how that will affect our hobby. On one hand I think the number of "accumulating collectors" will probably decline because of that. On the other hand maybe the number of "full experience collectors" will increase, people who want to have a small number of working machines in a period correct environment to experience full immersion into a different time. Looking at the number of computer games and movies that play in these times, there is definitely a fascination with the past and its objects.

Andreas