How record collectors find lost music and preserve our cultural heritage | Alexis Charpentier

For generations, record collectors have played a vital role in the preservation of musical and cultural heritage by "digging" for obscure music created by overlooked artists. Alexis Charpentier shares his love of records — and stories of how collectors have given forgotten music a second chance at being heard. Learn more about the culture of record digging (and, maybe, pick up a new hobby) with this fun, refreshing talk.

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50 Comments on How record collectors find lost music and preserve our cultural heritage | Alexis Charpentier

    • Alexis Charpentier “every collector follows the music that speaks to them” Back in the vinyl or cassette days, you often buy an album because you heard of 1 or 2 good songs, but realize the rest of the album doesn’t really “speak to you” after opening the case. TOO LATE!! I’m glad these days are gone. Now I only collect playlist, and I pay nothing 😉

    • It’s the opposite for me, the song that I initialy don’t like grow on me. If you listen just to playlist you risk to not discover tons of music that you could love IHMO

    • LittleLion93 “If you listen just to playlist you risk to not discover tons of music that you could love” Playlist is just a way to collect/organize songs, no different from record diggers collect/organize their vinyl, except that you don’t have to go by a full album. Also, nobody listens only to the playlist, my playlists keep growing and evolving.

    • LittleLion93 Before internet, buying vinyl/cassette/CD is like buying lottery tickets. I took a lot of risk and spent a lot of money in my youth. Today I spend nothing but my music world is wider than ever!! I like where we are, but of course it takes time and effort to go outside the algorithm and other curators to find our own tastes.

  1. So many records to listen to, so little time to listen to them. Oh, if only time would stand still when listening to these wonderful lost records…

  2. Would my Disco records count?      : D      People laugh at me when they come into my place and see a whole wall in my living room covered with vinyl records. I couldn’t live without the soundtrack of my life. How other people do it, is beyond me.

  3. I’m not a “music person” (I rarely choose to listen to music), so you’d think I wouldn’t get this or appreciate it. But as a bibliophile, it is so close to my heart.

  4. I really have to thank anyone and everyone who preserves musical history. I am especially grateful to the Lomax family for bringing out a kaleidoscope of beautiful folk songs in the US.

    I am an Indian and I feel so insecure for listening to Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly and missing out on researching and listening to the diverse set of folk songs my country has to offer, maybe its because we have so many languages here and so many traditions it’s hard to get translations.

    Don’t get me wrong, I adore Woody Guthrie, Seeger, Dylan, Paxton and everybody who brought about the folk revival.

    Thank you.

    • Hey Sepia, not sure which part of India you hail from, but the folk music scene is quite alive and had a revival of late, esp in E. India. Check out old cassette/record stores in the big cities and the owner can point you towards some good artists (my usual method of discovering new music, since the internet is of very limited help here unlike for US folk music). If you’re interested check out Purna Das Baul, an acquaintance of Bob Dylan who incidentally appeared on the cover of “John Wesley Harding”. He covered folk laments (Indian Blues as I call it) on a spartan Ektara (lute) from the turn of the 19th/20th centuries. And of course going further back in time nothing beats the intricacies of the Ragas which miraculously survived through the centuries.

  5. You are doing something very wonderful for cultural heritage, Get ready to go into a relationship with the art of Music recorders in music is when you record to the best Possibility to receive the internal signals and excellent sense.

    • Idk about video games but definitely agree with VHS collectors. Did you hear about the Reddit thread about a movie that featured once on Nickelodeon and they tracked down someone that had recorded it on VHS?

    • “VHS and Video game collectors will get a similar video 5 years from now…”

      Jason Scott has already made a video concerning video games which is just like this… whether they’d have him on a TED talk, I don’t know.

    • “Idk about video games but definitely agree with VHS collectors.”

      Why not video games? They’re just as much a part of our cultural heritage as records or videos.

      “Did you hear about the Reddit thread about a movie that featured once on Nickelodeon and they tracked down someone that had recorded it on VHS?”

      I have heard about the BBC having to ask viewers for VHS dubs to replace programmes that would have been otherwise lost. I believe the first episode of Byker Grove only exists as an off air VHS dub because they lost the masters.

      And the BBC is one of many broadcasters that has a massive self-inflicted problem of lost masters from before VHS or even home video due to wiping masters to reuse the at the time incredibly expensive tapes.

      How much media, whether it be film, TV shows, music, speech or computer games is only available in one obsolete format? How much of those one-offs were lost immediately after the format became obsolete and everyone started binning that format?

    • GeoNeilUK I have two main reasons; video games do not effect the real world like other pop culture formats do and; music, movies and television is just another form of literature. Consider the main demographics of video games. A large portion of it is people under the age 20 whereas music and movies/television demographic is much, much larger. You’ll also find that people will point to music or movies as an inspiration but they don’t point to games of their childhood as inspiration and so people won’t consider it as important. The point about literature is that literature has been popular since it’s inception whether that be through plays, novels or poetry it has always been popular. Music is just an extension of poetry, movies are an extension of novels or plays and television is short stories which is all literature and they all contain meaning and messages. I will admit that video games may contain good stories and may even contain art but that’s not what they’re made for, that’s not their demographic and they’re not made to be appreciated in that way. Unless they change how the public perceives them then that’s how it will be

  6. Finding an unknown or forgotten record is what keeps me digging at thrift shops, flea markets and garage sales. I’ll submit a new release on Discogs and watch the popularity rise over time. It’s a great feeling knowing that you got someone else into an album you love. #NoRecordSnobs

    • NoRecordSnobs that’s so awesome man. Hobbies are the best thing in life. Something the video game generation is missing out on, yes video games can be a hobby but they’re not a real world hobby

    • cochiselol1232 I collected video games at one point but there just wasn’t enough there in the end to satisfy my curiosity.

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