Is CD’s second wave upon us? It certainly seems so. In 2021, CD sales went up for the first time in nearly two decades. (Admittedly, that was largely due to the new Adele album). In December, Wired ran an article, “You Should Listen to CDs.” The following month, Rolling Stone’s Rob Sheffield wrote an ode to the format entitled, “Jewel-Box Heroes: Why the CD Revival Is Finally Here.” Those articles set music Twitter abuzz.
Last week, I heard not one but two segments on Volume, SiriusXM’s music talk channel, in which the hosts discussed the format’s appeal and future. The CD junkies came out in full force, many calling in to say something to the effect of, “CDs are coming back? For me, they never left!”
One such CD junkie who couldn’t ever bring himself to part with those shiny plastic discs is photographer and author Mike Hipple. We spoke with Hipple last year about his engrossing book, Lived Through That: ‘90s Musicians Today. The 51-year-old Seattle resident agreed to return to 360°Sound to share photos of his CD collection and his thoughts on the format.
360°Sound: How long have you been collecting CDs?
Mike Hipple: I have been buying CDs since probably 1988.
What was the first CD you ever bought?
Maybe it’s a little embarrassing, but I really wanted a CD player so I could buy the two-CD live set of Sting’s Bring on the Night. I wasn’t a huge fan but I had heard the mash-up he did on there of “One World (Not Three)” and “Love is the Seventh Wave” and was obsessed over getting that! I followed that with Patti Smith’s Dream of Life and Railway Children’s Recurrence.
Approximately how many discs do you have in your collection?
Probably about 1500? We tried to edit it down a few years back but couldn’t bear to part with them!
What do you like about the CD format?
I do like the permanence of them, I remember hearing when they were first introduced that they would last forever. I’m not entirely sure if that’s true, but I like to think that they’ll be around for a long time! And, I was just having a conversation with my son this morning about buying music – which is a completely foreign concept to teenagers today with streaming. He literally didn’t understand why you would need to buy a song!
So, there’s a whole ecosystem there where you’re supporting the artist with your dollars, you have a tangible object that means something, you’re invested in the artists you love, and you give it value. With streaming, it’s almost disposable, it’s hard to be loyal to a digital file on your phone.
The ‘90s were very much the CD era. When you were working on your book Lived Through That: ‘90s Musicians Today, did you revisit the CDs of those artists in the book as part of your research?
I would definitely immerse myself in the artists’ music in the weeks before I was set to photograph them. It was great to revisit and find those deep cuts that I may have forgotten about. A couple gems I remember re-discovering were Possum Dixon’s “We’re All Happy,” Magnapop’s “Open the Door,” Noise Addict’s “I Wish I Was Him” (and then also finding the Kathleen Hanna cover of this!), and Fuzzy’s “Flashlight.”
What were several of your favorite ‘90s albums that you bought on CD and still listen to today?
I distinctly remember buying that dog’s Retreat from the Sun at Tower Records. I had heard “Never Say Never” on the radio and liked it. When I saw it was on sale for something like $5.98, I impulse purchased it, and it remained on constant rotation for months! That’s one I definitely still listen to.
Another is Sleater-Kinney’s Dig Me Out. I was at a different record store browsing the stacks and the person working there slipped it into the player and I was immediately hooked. I needed to know who was making this beautiful noise! I asked at the counter and was told it was a preview copy, it wouldn’t be out for a few weeks but she gave me a slip of paper with the name of the band and album. I kept that in my wallet until I was able to purchase it a few weeks later.
I really miss that time period when I would have an extra hour or two and I’d just browse a record store and listen to what they were playing or what they had in those kiosks with headphones. That was how we discovered new music and that hunt made the gems you’d find even more special.
What are some of your most prized discs in your collection and what makes them so special?
Jale’s Closed EP is definitely a keeper for me. I love that band, this EP, and I absolutely adore the image on the cover, which was taken by the band’s guitarist Jennifer Pierce. I’ve got one of the first Harvey Danger records, Where Have All the Merry Makers Gone?, before they were signed to a major label and it was re-released. Tahiti 80’s Puzzle and The Postal Service’s Give Up I like for sentimental reasons.
I also love a lot of those box sets that came out pretty much every Christmas shopping season: David Bowie’s Sound and Vision collection, The Police’s Message in a Box, Return to the Valley of the Go-Go’s and so many more. And one last thing: I totally got into the sampler CDs that record labels would put out, especially Sire’s Just Say… series. Those are golden to me!
What are your thoughts on the future of the CD?
I think people always gravitate back to nostalgic formats. It’s happened with vinyl, and it’s happening now with CDs! I’m also seeing a lot of cassettes out there these days – that’s a format I really don’t miss. Too many memories of them jamming in the car cassette player or melting on the seat.
