Record Store Day: Bringing back the vintage era

Today, amidst the humdrum of profuse heat, music enthusiasts gathered at The Daily Star's Arts Gallery—on the occasion of Record Store Day. They enthusiastically sought out their favourite music albums in their purest forms.

Record Store Day is an annual global celebration of independent record stores. It is usually observed on a Saturday in April where exclusive vinyl releases, special promotions, and various events are featured — aiming at supporting these exceptional establishments.

The programme which began at 10 am was inaugurated by esteemed singer Khurshid Alam and noted folk singer Farida Parvin. They spoke on the importance of vinyl and gramophones to sustain the authentic form of music.

Organised by the Bangladesh Audiophile Society, several stalls had been prepared containing some of the rare music albums produced by the world's legendary artistes. 

The collection of pieces of vinyl presented today included works from artistes including the likes of-- Kazi Nazrul Islam, Rabindranath Tagore, Sachin Dev Barman, Feroza Begum, Runa Laila, Ustad Bismillah Khan, Debabrata Biswas, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Hemanta Mukherjee, and Neil Diamond among many others. While the visitors got the opportunity to grab the albums including Anmol Ghadi - "An original motion picture soundtrack album featuring music by Nuashad", Runa Laila's "Back Again", Nazila Hassan's "Disco Deewane", Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar's "West Meets East", Lata Mangeshkar's "Live at Royal Albert Hall", London March 1974, The Beatles Anniversary 2LP edition, The incomparable Sachin Dev Burman, and Nirvana's "Unplugged in New York" amongst many others.

Record owners who participated in the event with exclusive LPs and EPs for music lovers are; Mahmood Hussain (Sur Saptak), Syed Danik (Universal Music), Habibur Rahman, and Analogue Beat. Almost all records from all popular genres were available for the visitors.

Zia Ahmed, president of the Bangladesh Audiophile Society, told The Daily Star, "We know that vinyl is the purest form of music, hence we took this initiative to promote and inspire Bangladeshi music enthusiasts to avail this opportunity for themselves." He also added that the market for collecting vinyl records has increased over time. "Although we don't have any statistics, however, with the rise in the price of these vinyls, it indicates that the demand has also risen. The good news is that people are interested in good music and they value it."

While discussing the extinction of music albums he shared that it is rare to get old musical albums in the market now. Music has transformed into a digital medium and there are no such physical stores available like before. "We have displayed the albums of noted Bangladeshi artistes which include the albums of Khurshid Alam and Farida Parvin, we have kept these collections as a part of our heritage," he said.

The day serves to highlight the significance of physical music stores in an era dominated by digital streaming services.

In the 1960s and 1970s, gramophone records were the primary method for recording music in this region. Numerous iconic songs by renowned artistes were captured using this medium. Reflecting on history, Hindustan Records in Kolkata distributed many of the tracks from the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra tracks in 1971.

World Record Store Day was founded by Chris Brown, who owned American Bull Moose Music, and Eric Levine, the owner of Criminal Records. Thanks to their collaboration, the inaugural World Record Store Day took place in 2007. Since then, it has become a globally recognised and celebrated event.

Today's event concluded at 5pm.