From the beginning, record and CD collector shows have been anything but mainstream events, even if their appeal can easily be described as mainstream. The serious music collector generally will always seek out the event, while those who find music just a casual interest sporadically attend. The casually interested who do show up are almost always impressed and excited by the atmosphere and what they find there. Just as impressive to them seems to be the idea that someone would actually travel from city to city collecting and selling nothing but records and CDs. The story goes a lot deeper than that, the layers of it revealing more a way of life than a pastime.

If average people arrange their lives around their families, their 9-to-5 jobs and their weekends, then record and CD dealers are far from average. Their lives, by contrast, are centered around finding records and CDs, no matter where that leads them. They are constantly searching for not only more records and CDs, but also knowledge. Knowledge of the tens of thousands of bands and artists whose recorded output may be dozens or hundreds of songs, down to those with just one single released years ago.

Serious music collectors are also deeply involved in this obsession. It is not uncommon to find them traveling many miles to the record and CD shows and stores. Even with the advent of the Internet, to them there still is nothing quite like the thrill of the chase. Finding that rare, out-of-print record or CD, or finding something by their favorite band or artist that they never knew existed, it's all part of the draw to collect music. It isn't so much being a "treasure hunter," although that does happen frequently, as it is just finding music that they enjoy hearing.

Casual music listeners happily become more involved in music collecting once they've attended a record and CD show. Music collecting, in general, also is encouraged by the younger generation seeing vinyl collecting as "cool." Probably the most misinformed rumor has to be that "vinyl is dead." With a much warmer sound than a CD, vinyl is still sought after by many music collectors. With the sound and feel of the larger LP jacket in your hands — with photos and text that are actually readable — it isn't difficult to see why vinyl is still popular. It can even be taken to the point that you imagine it's a cold day in January 1968, and a young British group goes into a small studio in England to record their first album, one that turns out to be a cult status, legendary psychedelic masterpiece 30 years later. Think about that whole aspect. You're hearing that.

There's a wide cross section of people who collect music, all the way from the older crowd collecting what they grew up with, to the teenagers discovering vinyl for the first time, to the seasoned thirty- and forty-somethings looking to expand their horizons, to everyone in between. As long as folks enjoy listening to music, there will always be those who collect it.

Michael Pottorff, promoter of record & CD shows and music collector for 35 of his 50 years. He can be reached at showlogicprod@bellsouth.net