Why are DJs on Triple J suddenly referring to albums as "Long Players"

Haven't listened to this station for a while, heard this about three or four times in a few short spaces over the last couple of days. It's kind of irritating. I'm sure there's a good reason but I don't know what it is.

i mean the kidz don't need no history lesson.

is this happening elsewhere in the world?

maybe i imagined the whole thing.

Why are you listening to Triple J?

gee what a surprise response

if you ever lived in the sticks you'd understand

Is it maybe part of the half-hallucinated return-of-vinyl thing? Sales are on an upswing while CD sales are falling, but, in real terms, it's like a mouse getting slightly fatter next to an elephant rapidly losing weight. Still, the vinyl thing is definitely cool with the kids. Perhaps the station is trying to get with the glamour in a typically contrived fashion.

Me, I never considered the term "LP" (or "elpee" in Xgau-speak) obsolete at all, even as the term "album" grew increasingly inaccurate.

why is album inaccurate? even back in the day a cassette could be an album too. it doesn't necessarily infer vinyl

anyway as long as the phrase "EP" sticks around then LP is cool with me

Yes Moley I figured it was that.

I guess I've always used the term LP with any album (which I consider = long-play vinyl/cd/cassette/bunch of mp3s/whatever) but it does connote vinyl in particular in my mind.

It's not so much "LP" that irritates me as "Long Player" which just sounds kind of square to me. E.g. "...Ide Maria has a new long player coming out blah blah..."

Actually the only thing it connotes for me of is those read/sing-a-long-story-book 45s we used to have as kids.

I'm just acting like an adolescent smart-ass snob I gues. It does feels very contrived is what it is I guess.

They still have DJs on JJJ? Thought they would've/had already been replaced by computers by now.

Australian radio is actually pretty much fucked. Unless you live in Melbourne and have RRR and PBS. I grew up in Perth so at least we had 6UVS/RTR-FM.

But hell, if you're in Mt Isa, you're fucked.

fucked might be a bit strong? (for australia that is) i don't know much about other countries apart from some uk/us stuff i have listened to on line occasionally so i can't really compare. but no doubt that for some rural areas triple j meets my needs more than most other stations on offer most of the time. let alone the live music scene!!!

back in perth at the mo' & rtr is pretty good - have checked out heaps of music i heard on there lately, and a pretty professoinal production and a bit more listenable that i used to find it.

the internet is great and definitely becoming the main place i find out about music now, but i hope i always tune into the radio as well.

still irritated about the 'long player' thing tho. js are definitely off for a while.

Do you listen to much internet radio? Or lastfm etc?

Australian radio is actually pretty much fucked. Unless you live in Melbourne and have RRR and PBS.

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I want to add a worthier opinion but that really says it all.

Do you listen to much internet radio? Or lastfm etc?

― moley, Sunday, 16 November 2008 10:59 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

not really- too lazy to learn new things, and my pc is not in a good place for listening etc -everything i dl get played on the hifi & i still mainly buy cds & records anyway.

is lastfm a good starting point if i wanted to learn more?

I've always preferred 'longplayer' over 'album' as the generic cross-format term, for no particular reason, but have sometimes been self-conscious about saying it as it sounds kinda old-school.

It irked me when announcers starting saying "the new Prince CD" (ca 1990?), while I was still buying the cassette (!) or vinyl, so I never took to that. Could the rise of mp3 releases as an alternative to CDs have given a boost to the generic 'longplayer' too?

Australian radio is actually pretty much fucked. Unless you live in Melbourne and have RRR and PBS.

Interesting. What exactly does Sydney have then? Does Brisbane have ZZZ or similar anymore?

an LP is a long playing vinyl record. (33.3rpm)
if it's a CD, it's not an LP. it's just a CD.

is lastfm a good starting point if i wanted to learn more?

― fantasimundo

Yes, for sure! Give it a try.

if you ever lived in the sticks you'd understand

Don't you have the INTERNET, son??

Does Brisbane have ZZZ or similar anymore?

yes http://www.4zzzfm.org.au/

an LP is a long playing vinyl record. (33.3rpm)
if it's a CD, it's not an LP. it's just a CD.

― ian, Sunday, 16 November 2008 18:33 (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

We still go into record shops that sell CDs and tape stuff off the telly with a hard drive recorder. Bah.

yeah sorry, as long as "EP" can be (and often is) applied to compact discs, it's fucking stupid to assume that LP means vinyl

It's either quaint or anachronistic, depending on how you look at it.

My dad still calls KFC 'Colonel Sanders,' which has virtually nil resonance in the 21st century (but he has virtually nil resonance in the 21st century, so that works in its own way).

There are also albums with titles like The Real New Fall LP: Formerly Country on the Click, The Slim Shady LP and The Marshall Mathers LP which were always going to be bought overwhelmingly on CD.

If only they'd had the foresight to follow in 3rd Bass' pioneering footsteps.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_rEMCHz_zUjY/SPu0K1R-74I/AAAAAAAABfk/tk2V7HxuOmI/s1600-h/3rd+Bass+-+The+Cactus+Cee-D.jpg

http://2.music.bigpond-images.com/images/AlbumCoverArt/78/XXL/The-Cactus-Cee-D.jpg

^ soooooooo great.

Hey, even the term "album" has been largely a misnomer for like 50+ years! It originally referred to those leather-bound photo album-like binders that held a bunch of '78s back in the days before the 12" 33.3-rpm vinyl record.

Oh, like battery. Weird, that.