Like a true millennial hipster, I quite fond of vinyl records of contemporary music, not because I like the sound - I don’t even own a record player, but rather I’ve always enjoy album art (a hearty rest-in-peace shoutout to iTunes cover-flow), and they don’t come any bigger than in LP vinyl form. Naturally, I prefer to display my records trophy-display style instead of purchasing an IKEA Kallax shelve like everyone else and inserting them in vertically.
On a similar vein, I’m an avid listening of Kpop, and the one thing I’ve come to lament about the “genre” is the absolute lack of vinyl print of Kpop albums - no, I refused to fork the over $250 price for G-Dragon’s limited vinyl release of his ‘Coup D'etat’ album. Kpop albums have some of the most creative and imaginative album-art designs, and it’s a shame I can’t procure them in the larger format for display. Of course, having a few albums with beautiful girls on the cover isn’t all that bad of a thing, either.
At least Kpop comes fully correct in how they package their music albums in what is now old-school CD format. American music CDs arrives in the same classic jewel-case with only a booklet in addition to the front and back cover to differentiate. Kpop CD albums are full-on visual art productions, with innovative packaging (check G-Dragon’s first album), substantial photo-books, and various collectible totems such as trading cards.
In lieu of not having vinyl prints to purchase, I do often buy physical Kpop albums just on sheer art value. And like the LPs of American music I own, I don’t play the CDs themselves at all (who owns a CD player these days anyways?); online and on iTunes is where I actually listen to music.