Conceptualizing heritaging in the representation of the revival of the record store and vinyl

Abstract

This paper examines representation of the conjoined ‘revival’ of record stores and vinyl through the lens of cultural heritage. It employs David Crouch’s concept of ‘heritaging’, which describes an active process in which heritage is constituted. Analysis derives from a case study of Vinyl Nation, a documentary depiction of the record store as a site of discovery and rediscovery of vinyl and its cultures of consumption and community. Depictions include evidence of the knowledge, commitment and interactions nurtured in the store, of the cultivation of dispositions that celebrate vinyl’s materiality and distinctiveness. The record store is depicted as a site of intimacies and the nurturing of a culture of care and freedoms not generally available under ‘anonymous capitalism’ and the relations that condition many other contemporary interactions. Conclusions draw attention to the paradoxes of this representation of the record store, of the contingent nature of the historical sensibilities ‘emerging’ in this site of ‘heritaging’.</p