By Sofia Johnson
As a proud early 2000s baby, I remember the days of dancing around in my room to my favorite CDs. My favorite albums — Taylor Swift’s “Taylor Swift,” the Jonas Brothers’ “Jonas Brothers,” and the “High School Musical 2” soundtrack, in case you were wondering — were constantly on repeat, so much so that I could probably still sing “S.O.S.” by heart. I distinctly remember people talking about burning CDs, creating lineups of music that were too modern to be mixtapes but too primitive to be playlists.
Speaking of burning CDs, does anyone know what that actually means? I don’t. My apologies to the ’80s/’90s kids who might be angered by my obliviousness.
On a similar note, my family still has stacks of DVDs next to our TV (though I’m not even sure where the DVD player is). Have we used any of these DVDs within the past year? No! Will we ever get rid of them? Absolutely not! Even though they’re now collecting dust in my basement, I remember asking for my favorite movies on DVD for Christmas, and being so excited when I unwrapped them and put them in the DVD player for the first time.
We live in a digital age. With music and video streaming platforms dominating the industry, physical media has become something “vintage” as opposed to something that we actually use daily. I haven’t used a CD or DVD in years, despite the huge role they played in my childhood, and I think there’s a general consensus that they’ve faded into obscurity.
However, physical media is far from gone. In 2023, vinyl sales in the United States were up by 21.7 percent. Remember when I said I haven’t used a CD in years? Guess who has a record player and a collection of vinyls. (Hint: it’s me and, apparently, a good amount of other people.) One could wonder why vinyls (arguably the most impractical physical music medium) have made a comeback in a time where you can have an almost infinite amount of music in your pocket. My thoughts? It’s the aesthetic. People can say whatever they want about improved sound quality or a love for the overly-idealized olden days, but I think people love vinyl so much (myself included) because Pinterest tells them to. Vinyls have an undeniably cool, vintage quality to them that is irresistible to the modern music-lover. They allow us to get away from our screens and have real, physical copies of music we love.
So how does this relate to CDs and DVDs? If we’re arguing that the “vintage aesthetic” of vinyl is what sparked its resurgence, then we could also argue that it’s only a matter of time until 2000s-era physical media — CDs and DVDs — becomes “cool” and “vintage” as well. Already, we can see a romanticization of 2000s culture in our current world (for example, through the recent popularity of the Y2K aesthetic). I think this aesthetic appeal of the time period, especially when compared to the aesthetic appeal of vinyl records, could mean that CDs and DVDs are going to make a comeback in the future.
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