Greetings Vinyl Tap consumer,

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Whether you are a religious reader or first-time peruse-r of our small-but-mighty WCWM music publication, we are so thankful you took time out of your day to grab our Spring 2021 edition from a shelf of some sort. Maybe the colorful, psychedelic cover by the lovely Laura Reitze allured you, or… perhaps you’re just super bored, waiting to meet with a friend and chomp down a warm Cosi pesto chicken melt (a personal favorite). Regardless of how and why this issue landed in your hands, I can promise that you are in for a wonderful -music, arts, and culture- treat! 

Last semester, our issue focused on macro, societal questions and concerns: we talked about how we felt rather hopeless in many realms of our lives. We all know that progress isn’t linear, so it’s not like everything we addressed in our last issue has completely ‘healed’ with time, but some things are looking up. At the very least, the vaccine is no longer a mere tale. Gotta say that, boy, sharing our pent-up, frustrated thoughts was cathartic in the heart of a pandemic, but one could say that we have now ‘been there’ and ‘done that.’ We have figuratively and literally turned the page on our last issue, which brings us here. 

For the current issue, we draw our attention to the artist. Being an artist nowadays isn’t an easy feat. A fan base is typically developed through touring, and touring is nearly impossible right now – unless you are the Flaming Lips and decide to hold ‘space bubble’ concerts, which is, may I say, so on brand. But what about the rest of the artists? Those with ebulliophobia?? Many artists have had to rely entirely on their online presence to maintain popularity and ‘sell’ their music to others. Several staff members have written pieces focused on how artists have curated online personas, especially on TikTok, where virality is game-changing, but rare. On the other side of the equation, music consumers’ attention spans have decreased with the overwhelming amount of digital content – hey, we have a piece on that too! All the albums reviewed for this issue were also produced during quarantine, and some of the reviews touch on how this has influenced the style and material of said albums. 

Additionally, many artists have turned to self-producing their albums because of ~COVID~, and we have a few cute sketches of their charming home recording spaces just for you :) . Since a lot of artists have gone the DIY route this year, we made our magazine DIY/zine-style as well: the cover was digitally painted, each of us doodled on our headshot, and there are a few handmade collages scattered inside the issue! Oh, and yes, our photoshoot was inspired by Phoebe Bridgers’ SNL performance because we want her to notice us!! We also believe she is a wonderful example of an artist who has mastered badassery during an absolutely shitty time… and damn, can she smash a guitar! no one tell David Crosby I said that 

Now that I’ve set the scene for this issue, I hope you enjoy digging in. Huge shoutout to the Vinyl Tap staff for writing thought-provoking pieces and creating wonderful art – stay gold & rock on! Hopefully this will be the last, but not least, pandemic issue we ever create <3 

 

Peace out, 

Emma Shahin