Pop, hissss, crackle, pop. No, that’s not the sound of a breakfast cereal, that’s a vinyl record being played. And those sounds are nothing to worry about. If those impurities were coming through the headphones of your iPod, you might be inclined to take it back for a refund. But in the case of vinyl, simply dust it off and give it another spin.

In my case—and for most of us under 30 years old—a record is something of a foreign object. The first time I saw one, I was about 10 years old. I was digging through the piles of junk my parents had gathered for a garage sale. The album was Neil Young’s “Harvest,” released in 1972. I held the large cardboard book in my hands and studied it, pulled out the black disc inside, felt the grooves and thought to myself it would make a pretty decent Frisbee. I asked my mom what the object was and she replied, “That’s a record, it’s like a cassette tape…they don’t really use them anymore.”

“Harvest” is now a favorite LP in my small collection.

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“I think it [vinyl] will always have some degree of relevance,” says Robert Kaufman, store manager of PDQ Records & Tapes, 2342 N. Dodge Blvd., the largest record store in Tucson.

Kaufman agrees that a number of those who buy vinyl do so for the collector’s aspect of it - how else could you justify spending $600 on a Calypso album that PDQ currently has displayed on its wall? - but most still purchase vinyl for the music itself and the sound quality.

Kaufman owns many records himself but doesn’t refer to himself as a collector.

“I buy it for the music,” he says.

He owns plenty of compact discs too, but enjoys listening to most of his music in vinyl format.

“It’s something I’ve kind of regressed back to,” Kaufman says. “When I was young, my uncle used to tell me that CD’s didn’t have the same ‘brightness’ to them and I didn’t understand what he meant. Now I do.”

Vinyl is also not just your parent’s music format either. Kaufman claims PDQ’s customer base is as varied as its music selection.

“We have this kid, under 10, who comes in here and likes to buy Skid Row records,” he says.

If you are interested in rediscovering some of the music you used to listen to, the way it was intended, PDQ is the place to go. Aisles upon aisles and crates upon crates of LP’s, EP’s, 45’s, 78’s, even some good 8-tracks are crammed into the modest

warehouse-esque store.

PDQ only sells used copies - though plenty are still sealed in their plastic shrink wrap, deemed too precious or too awful to open by their original owners - and most can be purchased for around $5.

Of course, customers aren’t limited to recordings from the past if you are interested in vinyl. Contrary to some popular belief, a lot of new music releases are also pressed, in limited quantities, on vinyl.

According to Kaufman, the biggest lull in vinyl production was in the early 90’s, when compact discs began catching on. He says there seems to be a resurgence of vinyl pressing in the past several years.

Part of that may be due to the large number of independent record labels popping up that have more freedom to distribute music how they want rather than simply following the industry norm.

Saddle Creek is an independent label based in Omaha, Neb. The majority of the releases on the label are simultaneously released on vinyl. Though Jason Kulbel, a Saddle-Creek label manager, estimates that vinyl accounts for less than five percent of sales for a given release, he insists on the importance of keeping the format alive.

“It’s important for us as lovers of the format and part of the vinyl buying community. Some people view it as a collector’s niche but I don’t really see it as a novelty at all,” he says.

Saddle Creek is also keeping up with technology and realizes the direction music distribution is headed. With many of their releases on vinyl, they include a link to a free one-time digital download of the album in Mp3 format so that customers can still enjoy their music in a variety of formats.

“Digital gets a little more prominent all the time,” states Kulbel. “I am sure there will be a day where the vast majority of music is bought digitally, but we are a ways off from that right now.”

Finding current releases on vinyl can be difficult depending on where you live. Here in Tucson, Zia Record Exchange is one of the few places to look. A few weeks ago, I went in search of the new Bob Dylan record, Modern Times. A Zia employee informed me that their last copy - one of only two they ordered - was on hold for another employee. She called up the other store location and I was fortunate to get one of their two reserved copies.

I’m not one to spend hundreds of dollars on some obscure Beatles EP, and I’m not particularly an audiophile. I listen to vinyl because I believe many albums are meant to be enjoyed as complete works of art rather than a series of butchered pieces uploaded to an Mp3 player. I also don’t like the idea of spending 99 cents per track, the going rate for a legally downloaded song online. For equal or lesser cost per album, I can have a something tangible, with liner notes and album art. And as I drop the needle on Modern Times, I can’t help but think that’s the way Bob Dylan intended it.

E-mail comments for publication to editor@azbiz.com. Robert Ford is a Tucson-based freelance writer.