My collection is divided into vinyl and CDs. I amassed most of my CD collection in college, and after that I got into collecting records, which led to Cousins Vinyl.

It seems as if anything on vinyl is considered hip. I\’m 27, and if I tell anyone my age what I do (own a record store), or if they\’re over at my house and see my crates of vinyl, they immediatly label me as a hipster or music connoisseur. Which I feel embarrased about. I don\’t want to come across as a snob, as a person who sneers at other\’s musical tastes. My vinyl collection is simply comprised of a good, and in my opinion, important selection of music from the 60s and 70s or earlier in the genres of blues, jazz, soul, reggae, funk, zydeco, and rock. With an emphasis on local music from the Detroit-Ann Arbor area, which also interests me. But all I have is a good basic selection, a start of the exploration that each genre could have if dived into deeper. And there are tons of people, many of our own customers, who blow me away in selection and knowledge in these genres. I\’m by no means a specialist, just a music lover who (luckily) gets to hand pick what he wants for his own listening pleasure.

But with records, who is going to argue against something being hip? Like Josh said, even Bittersweet Alley is pretty cool because it ties in to the history of Detroit music and it\\\’s a good representative of the genre of hair metal or 80s cheese rock. It definitly fits into the category of Fantastically Awesome that CV\’s other owner Justin and I like to joke about. Cheesy records are automatically hip because of how cheesy they are. They\’re fun, they\’re refreshing, and it\’s always an automatic hit at a party to bust \’em out. And for the most part, a cheesy pop record is halfway decent. It\’s going to reach a broad audience, and have a musical structure that\’s easy to relate to. Pop, afterall, is short for popular.

For example, one of the biggest ongoing jokes around Cousins Vinyl is the Awesomeness level of some of the records we have found. There are some records sitting in the office that are literally priceless to us. When we first got into buying and selling records, I found a still sealed Durell Coleman record at a garage sale. We had no idea who Durell Coleman was, but it looked halfway interesting so I picked it up. It turned out that Durell Coleman was the first ever winner of Star Search, and the album I found was the only one he ever made after winning. The cover is super-cheesy, with neon pastel lines around a white background with a close up of his face and his gerry-curls, super hip for 1985. The funny thing was I was halfway excited (in my naivety) of fiding this, and Justin rided me to no end. From there, I defended the album with all my might as being the most awesome 80s R&B album ever made, Justin soon agreed, and there was much debate as to whether or not we should break the seal to listen to it.

When we finally did, the end result was fantastic. It was a cheesily terrific album to listen to, and we secretly loved the enthusiastic vocals and upbeat melodies. We would get together with our wives and put the album on, professing our love to them and singing the words with all our hearts while they giggled and rolled their eyes. To make things better, the LP had a black and white photo insert of Durell striking a pose, looking at the camera with a smirk as if to say, \”Girl, please!\” An all-time favorite album, although incredibly un-hip. The funny thing is, in a way this kind of makes it even hipper than the hippest of the hipster\’s deepest hipster LPs. An album is made to entertain, and at times I\’m moved to be entertained by Durell Coleman. And that is what it delivers, and what is more hip than that? Our infatuation and inside-joke grew to where we googled him and found that he is still alive and well and now fronts the self proclaimed \”America\’s Premeir Party Band\”, one of best wedding and event bands in the country who even played at Shaq\’s wedding.  Maybe I can convince Josh to interview him and do a story on him.  Check him out at www.dcband.com

So it\’s these types of albums (I have a whole crate dedicated to this) among my vinyl collection that brings me joy and makes collecting records that much more fun. My CD collection by the way, is far more un-hip than my vinyl, containing lots of mid to late 90s party music and even really un-hip stuff like the aforementioned Dave Mathews and even (gulp) Will Smith. But I would never get rid of any of it because it brings back happy memories and is still fun to put on from time to time.

So that\’s my confession. It\’s my secret dream to have Durell Coleman play a private concert in my backyard. I would warm him up by playing Gettin\’ Jiggy With It.  Now THAT would be super-awesome!