Highway Hi-Fi

In 1956, Chrysler debuted the Highway Hi-Fi: the world’s first in-car music system. It played 7-inch vinyl records made exclusively for the system and was a total bomb. The system had a tendency to break or malfunction, and the limited availability of titles made what could have been a music industry revolution into a small, forgotten Wikipedia page.

Records gave way to tapes and CDs and 62 years later, most of us stream music (or podcasts) through our cars’ radio systems and are used to listen to exactly what we want to hear whenever we want to hear it.

But vinyl records have made a surprise comeback, even if we don’t want to listen to them in our cars. 2017 marked the 12th straight year of growth in vinyl sales, despite online streaming raking in billions of dollars. New and old albums are popular, with the top sellers in recent years being The Beatles, Twenty One Pilots, David Bowie, and Adele.

Highway Hi-Fi is a podcast named after the innovative and ill-fated music system, created and hosted by Joe Wroblewski and Ryan Dixon. They dive into the music industry’s history and talk research, trivia, and vinyl.

“I have loved learning about where passion and art springs forth from,” said Dixon. “Music can be made by almost anyone and it has been! Music history is a perfect pursuit for someone who loves to delve into their innermost selves.”

The two started the podcast to get back to their love of music and experiences with discovering new artists.

“Over the past decade or so, as responsibilities have gained weight and a family has grown, I found I was spending less and less time experiencing music,” said Wroblewski. “Ryan and I started talking about researching items in music and kind of teaching each other things we valued. This rekindled my passion for music and examination of its history.”

Dizon and Wroblewski are self-proclaimed “vinyl obsessed” fans of the music but also fans of the medium. They believe there’s something incomparable to the physical act of opening a record and laying down the needle.

There’s simply more personality to records.”

“It makes listening to music an active and thoughtful process. Way better than some robot telling you what to listen to. Or you telling some robot what to play,” said Dixon.

The age of the internet has turned many of our physical possessions into data: photos, home movies, and our music collections are all housed in the cloud or on hard drives. That may be better for our landfills and minimalist design aesthetic, but Wroblewski and Dixon believe that we might be missing out when all of our belongings are digital.

The demographic that seems to be spending the most for their physical media is actually millennials, a generation that missed the original vinyl craze and came of age in the iTunes and Napster era. Wroblewski thinks that novelty, not nostalgia, is more of a draw. But his hope is that the unique experience of listening to a physical record and reading the liner notes is what keeps people invested.

“When collecting these physical things, you’re displaying things about yourself that you might not tell others about. You may not even know how these items reflect bits and pieces of you. It’s not the case of ‘you are what you own’ but rather that you select and cherish things that have meaning for you. I hope that people are interested in records now for maybe part of that. It takes more deliberation and effort to find a record and save it than it does to open a browser and run a search. That seems somewhat hollow to me. There’s simply more personality to records,” said Wroblewski.

The experience of taking the time to slow everything down and sit and listen and experience is almost always worth the time.”

Highway Hi-Fi has released episodes on the unglamorous and political side of the recording industry, like contractually obligated albums, bootlegging, and unsavory characters.  “I am always surprised how often the mafia seems to be involved in the making of records,” said Dixon.

“I very much like the music of so many pretty despicable people. It’s hard. I like listening to John Lennon, and James Brown and many others who’ve done some fairly nasty things to others. I’ve found that I can, in most cases, separate the artist from the music. Not always though,” said Wroblewski.

When music titans behave badly, oftentimes their audience is left wondering how to respond. How much power does an artist still hold over his art?

“As we go deeper in and find the nasty corners of the music world, I’m not sure it affects my enjoyment, but it certainly makes me reflect on our collective history and the role of complacency in our society. I think some of the best music was created in spite of this,” said Dixon.

If you’re a record store newbie and want to get into the hobby, Wroblewski and Dixon have a wealth of advice.

“I would suggest going to used record stores and trawling through the cheapie bins. Grab records you’ve never heard anything about. Get the ones with the goofy covers or whatever,” said Wroblewski. “Most of the time, it probably won’t be great but even just the experience of taking the time to slow everything down and sit and listen and experience is almost always worth the time. And every once in a while you’ll find a song or an album that will become one of the best things you’ve ever heard.”

Dixon believes that every record collection should start with these six albums:

1) A record that sounds like a beam of joy
2) A record that sounds like a shroud of darkness
3) A record that transports you to another place
4) A record that reminds you of home
5) A record that starts a party
6) A record that ends a party

“Once you have those, the rest is gravy.”

Highway Hi-Fi  is independently produced and releases new episodes every other week. Visit Highway Hi-Fi on Podchaser to listen with your favorite app, and leave it a rating or review.

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