With today’s technology, things like Spotify and Apple Music make it easy to take any music they want to listen to and take it on the go, easier than downloading music onto iPods and burning CDs. Physical media over the year has seen the light as trends arise and people start getting into collecting things like vinyls, CDs, cassettes, DVDs, etc. Though trends over the years have allowed for the resurgence of collecting physical media to rise and artists are re-releasing old and current music on vinyl, CDs, and cassettes, it will never be as revolutionary and widespread as it was in the late 90s and early to mid-2000s. Collecting physical media saw a huge spike around 2018/2019 when collecting vinyls became huge, owning records and record players spiked interests in a lot of people, including myself.
In 2016, someone went into a charity shop in Nottingham, England, picking up a CD with the cover art of a girl drawn in manga style, titled “D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L,” with the band name Panchiko written on the side. With a track name like that, one would expect a heavy, loud, metal track, and instead, you are met with a lo-fi/shoegaze sound that has faced some distortion due to the amount of disc rot suffered. The back of the CD left very few clues to who the people behind Panchiko were, only showing the year it was made, 2000, and four first names, Owain, Andy, Shaun, and John. After purchasing the album and taking it home to listen to, an anonymous 4chan user uploaded a photo of the cover and asked if anyone knew of the album, causing the internet to go on a hunt to uncover the mystery of the band behind the music. The post quickly gained a lot of attention, sparking conversations on Reddit threads, YouTube, and Discord channels. A cult following grew as internet users became devoted to trying to solve the mystery and track down the band. The band didn’t have a website, Myspace, or any online presence to be traced back to, making the hunt so intriguing.
It’s January 2020, four years after the initial 4chan post was uploaded and EP was discovered, someone discovered a code on the CD’s cover to be traced back to an Oxfam shop (a charity shop specializing in second-hand books, physical media, clothes, and other items) in Sherwood, Nottingham. Knowing the band members’ first names, it was discovered that there was an Owain in the Nottingham area. Owain gets an unsuspected Facebook message from the searcher asking, “yo were u the guy from Panchiko?”, in which he thinks it’s some sort of joke, someone talking about the band he made in high school with his four friends. Owain, in an interview with VICE, said, “I was like, wait, what? Are you pulling my leg? Do people really like this? Like, there’s so much good music on the internet. They’ve got so much choice. Why do people like this so much?” The messenger explains how thousands on the internet had been searching for the creators of the EP, “D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L,” and how it had developed a massive fan base. The EP at this point was 20 years old, a project Owain made with his then high school band mates. They burned approximately 30 CD’s to then share with friends, family, and record labels, and then disbanded to start moving onto start new careers and to start families.
Realizing the intensity of the situation, the sudden attraction surrounding the EP, the internet’s four-year hunt to find the members, the large cult following, the band re-recorded the tracks and uploaded them to Bandcamp and Spotify, quickly garnering millions of streams. The amount of positive attention received brought the band back together, and they went on multiple tours, continuing to release new music and revisiting their high school dreams.
If it weren’t for that 4chan user walking into that very charity shop, that very day, the CD would’ve never been brought to the internet, starting the almost two-decade wild goose chase the internet went on to search for the band and EP. If that CD hadn’t ended up in that shop, instead ending up in the garbage or landfill, Panchiko would have never revisited their dreams to go on multiple tours, re-record the music they made as teenagers, and create new music for their millions of fans.
Physical media, especially in the music world, is becoming a lost art, slowly becoming erased and forgotten as the rise of technology takes over. It is easy to understand that CDs may not provide the best portability to travel with, selection, or durability. However, CDs and all other forms of physical media are so important as they preserve media for decades to come, support artists and creators, and keep physical media alive. Owning a CD is more than just physically owning it, you are owning a piece of music history and preserving those artifacts for the next coming generations, passing it on the same way people go to thrift stores looking for vinyls to add to their collections or old Vogue magazines. The emotional significance that comes with sharing physical media, sharing something tangible, rather than sharing a link, is something that streaming services and online sites will never be able to replicate. Browsing music in a thrift store or music shop with friends is so much more enjoyable than searching on Spotify. You can connect a memory to an album and build a connection from when and where you bought the album and how it’s grown with you. Spotify is good for introducing people to new and upcoming artists, new genres, and music they would never pick up in the store, I do have to give it that. However, I would definitely recommend investing in albums you already love, and keeping them in your collection, if you’re worried about buying something you end up not liking. Libraries are also a great source for borrowing music before buying it and owning it yourself.
It goes without saying, keep physical media alive, pick up a random CD in the thrift store, and maybe you’ll find the next Panchiko.