Entertainment desk
< January 12	<< Dec \| January \| Feb >>	Current desk >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

January 13[edit]

What do you call it when a vinyl record gets stuck?[edit]

I just heard it online. The sound stopped briefly and the problem was fixed, but I can only assume that was a recording because how could the person be monitoring it that closely?— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:35, 13 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Found it. Phonograph_record#Vinyl says "locked groove". Actually, that's more of a problem as I'd have to explain it.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:37, 13 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I also heard is called a "skip" - I know I'm not the only person who experienced this. Back in the 60's and 70's a radio DJ could put on a record - leave the booth for whatever reason - and a record with a skip might glitch for minutes at a time. Whoo wee I'm getting old. MarnetteD|Talk 02:49, 14 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe there's more than one thing being discussed. A "skipping" record is one where the stylus jumps the groove so that it ends up repeating or skipping a short interval of the playback. See Skip (audio playback). Notably, though, the sound doesn't stop as the OP's post describes and I don't think I've ever heard of a stylus actually getting stuck, though I'm sure it's happened. Matt Deres (talk) 03:44, 14 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I believe the OP means that it stopped briefly when the DJ noticed the problem (and lifted the stylus). --142.112.159.101 (talk) 08:21, 14 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Deliberate locked grooves do exist, although they're normally placed at the very end of a side, in the run-out groove. The needle gets stuck and something plays on endless repeat. There's a famous example at the end of side 2 of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. --Viennese Waltz 07:27, 14 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe not as famous but there's also a dripping water tap noise at the end of "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" which runs ad infinitum. †dismas†|^(talk) 19:06, 14 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Another example: on Another Monty Python Record, the Piranha Brothers saga is interrupted by Luigi Vercotti, saying "Sorry squire, I've scratched the record," looping. —Tamfang (talk) 08:09, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Assuming the DJ is actually there. Larry King once told a story of when he was an overnight DJ on a Miami radio station and left the studio while an album was playing. It started skipping in the final track, and it took him a noticeably long time to get back to the studio and fix it. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:52, 14 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

If the recording did actually stop, i.e. producing a period of silence, it would probably because radio DJs commonly use slipmats, which allow the turntable to rotate beneath a record. If there was a big enough hole in the groove to stop the stylus (literally) in its tracks there would be silence until somebody lifted and replaced it further in towards the label. I'd imagine that this would result in stylus damage if it actually happened though. Incidentally, contrary what the linked article states Grandmaster Flash did not invent the slipmat, though he probably did re-discover it.Blakk and ekka 15:37, 14 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

In Larry King's situation, he was playing a Belafonte LP. When it got to the "Jamaica Farewell" track, the skip made it go "Down the way, where the nights, where the nights, where the nights..." hundreds of times before he made it back to the studio.[1] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:10, 14 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

When I saw Harry Chapin in 1979–80, he said DJs liked his songs because some of them are long enough for a serious potty break. One of my party, who had been DJ on (iirc) the student station WPGU, grinned and nodded vigorously. —Tamfang (talk) 08:09, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Since the question is "what do you call it?"... another answer is "broken record". If someone repeated himself a lot, my mother would say he's "like a broken record". Looking in the OED Online, I find that they have cites for this phrase with this meaning as recently as 2004 (in The New Republic), even though a 1988 cite (in Newsday) acknowledges that "this comparison will have to be replaced as the compact disc gains pre-eminence and we forget what broken records sounded like". --142.112.159.101 (talk) 08:21, 14 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

A quick survey of Newspapers.com (a pay site) for just 2019 indicates plenty of usage. And with vinyl records having made a comeback, it could be with us a long time. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 08:57, 14 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]