Lina Galeai
Contributing Writer
Vinyl enthusiasts and music connoisseurs alike gathered at KUSF.org’s first Rock ‘N’ Swap of the semester. Collectors and buyers came from all different generations and backgrounds, and arrived from various places for this all-day event. However, Rock ‘N’ Swap was more than just large collections of vintage records and oddities, crated and ready to be purchased. Both sellers and attendees shared exchanging stories of a mutual love for a certain record and playfully bickered over modern day music versus “the good old vinyl.”
Making its home in the Mclaren Conference Center, Rock ‘N’ Swap has been hosted at USF for over 30 years. Free for USF students and only $3 for general admission, the record fair was bustling with students and people from around town. Filling the conference room were countless tables lined up with various crates, labeled by artists and genres, collectible CDs and DVDs, as well as posters and printed t-shirts with past events and crazy designs.
Four times a year, sellers and buyers come to KUSF.org’s event eager to benefit from selling or adding to collections that are 50 to 60 years in the making. Most of Rock ‘N’ Swap’s sellers and patrons are not strangers to these record fairs.
John Hoglund, a regular at the Rock ‘N’ Swap for more than 25 years, journeys from Santa Cruz, where he houses over 30,000 records of all genres, from jazzy R&B to mainstream pop music. A veteran of various record trading shows up and down the coast of Northern California, he deems Rock ‘N’ Swap to be one of the best gatherings to show off his collection, maintaining that there is a sense of community around this celebration of music. “You start to see a lot of the same faces,” Hoglund said, “and we all get here so early in the morning, we sort of go through each other’s collections before everyone gets here and get first picks.”
Terry and Myrtis McKinley, whose extensive collection rivals Hoglund’s, agreed. The Los Angeles natives traveled to San Francisco specifically for this event. The sellers turn a profit at Rock ‘N’ Swap nearly every time, but what they really love about the event is the shared passion for these musical artifacts, and the chance to add more diversity to their already impressive collection.
It’s visible that the culture surrounding past and present music mediums will live on through generations to come because of events like KUSF’s Rock n’ Swap.
