Disc-go: Should you get rid of your CDs?

They're ugly and they clog up your cupboards. But just like vinyl spun back into fashion, the compact disc could too

In the Guide's weekly Solved! column, we look into a crucial pop-culture question you've been burning to know the answer to - and settle it, once and for all

When compact discs started arriving on the shelves of Woolworths in the 1980s, liberated boomers set about chucking out all the vinyl clogging up their entertainment centres. After an investment in a three-disc changer and some CD towers, they could rest easy in the assurance that they were future-proofed. A couple of decades, and a few music industry meltdowns later, no one wants CDs any more. Music is now nebulous, swirling round us like a particularly tuneful dust storm or, in the case of Gary Barlow's new album, a fart in a lift.