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| From | "Stewart Mason" <craigtorso@verizon.net> |
| Subject | Re: The loss of music retailing |
| Date | Fri, 16 Dec 2005 16:55:48 -0500 |
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----- Original Message -----
From: "John L. Micek" <jlmicek@comcast.net>
> It's odd that we've spent so much time talking about the "demise of
> the retail music shop" without acknowledging our (collective) role
> in it.
> On any given day, you'll find people on here extolling the virtues
> of Parasol, NotLame, Bullseye, and Paisley Pop (gratuitous plug), or
> even iTunes. I think it's safe to say that online communities such
> as this one have done as much to "harm" (to the extent that such a
> thing is possible) bricks-and-mortar retailers as "the kids" are
> doing with single-song downloads and file-sharing.
> And I say this in full acknowledgment of my own fondness for
> brick-and-mortar record stores. My first and fondest memories of
> music shopping were at the Strawberries Records & Tapes in Avon,
> Conn., and the Caldor in Torrington, Conn., where I grew up. At that
> time (c.1983-84), when I was first discovering music, they seemed
> like wondrous places. I vividly remember being stunned that a record
> by The Jam was readily available at a Caldor in provincial
> Connecticut. It seemed then like those songs were being beamed in
> from another planet.
> In one store, it seemed, I could go from The Jam to Hank Williams
> and then to Augustus Pablo. It was a wide-ranging experience, and it
> seemed then like the breadth of taste was just endless.
>
> All of which is a long-winded way of saying that, as we bemoan the
> loss of record retailers, we should probably acknowledge our own
> culpability.
I dunno, all of this sounds like you're saying I should have stuck
with my junior high girlfriend because she was my first love, you
know? I have a lot of the same fond memories of Hastings and Sound
Warehouse and Record Bar in Lubbock, which seemed like great record
stores when I was, y'know, 14. But I'm not 14 anymore, and I'm not
looking for the same thing in a record store as I was then, just as my
wife doesn't have much in common with the girls I liked in 8th grade.
(Okay, one thing, but hey, everybody's got a type.) Newbury Comics
and Twisted Village still get a big chunk of my discretionary income,
just as various online merchants do, and just as the Virgin Megastore
does. But that's because these are stores that have the CDs I'm
looking for, and I'm not gonna cry for Strawberries or FYE if they
don't.
S
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