Tomorrow is Record Store Day. A growing percentage of music lovers don't really care about it. Maybe a better way to put this is there aren't many of us left. People just want to download things. Physical products are irrelevant. It's the music that really matters...and the convenience. I fully understand where you're coming from there. I also completely disagree with it. It doesn't work for me.
The physical act of picking up a recording (CD, vinyl, cassette), checking it out, finding something unavailable, etc.; is an experience you will NEVER get online. And now it's becoming common knowledge that CDs have more digital information than most files, so they sound better. A great or even good record store is like no other. - John DoePeople will argue that much of that information is available online. Yep, the "liner" notes, the photos...they're all there. That doesn't work for me either. Sure, I'm hardcore old school. I want to buy something I can put my hands on.
But Record Store Day is only partially about that. It's about a culture, and it's the disappearance of that culture that bothers me more than anything else. I wrote something about this last year for jazz.com, and was treated to a less than gentle rebuttal, basically saying I was full of it. What can I say, smart people can disagree. He thought the indie store provided nothing...beyond irritation. That hasn't been my experience, to say the least.
So when it's all gone, and my choices have dwindled to iTunes and Amazon, will the warm and fuzzy blanket of social networking (Facebook and whatever is to come) replace that unique situation: in which you're sifting through a collection and stumble onto a gem? In which you pick up a record, mention it to the person standing next to you and he says, "Hey, you'd really like so and so. He was the first guitar player in that band?"
Article comments
1 - Glen Boyd
This is SO spot on Mark.
I've been trying to say exactly this in the last million or so Rockologist columns, but you summed it up shortly and succinctly. It's gonna be a sad day indeed when the neighborhood record shops are gone. We need to cherish them while we can. See ya on record store day.
-Glen
2 - El Bicho
How is that culture disappearing? I would argue it's expanding. Rather than sharing music with your small group of local, offline friends, so many possibilities have opened up as the online world offers more people with varying tastes.
Just from coming to this site alone, I have shared music with e-friends in Washington, Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, and even other countries. There's all kinds of music and albums that have been introduced to me and I am not just talking about Springsteen. Rather than the overpriced, poorly recorded boots of yore, I now find recent shows in soundboard quality.
I'll step out of the way before Guppus takes you to task.
3 - El Bicho
I even had a guy from NH turn me onto a Heavy Metal Tribute to the Bee Gees
4 - MarkSaleski
yeah bicho, i do realize that some of the social aspects are relocating rather than disappearing, but the element of direct human contact is lost.
i mean sure, we can get just about everything via the internet. doesn't mean i want to. yes, i'll get my music from there, and movies, and clothing, and food. i'll never leave home again. it'll be awesome.
except for the trolls.
5 - Mat Brewster
I wonder if part of the naysaying comes from the fact that so many record stores are already gone.
One of the last times we had this argument I went down to the only record store in town and it was lousy. Their collection was loaded with early 90s alternative (which is either uninteresting, or I already own), there was nobody else in the store save for one guy who was arguing with the only sales rep about something ridiculously stupid.
I left thinking, this is what all the fuss is about?
6 - Tom Johnson
Mat's experience is sadly close to what my experience has been, and I apparently have many more options than he does. As much as I love browsing through the stacks, the stacks aren't yielding much because the stores are opting to not stock the good stuff. They've either chosen to not buy the interesting, eclectic used stuff they used to, or they're putting it on Ebay and Amazon (I know for a fact they do this because I've seen them there.) When you can't even get your local store to keep stuff local, what choice do you have? I still go back, but I try to go with no expectations other than that I'll likely be ordering whatever I might actually WANT from Amazon, and buying locally is just buying something interesting on the spur of the moment. Sometimes I luck out, but it's not as often as it should be - and it's really sad when Best Buy has things that the local music stores don't.
That said, I'm excited for RDS. I still want to support them and I'm carving out a bit of time from our major spring-cleaning day tomorrow for it.
7 - El Bicho
Just because record stores are being phasing out doesn't mean the only alternative is to live like Howard Hughes.
8 - Mat Brewster
So I should take the Kleenex boxes off my feet?