Still even there, at least there was a personal touch about it. You may have wanted nothing more than to tell the hipper than thou clerk to stick it where the sun don't shine as you brought your John Denver album up to the counter. But at least you were interacting in a personal way with an actual human being.
Between the instant access offered by the internet, and the grocery store sort of experience offered by big-box retailers like WalMart, I fear this sort of personal interaction may be close to being lost forever. The one thing I know for sure is that WalMart won't be breaking any future AC/DC's anytime soon.
The good news is that there are still a few independent music retailers out there. But in most cases, the key to their survival has been diversification. In my own West Seattle neighborhood, Easy Street Records probably saved their ass by expanding their space to include a cafe. Good for them too, as they seem to be thriving.
Maybe it's partially because I'm getting older, but I just find myself missing a lot of things about the good old days. Like most everybody else, I miss $1.50 a gallon gas, drive-in movies, and mom and pop burger joints not called McDonalds or Jack In The Box. I miss the days when someone named Bush or Clinton wasn't my president.
But most of all I miss my neighborhood record stores, snotty hipper than thou counter jockeys and all. What's most sad, is that I think they are going the way of the 8-track tape and won't be coming back anytime soon.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - JC Mosquito
Spot on, Glen. Unfortunately, you're preaching to the choir here for the most part, and if the occasional debbil reads your column, he probably doesn't care anyway.
I mean, when did rock and roll as financial security ever weasel its way into the concept of rock an roll as alternative culture or even as aesthetic rebellion? Probably since the day Elvis had his first number one hit, I'd guess. And even though I'm OK with anyone who makes good money in the industry, I still think "music" should be the most important word in the phrase "music business."
2 - Glen Boyd
Thanx Skeeter. Like you say, I guess the only thing that remains to be seen here is just how many so-called rock fans actually do care enough about the future of music to give a whiff, right? One would hope that it's a significant enough number to make a difference. But I have to admit that at the risk of coming off like some sort of pessimistic curmudgeon, I'm somewhat skeptical.
=Glen
3 - JC Mosquito
Glen, since you've served in various capacities in the industry, maybe you can supply some rough numbers - and maybe some other contributors can also do this as well. Where does the money go? How much markup does the small retailer need to stay afloat as opposed to the Music dept. at WallyWorld? And how much does the manufacturer/record company need to cover the cost of manufacturing and producing a CD? And where does the artist make any dough? And the biggest question - so, who is making the lion's share of the profit in a multi-billion dollar industry?
4 - Christopher Rose
Glen's point is pretty accurate but it doesn't really matter; music itself died over a decade ago...
5 - Donald Gibson
One thing I find particularly distressful about this AC/DC deal is that this one, more than Walmart's other exclusivity deals, reeks more of financial opportunism than as a viable means to distribute albums.
Let's be honest here, AC/DC has never subscribed to the "family friendly" image that Walmart likes to portray. Walmart banned Sheryl Crow's albums in the late '90s, for crying out loud, because she wrote a (fact-based) lyric about someone buying a firearm at their store.
Now,apparently, it's alright to ride the "Highway to Hell" so long as it runs through Walmart's aisles.
- Donald
6 - Glen Boyd
The short answer to your question Skeeter is that music retailers don't make much on the CDs they sell. Maybe 30 points on their very best day, but more often it's something closer to 15 or 20 points, because the retail prices have to be slashed in order to compete. Especialy now.
The same CD you see selling at 15 to 20 dollars retail, is bought by the reseller at usually somewhere between 10 to 12 dollars.
What that means, once you figure in your overhead costs, is that you'd better be selling a buttload of CDs if you plan on surviving. Probably the number one factor when I had to make the painful decision to close my own store, was the fact that a big box retailer who opened down the street from me was retailing CDs for less than my own wholesale cost. I had him beat for selection on the specialty music items, but at that point it no longer mattered. I just couldn't compete with his prices on the hits, and at the end of the day the hits are still what traffic to the store.
I was toast.
-Glen
7 - Mat Brewster
Just don't expect to be seeing any artistic works with the same sort of sonic depth as a Sgt. Pepper, Pet Sounds, or Born To Run anytime soon. When today's music delivery systems of choice don't exactly measure up to that sort of ambition, what would be the point of it?
I completely disagree. You can't tell me that every person who bought Sgt. Peppers listened to it with a state-of-the-art system. Most, I'd guess, listened to it on cheap turntable and cheap speakers. Yet people still loved it. Just because the speakers have gotten smaller (if still maintaining the same cheapness) doesn't mean that great bands won't be doing something interesting.
Radiohead and NIN have both released interesting/layered albums of late, and the iPod generation ate them up.
8 - Glen Boyd
While I take your point Mat (at least somewhat anyway), I'd have to call something like In Rainbows a rare exception to the rule. And when the early versions of that were released as a download only product, the sound quality sucked, particularly when you take into account that the music itself was so richly layered.
I bought the CD when it came out and I was quite literally stunned by the difference in sound. I haven't listened to the MP3s once since. They just dont sound as good.
I also agree that Sgt. Pepper was probably heard on just as many shitty portable record players as it was on higher end systems. But part of the key to the endurance of a record like that, is that most of those same people who had a shitty record player as a kid, bought nicer stuff as they got older. They also replaced their worn old vinyl copies for the most part.
For me, the MP3 generation is much more song oriented, than album oriented anyway. Thats why all whoever the flavor of the moment needs to do is crank out disposable pop crap produced by the modern day equivalent of Tin Pan Alley.
Radiohead and NiN notwithstanding....
-Glen
9 - JC Mosquito
"Glen's point is pretty accurate but it doesn't really matter; music itself died over a decade ago..."
Christopher - we had a similar series of discussions about a year ago: since then, since the Zeppelin reunion, the Radiohead album giveaway and the Eagles' exclusivity deal, I'm starting to think that maybe you were right after all. Or maybe it's just that last year was a slow year for good music. I guess we'll see.
10 - Christopher Rose
Hi Skeeter, glad to see you're finally coming round!
I don't mean to say that there is no good music now, just that it has by and large stopped evolving like it used to.
You can take almost any music from today and throw it 25 to 50 years into the past and it wouldn't sound out of place. You couldn't say that in the 60s, 70s or 80s, even the early 90s...
11 - zingzing
"You can take almost any music from today and throw it 25 to 50 years into the past and it wouldn't sound out of place."
that's not quite true. and definitely not "50 years." it is true that rock's innovations have slowed, but that's been true ever since the late-60s, when the heavyweights of the day turned back towards their roots.
the 70s extended and refined the ideas of the 60s, the 80s brought new technologies and the effects of 70s punk's great reduction/explosion. rinse and repeat for the 90s and 00s.
think of the birth of rock n roll like a big bang of sorts. the explosion carries with it it's own weight, and the universe seems to expand at unbelievable speed, but the change becomes less noticeable at its edges. after 50 years, the rate of change looks slower, but the edges are further apart than ever.
12 - Christopher Rose
I said almost any music so it IS quite true, zinger. Plus I wasn't talking about just rock, but all contemporary music.
I think your big bang analogy is a bit wishful thinking. I just think the muse has moved on and music, although there is still enjoyable and/or interesting stuff around, just isn't what it was anymore.
When was the last time you were genuinely gobsmacked by a new band? I haven't felt that way this century...
13 - Jordan Richardson
When was the last time you were genuinely gobsmacked by a new band?
Happens all the time for me, actually. I think there's an awful lot of good stuff happening in hip hop, electronica/dance, indie, pop and experimental music at the moment.
A few examples:
Duffy!
Vampire Weekend
MGMT
Black Kids
Foals
Ting Tings
The Cool Kids
Liam Finn
Adele
And so on...
14 - zingzing
"I said almost any music so it IS quite true, zinger."
true, you did say "almost." but that doesn't make it true either. you can't even stick justin timberlake's most mj-aping stuff back 25 years ago without it seeming ridiculously futuristic. don't even want to think about 50 years ago.
"I just think the muse has moved on and music, although there is still enjoyable and/or interesting stuff around, just isn't what it was anymore."
ahh, that's called getting old, chris. it happens to the best of us, and it will, i fear, happen to me. it's beginning already in other facets of life.
"When was the last time you were genuinely gobsmacked by a new band? I haven't felt that way this century..."
it still happens a good 4-5 times a year for me.
15 - Tom Johnson
"When was the last time you were genuinely gobsmacked by a new band?"
If the intent of your question is to point out a lack of good new bands, then I'd say this outlook may be due more to your general attitude toward new music and/or your age than anything else. Music wasn't any better "back then" - it's just what you were more familiar with and you've magically filtered out all the junk. There's a lot more choice today than ever before, and as a result I find a lot more great stuff that divides my time. Listening with an open mind and fresh ears will help you hear new, great things all the time. As Zingzing said, it happens multiple times a year that I find new bands that completely enslave me. It would be very sad if it didn't happen. Attitude toward new music makes a very big difference.
16 - Christopher Rose
Jordan: I've only heard a little under half those artists but of those, whilst the music is good enough, it ain't gobsmacking. If you think it is, you can simply not know your history very well.
zing: It isn't me that's got old, it's music. As I said, there is good new music around, but very few new ideas.
Justin Timberlake is one of the best contemporary artists around and I have both his albums, but I believe his stuff could have been made in the 80s. Maybe I should have said 15 to 50 years ago if you want to be picky about the numbers rather than the point I'm making.
I've obviously considered whether it is me or the music that is getting old and I genuinely think it is the latter.
You claim to be genuinely gobsmacked 4 or 5 times a year. I want names and reasons...
Tom: I carefully didn't say there weren't any good bands. The point I'm making is that most music around these days is unsurprising.
I'm well aware there's more choice than ever before and a lot of it is great. However, that doesn't contradict my point that the vast majority of it is ploughing someone else's field rather than opening up new ground.
It's not so surprising really; the pace of musical evolution from the late 50s to the 80s was one of the most intense periods of musical evolution the world has ever seen and that pace has naturally and understandably dropped off.
17 - Jordan Richardson
Jordan: I've only heard a little under half those artists but of those, whilst the music is good enough, it ain't gobsmacking. If you think it is, you can simply not know your history very well.
And here I thought art was a subjective experience...
18 - bliffle
Maybe people should listen to less music.
19 - Tom Johnson
Jordan, you obviously just don't know a good "gobsmacking" when it hits you.
I think us providing you with evidence of our "gobsmacking" will simply provide fodder for you putting down what we're listening to, Christopher. I don't think you'd possibly find anything remotely positive to say about anything new no matter what, but I'll toss out Cloud Cult as one new band that I've been "gobsmacked" by recently. It doesn't matter why - they "gobsmacked" me, by jove! That's what I think bothers me about your question - you're trying to quantify it and qualify it, and it doesn't need to be. If you were "gobsmacked," then you were "gobsmacked," and that's all there is to it.
I love the word "gobsmacked."
20 - Jordan Richardson
I'm pretty sure Duffy gobstruck me (huh? huh?) with Rockferry but of course I could be totally wrong about that and merely deflecting my experiences with some sort of misfiring neurons or something, thus meaning my malfunctioning brain is actually not telling me my wife's pasta sauce is good and even absolutely astounding.
Oh the implications...
21 - zingzing
chris: "It isn't me that's got old, it's music. As I said, there is good new music around, but very few new ideas."
that's been said since 1968.
"Justin Timberlake is one of the best contemporary artists around and I have both his albums, but I believe his stuff could have been made in the 80s."
on a production level, that's just impossible. on an idea level, he poaches too many nuances from r&b and electronic music's last 10 years of development. if his albums had come out in 1983, they would have been visionary and a new standard of production. today, they are good pop music. at least half the time.
"Maybe I should have said 15 to 50 years ago if you want to be picky about the numbers rather than the point I'm making."
yeah, i'm not trying to be picky about the numbers either. timberlake's albums have been state of the art pop music. while michael jackson's music had a significant influence on timberlake, there are many ideas at work that simply weren't around in mj's day.
and timberlake is a fairly middle-of-the-road pop artist. he's not on the outer fringes of music. innovation rarely comes from the middle. it filters in from outside. there are musics out there that 10 years ago would have been called "not even music," and are now on mid-major labels.
"I've obviously considered whether it is me or the music that is getting old and I genuinely think it is the latter."
sorry, chris, but music constantly replenishes itself while you have, unless you are peter pan, aged. you're in your 30's, correct?
"You claim to be genuinely gobsmacked 4 or 5 times a year. I want names and reasons..."
alright, for the past year then:
fuck buttons--beautiful music from ugly sources; also an amazing sense of structure and drama.
beach house--gauzy and strange, yet beautifully constructed and simple.
burial--great mood and mystery. minimalist and expansive at the same time.
sunset rubdown--and anything else featuring spencer krug. he's as prolific a songwriter as prince or the fall, with an identifiable style and endless amounts of inspiration.
dan deacon--goofy, yet very serious about compositional technique. looney tunes-dance pop-john cage.
22 - Jordan Richardson
Good call on Fuck Buttons, zinger. Great record.
23 - Glen Boyd
Certainly a great band name. Can't speak for the music as I haven't yet had the pleasure. MP3s anyone?
-Glen
24 - Glen Boyd
While were on this "gobsmacking" topic, I have to say that I was "gobsmacked" pretty good by Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree last year. Granted they've been around since the nineties and I was just a Johnny-come-lately, but Wilson's talent just really floors me. They were really the first band to that for me since probably Radiohead.
I also think last year was a great year for music. This year has definitely much slower thus far though.
-Glen
25 - JC Mosquito
Actually, I've postulated the Big Bang Theory of music many times over the years as it applies to any musical movement: 50s r'n'r, the 60s movement, punk, hip hop, whatever.
Direction,
expansion,
realization (fill in the gaps), and finally,
stagnation, at least til,
rejuvenation.
No doubt all those bands zing mentioned are all wonderful artists making cool music. But will they ever have the influence on a generation like the artists of the 50s, 60s & 70s did and still do? Or was that simply a type of nostalgia artificially created by the industry to keep itself going?