I went to the record store and all I got was this lousy MP3

Monday, March 31, 2008

I went to an independent record store on the weekend. My first time in about 6 months. I felt dirty. Not because of being there but because of why I haven't.

Money. Or lack of. To warrant taking a punt on albums I'm only curious about anyway. And with the advent of large music chain stores who are able to buy in bulk and sell at near cost price or lower...well goddamn it, the lure just proves too much.

When these types of stores first started cropping up on the scene it wasn't an issue. Lowly independent curios didn't exactly register on the multinationals radar and the closest you'd come was an Import CD that someone had ordered in and forgotten to pick up. Fishing around in the giant pond of "$5 and under" albums was a thrill in itself but most times you'd take a chance on the artwork more than the music it contained. It was one of the few ways for the 'financially challenged' to still take a chance. And that's the problem with independent music. The kind of people that are into it or make it can't actually afford to buy much of it.

I was in said independent record store to buy a ticket to see a friends show. Since I had some time to kill I hung around, browsing through the artist headers and new release shelves. It slowly dawned on me that I had at least a curious familiarity with nearly every artist stocked there. Unlike the chain stores, where you walk in with a sense of being the hunter, searching for prey amongst the bones and refuse of all the Playstation Games, Ipod trinkets and surly security guards, the independent record store had sorted the wheat from the chafe. The diamond from the rough. The Pavement DVD from Gloria Estefan Live in Brazil. I was home again.

Before long I found myself browsing the vinyl section. Where such a place exists in most chain stores as a prelude to the toilets - if at all - here I found that nearly every recent release I was interested in had a vinyl counterpart. The large format photos, the attention to presentation and the 'drama' of the product was something that had been entirely absent from my recent record shopping existence. I found myself absorbing details I had only glanced over on the CD version. Leaning in to it. Caressing it. HAVING RELATIONS WITH IT.

I find it strange that vinyl has somehow survived. Just as the rush for the next 'breakthrough' in visual quality comes to a header between Blu-Ray and HD DVD it seems the music industry is likewise splitting neatly in two. On one hand there's the digital life of the album, where Radiohead can give you their album for free online and you do your mp3 shopping in your underpants in front of the computer. The other: the renaissance of the vinyl record and the weekend artisan who covets it. Or if one's going to fork over the cash then you may as well upsize.