Record Store Reminicing...

Just finished watching  "I Need That Record" and man it brought back some memories.  Unlike a lot of people nowadays, I still see most media as a physical product.  Music and movies come on a disc and books, magazines and newspapers are printed on actual paper.  I see the usefulness and value of digital media, and I have converted all my CD's to MP3's for convenience, but as far as purchases, I need something tangible.

Someone can brag about all the music they have in their collection but then hold up a digital device.  What the fuck is that?  Your music collection is nothing but one's and zero's.  Where's the artwork, the liner notes, the lyrics!?!  What happens when you sit on that fucker or drop it in the urinal while pissing?  And to make it worse, they obtained it by sitting their fat ass in a chair in front of a computer or their phone and pressing some buttons.  Now, granted, there aren't alot of places to go to anymore to buy actual music CD's but people are really missing out on the joy of shopping for music.  Spending hours rifling through the bins looking for a long lost gem.  Buying something, having never heard the actual music, just because the cover kicks ass.  I used to spend every Tuesday, when I was a student, going from store to store to check out the new releases and talking music with the clerks.  Clerks at Best Buy or Wal-Mart aren't going to offer you reccommendations, they'll just point you in the direction of what they think you want.

I worked in a music/video/gaming store for several years and watched as digital took over and things went downhill.  When your weekly shipments started to have more action figures and T-shirts than music then the writing was on the wall.  Kids would come in and complain about the prices and say "well, I'll just go home and download it".  You know, I never walked into a car dealer and said "that car's too expensive, I'll just go steal one".  I didn't understand it.  Music wasn't something that was created for them, it was just an amorphous bit of digital code on the internet, free for the taking.

So next time you want some music, don't download it (even if you pay for it) go out and buy the CD, preferably from an INDEPENDENT record store and not a big box store.