The New York Times has gone and laid a faux nostalgia egg on us with its piece lamenting the closing of the last NYC Virgin Megastore. Honestly, there are 10,000 things I feel sadder about than the closing of music stores (like Mad Men spoilers! Booo!). Burn the fuckers down for all I care. Big box chains were just glorified shrines to record companies, anyways (corporations, you guyssss). Also, they made every asshole with a Little Prince tattoo all the more self-righteous about hawking you the new Sigur Ross b-side on vinyl.
I buy music. Lots of it. And like the rest of the non self- aggrandizing percentage of the population that actually finished college because they didn’t want to sell used Moby CDs for a living, I do it online. According to one guy quoted in the article, the closing of music shops is a hit to the community.
“It does matter because it was also a social gathering space, and that’s one thing that buying music online lacks.”
Really, Bro? I didn’t feel a sense of ‘community’ as a young pad purchasing a Bon Jovi door poster. Speaking of posters…what the hell ever happened to Prints Plus! Where do today’s youth get their masturbatory Jonai posters from? This the silent victim of the internet: posters! Cause, like, why ever buy a Carmen Electra wank poster when you could just download 500 jpgs for free! But still, I’ll pour it out for the poster section.
Anyways, I’ve never experienced that warm fuzzy feeling of community and likewise equated music stores to be a social gathering space for scabies. I didn’t enjoy feeling judged by the Hot Topic adorned, facially pierced (think 90s y’all) meth addict working the cash register for purchasing a Radiohead album alongside an Ibiza Trance Party Mix 2000 CD.
So to the record stores, you had a nice run, but I’m not really gonna miss you all that much. It’s not like they’re taking the music away forever. They are just making it easier for you to buy and getting rid of that clunky CD case that is taking up space in your otherwise grown up living room. Let’s not be sad that a dinosaur is dying! Let’s wave our caveman clubs in victory and feast upon the succulent nectar of the online fruits … like Apple! Wish I could buy a Steve Jobs Poster :(.
I was one of the employee’s of this record store until the last day. It doesn’t sound like you spent enough time in this store to understand it’s worth. You never spent hours browsing the jazz section, you never spoke to the house DJ about the evolution of artists like Tom Waits or Dylan, you never hung around to watch Andy Warhol’s screen test on the big screen. Music used to be more than an impressive itunes collection. I don’t care whether you’re happy or sad to see the store go, but I do care if you want to shit on it’s grave.
WHERE WILL WE CELEBRATE REX MANNING’S BIRTHDAY?!?
Every time I am instructed to feel nostalgiac for record stores, I try to come up with a fond memory and am found wanting. Is it a great loss that my High School punk memories are waiting 30 minutes on 56k dialup (it made you REALLY fucking determined to like whatever song you ended up with) and getting stuff from DIYish mailorder places instead of mysterious tapes and record stores (in a small town, you’re waiting a week either way so way pay the extra $4 over a distro)? I hope not. Otherwise, I am already old and officially have to begrudge the fuck out of kids grabbing leaked FOB via YSI threads within 10 minutes of even hearing that the band exists. Plus, I feel way more of a sense of community about music online that I ever felt in real life anyways. Yeah, I want to go to shows where everyone is too cool to have a conversation and stores where the lifers are going to mock my earnest first steps. Lets burn this authenticity fetishization horeshit the rest of the way down, before it kills again.
those missing the “social” aspect of a record store, should login to emusic, to name one example.
Seriously, I spent countless hours at Virgin and Tower, while I was in college, sometimes most of my day. I don’t miss them at all.
To suggest that we won’t miss record stores “that much” is naive. They’ve been an American tradition for almost 100 years; to not mourn this loss is to ignore a part of our history. But, hey, if that isn’t enough, mourn the loss of jobs, or cringe at the thought of a Wal-Mart in Union Square.
We all know the benefits of digital music, but there are still plenty of downsides. Maybe you like your music compressed to favor hard drive space and distribution instead of sound quality. I won’t knock your preferences.
But besides all of that, your use of mimesis continues an irritating blogging cliché, an easy straw man that I thought ended with Gawker circa 2003. I guess if you can feed your superiority complex with each ironic use of an exclamation point, and distract readers from the realization that your writing is, ultimately, a hollow contrarian exercise, bravo.
@joe a/s/l???
You serious, man? Your use of ostensibly nuanced (but really: just plan anal and joyless) blog critique is, ultimately, a good sign you should find something better to do (or something you’re better at). Bravo?
PS Fuck overchargy record stores. Nobody but nostalgic Generation X-ers who though they were cool for buying vinyl will miss them. Order your vinyl from InSound and STFU. But if a Wal Mart goes in its place, I’ll buy you the first Music From Celebrity Apprentice (Various Artists) on the house. If it’s Target, no deal. They have nice soaps.
I got my first CDs from those BMG Music Factory or whatever inserts in magazines and I miss those inserts sooooooooo much. They were such an important part of my life as a young American tween.
I bet Kurt Cobain would totally hatefuck Hype Machine
BMG! Those mail in things were awesome. I totally taped a penny to an envelope and sent away for a bunch of GN’R tapes. I got grounded for never paying the rest of the fees and my mom told my 13 year old self that I was going to have bad credit because of it.
@fek: Really, bro? And here you are with an ostensibly nuanced critique of my comment. Guess a brother can’t make a valid point unless it includes exclamatory joy and parenthetical references to pop culture artifacts (whatever!). Sorry “Best Week Ever” got cancelled.
I’ll just continue to go to the Times instead of “Public School Intelligentsia” for social insight. I was directed to this wanna-be-Gawker-but-not-funny blog by a friend with the subject “check out this homo.”
I was a cashier at Virgin. Unlike you contemplating what we’re thinking as we ring you up (college degree in hand), we frankly don’t give a fuck what you buy. Most of us are just there to pay bills. Find something else to bitch about in your underwear while inhabiting the basement of your mother’s brownstone.
MORE IMPORTANT QUESTION: what does it say about ME that I take the Gawker 2003 jab as a compliment? miss u lockhart. <3
also, @ Kristina, was it difficult for you to decide which section to put Kid Rock in? Would that fall under Nu Metal? Or what that just go under the general pop aisle? Was that something you were delegated or do only senior sales associates get to make those tough decisions?
Most importantly, which was ur favorite poster?!?!!11
ps. Our maid lives in a brownstone. Silly, you.
Dear Haters, now that your community social gathering space has closed, I invite you all to come chill in my mom’s brownstone with me. Pants optional. We can dissect the classics - Bobby Brown solo vs. New Edition - which was more pomo in relation to urban footwear trends. Homos for life, y’all!
ALL CAPS: I think this says your writing is as irrelevant as a record store.
Joe, you sound cute. Do you still work in retail?
Natasha, it doesn’t sound like you’ve ever worked a mind-numbing retail job to pay rent, but it does look like you have a solid career ahead of you in the tabloids. Have fun putting all your key phrases in bold font so your readers can skim with ease.
Honestly, I worked at this location as well and though I understand the concept of where we are regarding the purchase of music. I do find it absolutely ridiculous when someone brings in the concept, “it’s corporations man, screw corporations man, pass the pipe man.” Listen, regarding that idea, Virgin was never been attached to a massive conglomerate like Viacom. Instead it’s a small company started from the ground up and later formed into a small chain of stores with one owner like Amoeba. If they continue to grow, will the rest of world hate Amoeba for being a big company? *Check out the south park episode about Wal-Mart*
We weren’t the bitch of big labels either, in particular the USQ location dealt more with smaller import labels for hard to find titles-each store operated with the idea of figuring out what the clientele wanted. And as far as cost, compare us Other Music and you’ll see a difference.
Lastly, I’m not a sentimental person and frankly I do download music, but at the end of the day, being cynical about the demise of what has been a rather significant part of our musical identity is just sophomoric.
Wouldn’t you call tabloid writing a mind numbing job to pay rent? Let’s not play oneupmanship on the purity scale. Cause, I can have my intern drum up all my charity donations toot sweet!
I just think the concept of ‘music store’ is highly romanticized. I did not shed a tear at the closing of Video Revolution even though I spent my youth wandering its isles in search of History of The World and Porkys to rent. No, instead I moved on and signed up for Netflix.
I worked there too! Kid Rock goes under Rock/Pop, you douchebag. God, I can’t believe you had to even ask that! And no, we didn’t get to decide that. I wish! The important people at labels tell us to put it there and we follow their instructions. But really, did you think Kid Rock was Nu Metal? I mean, that summer jam from last year was getting played on CMT and everything! Dude has seriously crossed over and you’re still thinking he’s Nu Metal. Perhaps if you went to a record store every once in a while us knowledgeable clerks could inform your ass about these things. We’d give you a super dirty look if you asked where our Nu Metal section was…well, we did. Anyways, record stores are SUPER COOL in my book, but whatever. It’s all subjective. Kinda like your blog and how you think it’s really clever and I think it sucks.
I will murder all you haters in yo’ sleep!!!!!
Where do the Iranians get their Ayatollah posters from?
@george @Kristina @ Michaels Who gives a fuck about people who work at record stores? Am I supposed to be in tears over the loss of your jobs when 1 million Americans have been laid off from real jobs? I guess the sad part is how you will be competing for starbucks jobs with people who have contributed to society. I hope your parents keep their jobs so that you will have plenty of bandwidth to write bullshit comments all day long.
Sorry to cut this short, but now it is time for me to go to work. Aren’t you glad that you don’t have to say that anytime soon?
beth, you really touched a nerve. i’m telling my mom you said those mean things.
Aww, this is just like when I wrote my anti-bacon piece and all the hipsters flocked to the post to leave insightful comments regarding my intelligence, pulchritude and sexual preference. And to defend trucker hats. Strength, Ande!
How can we tie in bacon, twilight, and tower records??? #fuck what you like
This is the thanks I get for giving your sad little blog the most attention it’s ever gotten?
Yes Kristina, before you came along it was only close relatives, significant others, and Ben Lyons who clicked on to our sad little blog.
We won a grammy.
I’m going to lay a “faux nostalgia egg” for your thoughtful responses. What happened to all the sass?