What was the last album your parents bought? More importantly how old were they when music lost it’s priority?
I know there are several ways to enjoy music in this technological age and that the “record store” has gone the way of the Do-Do Bird…But, that just made it easier for certain groups of people to stop buying or listening to music because they feigned not knowing how.
My mother and father bought albums and had several record players or those humongous record player cabinets that were like a piece of furniture you could never put anything on in order to lift the top up and down.
I remember my mom taking me to Wallich’s Music City ( catty-corner from where the Amoeba Records is now today) and it was as overwhelming in it’s contents as was the first time I went to Amoeba (I walked in saw all the treasures, was so knocked out I left!) Wallich’s had an escalator and several sections like sheet music, LP’s, TVs and musical instruments. They were the wacky pioneers who put cellophane on the albums and it was an event every time you visited.
But, it eventually closed like many Hollywood landmarks (Schwabb’s Pharmacy, Beverly Hills Park, The Brown Derby’s…don’t get me started!) and it had to have something to do with over saturation of places where you could buy albums. I bought records at The May Co., K-Mart, Zodys to name a few) and of course the Mecca and every trip was an event, Tower Sunset. So, my parents stopped buying records when they became more and more accessible. Oh, and they had every Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass album and the Christmas record was a family favorite. So, I wonder why they stopped buying records.
I remember my career Postal clerk mom met some co-worker who sold records out of his trunk; so she stopped buying records for “her” and started buying records for me! She bought Elton John’s “Rock of the Westies,” “Saturday Night Fever (Before the movie was even released!) ” and Stevie Wonder records. How did music lose her importance to her and then became part of what she wanted to impart on my soul and my mind?
Never made sense and then the fever hit and I bought my own records vowing if I had kids never to stop buying and enjoying music; it had become my life and I swore to never, ever forget that!
I once met a lovely lady who worked at Warner Bros. Records and she invited me to meet her for lunch and then said, “Follow me!” She took me down some stairs and opened this little door and then I realized I was in the music library! She said look around and pick out whatever you like! I was in hog heaven and I saw the albums on Asylum, Sire, Reprise, WB, Elektra and like those first trips to Wallich’s and Amoeba I nearly fainted!
I picked some bands and artists that were just coming out; some broke others did not. I was listening to a LOT of KROQ in those days so I picked up some albums from folks that never even earned “One Hit Wonder” status.
But, the albums became cassettes ( they have made a comeback with teens somehow! ) and then CD’s. I remember when I got my first and humongous DVD/CD player going to the Music Plus in Studio City ( it’s the Trader Joe’s now…) and I wanted to buy the new Phil Collins on a Tuesday ( that was the preferred day of the week for new releases of any kind back in the glory days) and the album was there but I was told I had to wait two extra weeks for the CD to come out! I understand instant gratification is another reason why record stores died. I downloaded the app Tidal after swearing I wouldn’t solely to hear the Kanye West album exclusive to Tidal. Tidal was the most downloaded app that week it came out and the exclusiveness of the scheme was brilliant ( Even though that same week Kanye claimed he was over 50 million in debt…)
Another reason I have kept Tidal and sadly ironic is that it is the exclusive music site for Prince! Also, Neil Young’s catalogue and just recently one of the exclusive places you could hear Radiohead’s ” A Moon Shaped Pool” ( I liked it better the second time on headphones…still fidgeting with it …) and they sprung it on the fans; no warning or hype or Billboards or press like an album used to get and it’s stirred up the fans and now everyone is a junior Robert Hilburn or Leonard Feather. But, the silver lining is an artist can still set an expectation in the digital age and Kanye and Radiohead got clicks in record pace and benefitted from this web for once!
So, having recently turned 50 I can honestly say I am still one of music’s biggest fans and that I am current with what is where. Christmas came twice last year when The Beatles finally released their catalogue on all platforms and it was a Christmas miracle for the world! But, that too was a greatly kept secret just like Radiohead’s new album just came from nowhere, and it was the equivalent of lining up on a Monday night and being the first to buy and listen to a new record at midnight Tuesday! I had the pleasure of working at Tower Sunset in the 90’s and I worked midnight releases for Metallica and Guns n’ Roses and they were crazy crowded and the fans were excited like the “Belieber’s” are today.
Anyway, you don’t have to leave the house or even get dressed to listen to a new release drop.
Poor U2; they went from heroes to goats when Apple ( U2 and Apple had partnered together several times before so this was weird to me…) paid them the money upfront to record, release and give to all Apple Music listeners the album ” Songs of Innocence ” and it incensed people who resented the fact that there was an album they did not want on their device(s) and they weren’t quiet about it; they took to social media and it worked against U2 as if Apple had forced their customers to own a Slim Whitman or Andreas Vollenweir record instead of an album from one of the most prolific bands of our times.
So, you can hear, buy if you feel like it or pay to have exclusive content at a bevy of music platforms and there is no way you can feign ignorance of how and where to listen unless you’re so behind the times you still bank inside the bank, read the newspaper or rely on the mail to send and receive money-I know that Tidal or Spotify aren’t on your radar.
My sons aren’t even interested in keeping any of my CDs; they love going to vintage record shops and hearing and exploring and seeking certain records on lists they make up and they love kitsch as much as classic albums from days gone by.
Music is in their blood, it’s in their parents blood ( Jen still eerily and inexplicably likes the old hair bands a little too much for my liking… ) but I never want to get to that place where baby boomers and older just switch from laces to Velcro and bingo instead of musical exploration.
I will be writing a variety of essays on when the music died in the lives of people. Woodstock and disco and punk and the lack of challenges to the greatness of The Rolling Stones and select others and of course the sad reality of some world treasures leaving this earth too soon or inevitably but not on a day we were prepared for.
I am listening to the Dodgers game on my iPad as I write this and before that I listened to Wes Montgomery and Oscar Peterson and will probably fall asleep to either a Brian Eno or Roxy Music album tonight so I am enjoying my iPad and it’s music apps similar to my days of discovery at Tower, Licorice Pizza, Moby Disc or Wallich’s Music or Amoeba all the while wondering what is the next new way to listen to music. I’m ready for it; are you?
TBK Media Co. (The Brown Knight) 