The Record Store Breakdown

Back when i was a kid, i used to jumped with glee and delight every time my mama would take me to the city because it means i can be able to spend time hanging around the record store browsing countless cassette tapes and CDs and blowing all my weekly allowance on some obscure (or i thought it was) cassettes which was, as always is the case, on sale.

And if i don't have money i would just hang around looking at the covers and imagining and wishing i have a collection as large as those.

Well, now i have a little "not that large but large enough" CDs and cassette tapes collection. But going to a record store, especially those in the malls, is not as exciting as it was back then. No longer are they selling different genres and different music. Country was phased out and Jazz is slowly dying. Alternative rock is gone. Metal section? No more. Instead the racks been replaced with the Lady GaGas and the Chris Brownes and countless videoke VCDs and compilation albums not even sang by the original artists (mostly this is done by Philippine based label like Dyna, Galaxy, Synergy, etc). Or they may release an "unoriginal unauthorized album" by the original artists. Dyna and Galaxy did this with Elvis Presley and Les Paul & Mary Ford. They're selling it on all major record stores across every mall here in the Philippines and i wonder if RCA records knows about this. To top it all, it has a really ridiculous uninspired stupid artworks. My personal CD mixes are way better looking than those put out by Galaxy and Dyna.

But the blissful experience of hangin' on a record store and browing at those CD and cassette artworks is not lost at all. It only shifted to a different place.

The cyberspace.

That's right. What was once enjoyable outside can now be experienced in the comfort of my little room. Now you have itunes, amazon, barnes and noble,etc. And if like me you like the physical product than the digital, you can just order from Amazon at the tip of your fingertips or you can order directly from your favorite independent artists (Jason Gray and Robby Hecht are the two people i know who are doing this).

And if your tastes go deeper to the roots of it all, or if you really like those obscure out of print records, the blogosphere is there to the rescue.

Thanks Google for including "The Blogs" on their search options.

And what's nice is they're offering these out of prints vinyl rip for free and the label and the artists even approved it!

I spent my whole evening last night browsing different blogs that offers free downloads of really out of print folk, bluegrass, jazz, soul, and reggae music mostly from the 1920s to the 1970s. These records are no longer available physically except for some idiot on ebay selling his collection for way way beyond the threshold of this economy. And I don't care. I'm not really like those people who made their collections a sort of an idol a.k.a. an object of worship (whether you're aware or not). I don't go that far spending millions just for a single 45 RPM or a scratchy CD or vinyl. I buy music because i love music. I wanna enjoy and savor it. It's one of God's beautiful creation.

... And the experienced i had on that record store when i was a kid was there again...

Oh such a nice feeling...

But then if you ask me which of the two i prefer the most, the cyberspace or the real space? I choose the latter because regardless how cool it is to just order an LP or CD from amazon or download that obscure stuff from a blog, it still nice to get out of you comfy chair and ride a jeepney to a record store that sells the kind of record you want.

But then that record store don't exist no more.