Record Store Day, 2011

 

Record Store Day has become a national holiday of sorts for music geeks. To be honest, I'm pretty ambivalent about it.

I'm the kind of music fan Record Store Day is groomed for. I love digging through bins of used records, but as a hobby I've largely outgrown it. Don't get me wrong, I love supporting smaller, independent record stores. I live in a city where there are, I think, three stores that sell actually, physical albums -- and those stores are mostly cater to hardcore collectors. For the most part, it's not economically feasible for me to buy an entire album when I can download only the tracks I want. That is the reality for most music fans these days. Yet, I'm part of a generation whose only means of discovering music not heard on MTV of commercial radio was either a) the low-power college radio station whose signal I cold never quite get, or b) the "cool" indie record store. I've long outgrown my predilection for achieving "cool," but I still support sentiment behind Record Store Day. And I was kind of surprised to see some dissenting opinions on my Tumblr dashboard yesterday.

I kind of just don’t like Record Store Day. I mean, it does speak to my collector/hoarder sensibilities, which is cool, and record stores in Cleveland put together some really nice events for the day, but overall… What could have been a really cool opportunity to build community between/among people who own and shop at independently owned record stores has quickly become grossly commercial with Record Store Day releases popping up for resale on eBay before the day has even ended, which is uncool/unfair to artists, labels, store owners, AND fans. (lookuplookup)

The "shaming fans into buying" sentiment isn't going over well either. (Posting pictures of closed record stores? The hipster equivalent of those sad puppy ads?)

This argument also reeks of privileged assumption — that we all have extra cash and OMGWTFBBQ, what is wrong with us for not spending it at a record store? Apparently record stores are more important to fund than the crisis in Japan, or some other worthwhile charity! Or maybe, just maybe, we want to make sure we’re personally staying in the black! The economy fucking sucks for everyone [...] (theoretical girl)

It's still possible to go out and support your local stores and not ignore those things. The one independently-owned store I've been shopping at for more than ten years of my life keeps it small (I don't even think it's listed on the website) with maybe a few sales and very of the commercialization of some of the larger stores. I think they come closer to the true spirit of Record Store Day. And they still get my business.