The town or city that you live in is only as good as its record stores. Seriously. If the place where you live doesn’t have a local, independently-owned record store or two, you should immediately pack up and move to some place that does. Now.
Do it!
Record Store Day is a new annual tradition for people like myself. It’s simple. On Saturday, April 20th, we make a point of shopping at our favorite local record stores. We dig through crates, we glance at the records on the walls (which have been placed there for us to glance at), and we buy a record or two.
There’s a nostalgic appeal to buying, collecting, and listening to vinyl records. It’s the only form of physical media that’s defied the odds and avoided extinction. However, keeping the medium alive is only partially what Record Store Day is about. This day is more focused on supporting local, non-Web based, non-corporate chain store businesses that primarily vend vinyl discs.
I know it’s scary, but imagine if people suddenly stopped buying cupcakes from the local bakery, and instead opted to purchase them online. Your local mom and pop cupcake shop would close down, and your lazy Saturdays and Sundays would be ruined. Seriously. There you are in your flip flops and sunglasses, and guess what, dude, the only place you can lazily flop over to is Panera Bread and a Verizon store. Nightmare!
I love records. If I never listened to another compact disc for the rest of my life—that would be fine. On the flipside, to go a single week without listening to records would suck.
What about MP3’s and digital music files? For me, they’ve taken over the role that cassette tapes and college radio used to fill. It’s just background music or copies of albums that I either don’t have yet, or ones that I’m not sure if I want in my permanent collection. The music that I have on vinyl are albums that I know I’ll always love, along with a boatload of campy stuff that I picked up at thrift stores on a lark.
Record Store Day was started by a few dedicated folks who wanted to spread the word and remind people to go out and support their local record store. Even if you don’t use vinyl, pop into your local shop on Saturday, April 20th and say hello. The store will likely have a festive vibe that day, and there’s usually lots of interesting books, t-shirts and other stuff for sale in there that you might dig.
Now. Do it!
