40 Photos of Closed Record Stores

[nygsem]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores

Including one I used to go to quite often, though it was actually in Johnson City not Binghamton.
Sad in a way. The times sure do change.

Anyone recognize any of these?

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[weeze]

its a sad state isnt it? stupid ipods, downloads , screw the artists, no royaltiess, xxxx equipment in those little bastards. its a downright dirty shame you can no longer get paid for your work.
 theres a place north of boston that my brother has taken me to when i visted him before he moved to albany. place was called 'newberry comics". used records, used cds, used video games, i think its alive and doing well. we just dont have these anymore. walk into a music store today, if you can find one, and ask 'where can i find Sonny Terry and Brownie Mcgee" and youll get a steeley eyed stare from a pimply faced kid. ok where can i find some early emmy lou harris" and the kid wi;ll probably thinbk your nuts. this is progress? where are some kinks? wheres the library? its all gone .

[ps11yat14]

Hey Weeze;

If you want to find Sonny Terry and Brownie Mcgee, you will find them the same place you can find Lightning Hopkins (Hurricane Betsy), Mississippi Fred McDowell ("I do not play no rock and roll, I play the staight and natural blues"), Sonny Boy Williamson (Little Village), Champion Jack Dupree (Junker Blues)and BB King (The thrill is gone).   

PS I had the pleasure of seeing Lightning Hopkins live.

Bill

[weeze]

oh , of course you can still buy these titles, as long as you go to amazon for god's sake. i dont want to have to buy my music on line, i want to walk into a store and peruse aisles and aisles of titles. shoot, i had to order a al kooper album from a outlet in england for gosh sakes. I remember when you could find al kooper, jeff beck, anybody you wanted in a store.
 so now if you get a band together and want to get on the radio you are going to have to bribe somebody at freakin clearchannel since they own em all. last stab was the eagles, put out their final album exclusively at walmart. priced it at 11.99. guess it pissed off all the competition who had to go to wal mart, buy them at 11.99 and stock them in their own outlets.
when did it become ok to just rip off the artist? did it start with compact tapes, or reel to reels. whatever it is we are much worse off now. thers no market to break by new artists . guess its ok if you like miley cyrus, the jonas brothers and freaking  thebeebs!
i should be careful tho as these are the favorite artist of the WHALES!

[nygsem]

You make a lot of good points Weeze.  I also lament the state of the music business today, ie: music on iPods, I was reading a magazine recently where they were interviewing audio engineers and they were basically saying "why should I spend hours and hours getting the sound perfect during the recording process, when its just going to end up on an ipod as an mp3 file?  May as well just record it for an iPod from the get-go."   I do understand the "usefulness" of portable music/mp3, but I also don't appreciate the dumbing down of the music.

And Clear Channel, Infinity Broadcasting, etc... don't get me started.


Last I knew Newbury Comics was still in business.

[weeze]

hey, if people are happy with their xxxxbox ipod and dont care.................so what if the sound range is gone and it cant compare.................. lets hear it for my boston acoustic 22a's and a old pair of radio shack nova 6's powered by 100 watts of sony power.
 stick "highway star"off of deep purples' "made in japan" in your pipe and smoke that! HA! 

[weeze]

2 biggest i ever saw was back in the early 70s right across the street where ya got off the MTA in Harvard square was one. 2nd wasn't that long ago 20 years or so was in San Fran. ah crap, makes me sick to think about it. music as a art form resorted to a mp3. whats next the Sistine chapel on your 11 inch computer screen?

[terrymeisner]

back in my youth i spent a lot of time and money at SAM THE RECORD MAN in toronto....if you couldn't find something at Sams, you weren't going to find it.....it was a shame when they shut down

[St Marys]

For me, I always looked forward to a visit to Virgin's flagship store in London's Piccadilly Circus or those at Times Square and Union Square in New York or Tower Records stores.   It wasn't unusual for me to spend $300 in the US stores, as they were havens for classical box sets and opera titles long disappeared from UK shops.

[weeze]

hell yeah! it was like a search of endless possibilities. "whoa, looky this" and " i didnt know ______ made a album with _______!". or how about youre just looking up one particu;lar group which leads you to another group which leads you to somebodys solo album......................... man thoise were the days when music mattered. then came the focking 'disco freaking duck" and life ended as we know it!
but cheer up ! the 'beebs" will make it all socially and politically relevent again!
i mean todays music has such  important message to share! the insight of lady gaga! the sheer intelligence of beyonce! the political satire of carrie underwood! the insight of pitbull! who the heck were those losers, stevie winwood and guitar novices like leslie west and richie blackmore. the total lack of imagination like zeppelin, zappa, the who, ccr. rank amateurs comapred to alan jackson who enlightened us with "way down yonder on the callahoochee, it gets hotter then a hoochy coochy"!
 but i degress............................................

[jimmyz]

its a sad state isnt it? stupid ipods, downloads , screw the artists, no royaltiess, xxxx equipment in those little bastards. its a downright dirty shame you can no longer get paid for your work.
 theres a place north of boston that my brother has taken me to when i visted him before he moved to albany. place was called 'newberry comics". used records, used cds, used video games, i think its alive and doing well. we just dont have these anymore. walk into a music store today, if you can find one, and ask 'where can i find Sonny Terry and Brownie Mcgee" and youll get a steeley eyed stare from a pimply faced kid. ok where can i find some early emmy lou harris" and the kid wi;ll probably thinbk your nuts. this is progress? where are some kinks? wheres the library? its all gone .

Music, movies, comic books and newspapers have all been laid to waste by a single invention...the computer (well, and the internet).  I saw an interesting documentary that i streamed off the web ( ) about the event called comicon.  They may as well call it videogamecon because that's what is taking center stage.  Comic book vendors are suffering at those events and they've been pushed off to the side.

[LennG]

 In the NYC public school system, they aren't teaching writing script anymore. It is more of an elective course from now on.