Quote:
Originally Posted by Antigonish
I never got the whole "vibe" or "atmosphere" requirements for record stores. I'm not old enough to remember the days that record stores sold quantities of new releases on vinyl, just cassettes and cds. When I lived in Edmonton, my parents came to stay at my place, and all the records I owned were hiphop so after work I popped by blackbyrd on whyte en route from my office to look for some albums my parents liked. I think I ended up finding Harry Chapin's Greatest Stories Live (love that album) for like... $5, Graceland, and maybe a Jim Croce album?
Nonetheless, when I went to purchase them the hipster chick with some skrillex looking haircut just kinda scoffed at me for merely being there. When she asked if I wanted a bag, I said no (because my car was parked right down the street). She says "oh, so everyone can see what records you bought?" I'm like "No, because I care about the fucking environment?". I dunno why some innocuous encounter at a music store rubbed me the wrong way, but I never went back there. I may have purchased like 3-4 records since then, and they were all new released hip hop albums straight from the musicians website. Honestly, unless you're buying physical copies of new releases to support the musicians you're better off just downloading it anyway.
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I would feel blessed if that had happened to me, because I would treasure it as an anecdote to dine out on for the rest of my days. The scorn I've been confronted with in record shops has always been withering but silent. I can't recall any juicy bon mots or sarcastic bromides at all. I genuinely feel deprived.
I like the non-confrontational Canadian personality as much as the next guy, but sometimes I worry that we're missing out on the frisson that gives life some spice.