Remembering two record store giants

In the age of iTunes, legal Napster, Limewire and every file uploading website known to man, I find it hard to think of where to buy a CD other than Best Buy and FYE (six months ago Circuit City would've been included in this). As I'm sitting at Marvin last night, I'm conversing with a friend about music and I mentioned how I found The Clash's London Calling album in the discount bin at the Virgin Megastore at Union Square in NYC. He then tells me that store is closing its doors in March and the Forever 21 two doors down is taking over that space (Tomfoolery!)! I then remembered during my trip to Philly last summer, I'm riding down Broad St. in Center City and see that Walgreen's now occupies the former Tower Records at Broad and Chestnut Sts.

I have to say that I'm hurting right now because I lived in both of those stores while I lived in both those cities. There's a lot of music beyond Hip Hop that I wouldn't know about if it weren't for Tower and Virgin. These were one stop shops for not only music but also movies, books and magazines. You could spend all day reading about any level of the music industry and really "trying before buying" an album. The best element of these stores is that the employees worked for $8/hr because they were "music students" (figuratively speaking) and these "students" knew their shit, too. I bought indie albums at Tower, esepcially, because I conversed with the staff and they gave me detailed, impartial reviews of these not so famous artists (ever heard of !!! aka Chk Chk Chk). So now if one wants to actually purchase a physical CD and there's not a mom and pop within sight, they have to go to Best Buy or FYE (if there's one near you) and we all know they're not built for the indie artist. I guess you can't really fight the system if the system is infinitely larger than you =(



On a side note...if you're from the DC area and were born no later than 1990 and you're a fan of Hip Hop/R&B/Go-Go you should know about Kemp Mill Music. As of 2009, there's only one Kemp Mill location left in the area and that's at Iverson Mall next to Downtown Locker Room. Kemp Mill Music got me through my Southern Rap O.D. years (1996-2000). The iconic record store provided me with every No Limit Records album and mostly all the Rap-A-Lot Records albums I have ever purchased. Damn, I just remembered the first time I saw RE was in '97 at an outdoor show in front of this same Kemp Mill. I gotta give it to them, this store is still holding on strong and I hope to see them stick around for years to come.