Yesterday was the 32nd Anniversary of Newbury Comics. To celebrate this milestone, their entire store was 32% off. Naturally, this caused quite a few to eschew Amazon and iTunes in favor of good ol’ fashioned music shopping. I was no exception to this rule. And I took the opportunity to fill up the back catalog a bit along with a couple newer releases that somehow escaped my previous purchases. Here’s what I got:
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings – “I Learned the Hard Way”
Art Blakey – “Moanin'”
Thelonius Monk – “Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington”
Gil Scott-Heron – “I’m New Here”
John Lee Hooker – “Boogie Chillun”
Peter Wolf – “Midnight Souvenirs”
Oscar Peterson Trio – “Live at the Blue Note”
While I spend plenty on iTunes and AmazonMP3, there’s something to be said for the experience of seeking music out in the store, looking at the cover art, and waiting ’til you get it home to open, listen, and savor the music. If we measure the destination based upon the journey, then we lose out every time we open iTunes. Price and convenience don’t always deserve to be part of the conversation of music. I’d give up my entire iTunes catalog if it meant we could have more Amoeba Musics, Newbury Comics, and the old Tower Records. Music can’t be viewed (as WalMart and BestBuy maintain) as a loss leader designed to drive traffic into your store. It’s more than that — great music provides the visceral, energizing experience lacking from the rest of the music being pushed on us today.
Bad music, bottom-feeding retailers, and yes, greedy labels have poisoned the pool we’re all swimming in. It’s causing great stuff to barely tread water, or worse, drown completely.
