National Record Store Day
Record stores are magical places. Locally-owned, independent record stores, even more so. Walls lined with everything music, the smell of time-worn sleeves on used vinyl records, racks of CDs, displays of new releases, and—if you’re lucky—a few cassette players and 8-track decks, along with their respective tapes, tucked into a corner. Within the walls of those shops, you can see and touch modern music history as you comb through bins and shelves and racks, across genres and media types. You can find music that plumbs the depths of any and every human emotion, from despair to desire to delight and more. Record stores chronicle our stories.
Once called “’the single best thing that has ever happened’ for independent record shops,” Record Store Day is upon us. Usually observed on the third Saturday in April, Record Store Day was dreamed up in a brainstorming session among independent record store owners in Baltimore and was first celebrated in 2008, with Metallica opening the festivities.
I imagine the performance at Rasputin Music had decidedly less pyrotechnics, though.Still going strong 16 years on from that meeting in Baltimore, Record Store Day is an international affair, with participating record stores on every continent, save Antarctica. RSD is not just a day of celebration, it’s an organization that works year-round with both major and independent labels to create promotions—including contests and special releases—that highlight the importance and benefits of supporting brick and mortar, locally-owned, independent record stores by purchasing music anytime of the year.Even on Rex Manning Day, Warren.Not without its controversies and valid criticisms, RSD has still had a huge impact on sales at independent record stores, so much so that it was given the “Marketplace Ally” award at American Association of Independent Music’s 2015 Libera Awards. In fact, in 2016, Record Store Day helped make possible the biggest week of vinyl LP sales since the SoundScan sales-tracking system was introduced in 1991.I’d say those sales figures are worth celebrating!Now, I appreciate the convenience of digital media as much as the next kid but there is something to be said for physical media and Record Store Day is a good reminder to seek out records and CDs and LaserDisc, too, I guess. If you’re into that sort of thing. In the face of all the music streaming services and digital downloads, independent records stores have suffered—so much so that more than half of the stores that were open in the US in 2003 were shuttered by 2013.
Photo by Anna Shvets
Aside from the economic impact of the loss of those shops on individuals and communities, these closures also have a cultural impact: record stores have played a vital role in marginalized communities, functioning as a welcoming space, a place to be exposed to new ideas, a locus for self-discovery and learning about the community, and a site for organizing. The cultural relationship between marginalized communities and record stores is, perhaps, most apparent in Black communities during the Civil Rights era, where Black-owned record stores sat at the nexus of Black commerce, economic empowerment, pop culture, creativity, organizing, and, of course, music. Perhaps, the resurgence in vinyl’s popularity will translate into reinvestment in locally-owned, independent record shops—much like it has for Chicago’s Record Track—so that they can continue to be cultural hubs for marginalized and counterculture communities.
Photo by cottonbro
So, let’s go buy some vinyl! The Record Store Day website has a handy-dandy search feature that will allow you to look up participating stores worldwide. I plugged in my zip code and found that there are no less than fifteen participating record stores in the metro area I live in and dozens more if I’m willing to drive an hour or two—and, y’all, I lived in Texas for over a decade and I regularly make the 10+ hour drive to see family, a two-hour drive is nothin’.
I’ll just rock out on the way there!And, it’s cool if you can’t make it to your local record store for RSD; you can also visit your neighborhood brick and mortar record shop anytime during the year and a lot of independent record stores sell their musical wares online too. Unfortunately, I have plans on Record Store Day this year but RSD is a good reminder for me to plan visits to some local shops throughout the year—it’s been a while since I last enjoyed the magic of a record store.I need to start memorizing some Otis Redding.And step up my layering game!Go check out your local purveyor of tunes and magic. Damn the man. Save the Empire.
