The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Record Store: A Global History

Once conduits to new music, frequently bypassing the corporate music industry in ways now done more easily via the Internet, record stores championed the most local of economic enterprises, allowing social mobility to well up from them in unexpected ways. In this way, record stores speak volumes about our relationship to shopping, capitalism, and art. This book takes a comprehensive look at what individual record stores meant to individual people, but also what they meant to communities, to musical genres, and to society in general. What was their role in shaping social practices, aesthetic tastes, and even, loosely put, ideologies? From women and independent record stores to Reggae record shops in London to Rough Trade in Paris, this book takes on a global and interdisciplinary approach to evaluating record stores. It collects stories and memories, and facts about a variety of local stores that not only re-centers the record store as a marketplace of ideas, but also explore and celebrate a neglected personal history of many lives. Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents Figures Introduction Prologue: The Record Store That Saved My Life Part I: Record Stores as Community Chapter 1: “We ’Bout It ’Bout It”: The Independent Record Store in Post-Katrina New Orleans Chapter 2: Firecorner: The Importance of the Reggae Record Shops in Black London and the Cultural Confluence of West Indian Music Chapter 3: Journey of a Girl in a Plaid Skirt and Knee Socks Chapter 4: The Cult of the Record Bar Chapter 5: Magic in Here: Brisbane’s Alternative Record Stores from the 1970s to the Digital Age Chapter 6: High Fidelity across Twenty-Five Years: Record Shops, Taste, and Streaming Chapter 7: Reflections from the Girls behind the Counter Part II: Cultural Geography of Record Stores Chapter 8: “Ways of Living”: Touristification, Gentrification, and Curatorship in Spanish and Portuguese Record Stores Chapter 9: Living Popular Music in “High Fidelity”: Portugal’s Independent Record Stores, 1998–20201 Chapter 10: Music on the Turntables When the Tables Are Turning: A History of Record Stores in Romania from Late Socialism to the Present Chapter 11: Jazzhole: How a Record Store Became the Lone Priest of Nigerian Oldies’ Pop Culture Chapter 12: The Influence of Imported Records and Their Stores on the History of Popular Music in Japan Chapter 13: Recording the Irish Experience: The Record Shop and Fair as Archive Chapter 14: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, It Will Be Taped: Western Music Acquisition in Pre- and Post-Revolution Iran Part III: Sites for Fandom and Performance of Subcultural Capital Chapter 15: Making Indie Noises in the Corporate Outlet: How Hanging Around and Working in Small Record Shops in Aotearoa New Zealand Changed My Life Chapter 16: Rip Off Records (Hamburg) and the Microhistory of Capitalism Chapter 17: Soul Bowl: Rare Soul Uncovered Chapter 18: Lucky Records: Music Makes the People Come Together Chapter 19: Rough Trade Paris, 1992–9: The History of a Scene Chapter 20: Musicians in the Record Store: Celebrity Encounters through Amoeba Music’s What’s In My Bag? Chapter 21: “Contents Expected to Speak for Themselves”: A Preliminary Understanding of North American Self-Service Record Retail Chapter 22: Lost in the Booth: British Record Store Listening Booths as Atmospheric Sites of Intimacy Editors and Contributors Index Once conduits to new music, frequently bypassing the corporate music industry in ways now done more easily via the Internet, record stores championed the most local of economic enterprises, allowing social mobility to well up from them in unexpected ways. Record stores speak volumes about our relationship to shopping, capitalism, and art. This book takes a comprehensive look at what individual record stores meant to individual people, but also what they meant to communities, to musical genres, and to society in general. What was their role in shaping social practices, aesthetic tastes, and even, loosely put, ideologies? From women-owned and independent record stores, to Reggae record shops in London, to Rough Trade in Paris, this book takes on a global and interdisciplinary approach to evaluating record stores. It collects stories and memories, and facts about a variety of local stores that not only re-centers the record store as a marketplace of ideas, but also explore and celebrate a neglected personal history of many lives.