Description
Book SynopsisOnce 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
Trade ReviewA great, authoritative deep dive into the global social history of establishments which its editors ... describe as “subcultural space... clubhouses for music fanatics... [and] genre-specific sanctuaries for ‘outsider communities'”. ... You can almost smell the racks as you read. * Record Collector *
Record stores have been my support group, downfall, family room, grad school, sociological experiment, clubhouse, bank, ashram, ashtray and alibi for over fifty years—apart from playing music, it’s all I know. This book is right up my alley and likely yours as well. * Peter Holsapple, Continental Drifters/The dB’s *
The next best thing to going to a record store is reading about them. This is a fascinating study and I particularly enjoyed its international aspect from Christchurch to Teheran. We are all united by this unique subculture. * Geoff Travis, Founder of Rough Trade Records, UK *
Mixing memoir, history, and sociology,
The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Record Store is an unparalleled paean to the record store as a vital community resource that links local listeners to global flows of music, culture, and capital. Required reading for discophiles of all stripes. * Steve Waksman, Author of Live Music in America: A History from Jenny Lind to Beyoncé, Elsie Irwin Sweeney Professor of Music, Smith College, USA *
This fascinating anthology proves that record stores have long been so much more than places to buy records. Essays document their important role as cultural actors who call communities and genres into being, play important roles in politics and national musical cultures, promote tourism, spread music around the globe, and continue through dark times. Viva la Record Store! * Norma Coates, Associate Professor, Western University, Canada, and President, US Branch, International Association for the Study of Popular Music *
Table of ContentsIntroduction Prologue: The Record Store That Saved My Life
Mark Trehus, Independent Scholar/Record Store Owner, USA Part 1: Record Stores as Community 1 “We ‘Bout it ‘Bout it”: The Independent Record Store in Post-Katrina New Orleans
Jay Jolles, College of William and Mary, USA 2 Firecorner: The Importance of Reggae Record Shops in Black London and the Cultural Confluence of West Indian Music
Kenny Monrose, Cambridge University, UK 3 Journey of a Girl in a Plaid Skirt and Knee Socks
Holly Gleason, Independent Scholar, USA 4 The Cult of the Record Bar
Stephen Shearon, Middle Tennessee State University, USA 5 Magic in Here: Brisbane’s Alternative Record Stores From the 1970s to the Digital Age
Ben Green, Griffith University, Australia 6
High Fidelity Across Twenty-Five Years: Record Shops, Taste, and Streaming
Jon Stratton, University of South Australia, Australia 7 Reflections from the Girls Behind the Counter: Women and Independent Record Stores
Lee Ann Fullington, Brooklyn College CUNY, USA Part 2:
Cultural Geography of Record Stores 8 “Ways of living”: Touristification and Gentrification in Spanish and Portuguese Record Shops
Fernán Del Val, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain 9 Living Popular Music in “high fidelity:” Portugal’s Independent Record Stores 1998–2020
Paula Guerra, University of Porto, Portugal 10 Music on the Turntables When the Tables are Turning: A History of Record Stores in Romania from Late Socialism to the Present
Claudiu Oancea, New Europe College, Romania 11 Jazzhole: How a Record Store Became the Lone Priest of Nigerian Oldies’ Pop Culture
Eromo Egbejule, Malmö University, Sweden 12 The Influence of Imported Records and their Stores on the History of Popular Music in Japan
Ken Kato, Osaka University, Japan 13 Recording the Irish Experience: The Record Shop and Fair as Archive
Paul Tarpey, Limerick School of Art and Design, Ireland 14 The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, It Will Be Taped: Popular Music Acquisition in Pre- and Post-Revolution Tehran
Lily Moayeri, Independent Scholar, USA Part 3:
Sites for Fandom and Performance of Subcultural Capital 15 Making Indie Noises in the Corporate Outlet: Beating Capitalism at Its Own Game
Roy Montgomery, Lincoln University, New Zealand 16 Rip Off Records (Hamburg) and the Microhistory of Capitalism
Karl Siebengartner, Independent Scholar, Germany 17 Soul Bowl: Rare Soul Uncovered
Christopher Spinks, University of East Anglia, UK 18 Lucky Records – Music Makes the People Come Together
Mariana Lins, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil 19 Rough Trade Paris (1992-1999): The History of a Scene
Jean Foubert, LARCA Université Paris-Cité, France 20 Musicians in the Record Store: Celebrity Encounters Through Amoeba Music’s
What’s in My Bag? Christine Feldman-Barrett, Griffith University, Australia 21 “Contents Expected to Speak for Themselves:” A Preliminary Understanding of North American Self Service Record Retail
Tim J. Anderson, Old Dominion University, USA 22 Lost in the Booth: British Record Store Listening Booths as Atmospheric Sites of Intimacy
Peter Jachimiak, University of South Wales, UK Contributors Index
