A little more conversation: Talking to people in the queue will enhance your Record Store Day experience
Record Store Day has become a musical staple. What was once made to bring attention to record stores and set aside a date in the calendar for people to go to their local and buy some good albums has evolved into something much larger. It’s now a day that music lovers have set aside from the moment it’s announced. Bands and artists release exclusive records, stores serve drinks and put on live music, and, of course, people stand in the queue for hours…
Everything about Record Store Day is done right, apart from that last bit. The queue exists, and the queue is necessary, but the queue is not used to its full advantage. There is something built in us to resent waiting. Waiting for a pint, for a seat on the bus, to have tickets scanned when entering a venue, the act of standing still (but not quite standing still) is strange purgatory that fills people with genuine dread. But it doesn’t have to be this way, at least not on Record Store Day.
Rick Wakeman put it best. When he spoke about the importance of record stores, he didn’t just mention that they’re run by music lovers, for music lovers, but he also spoke of what said music lovers can take away from the physical shopping experience as opposed to just ordering records online or streaming them. It’s all about experience and community.
“The biggest mistake they ever made was the word ‘replacement’,” he said, “’You want CDs now, you don’t want vinyl anymore, everyone’s using CDs’. Then it was downloading and streaming so you don’t need any of that. Wrong!”
He continued, “Music is tactile, you can feel it here [points to chest] and you can hold it here [holds a record]. So, if you’ve got an album with great artwork and things, you can look at it, you can read who’s on it and where it was done.”
More than the benefits of owning a physical album, though, Wakeman began talking about how good it is when people can meet and chat with their fellow music lovers. “They’ve taken away the great record shops, you go into a record store, a thousand records and CDs whatever, and somebody next to you goes ‘Oh, have you seen the new… you like that?’ Interaction!” he said, “It’s what music is all about, and what you were looking for. You go into a record store; I guarantee you’ll come out with maybe what you’re looking for, but something else as well. And they’ve taken that away!”
We’re all music lovers, and if that means one thing: we love to talk about music. Give me a pint and ask for my top five albums, I’ll do the same, and we’ll be chatting for hours. It opens up windows into conversations and personal endeavours that other everyday topics simply can’t. One minute, you’re talking about an album, then a gig, then the people at the gig, and before you know it, you know more about a person than you could ever gauge from a “Tell me about yourself?”
Not to mention, as music lovers, we are also always on the hunt for new music. We are surrounded by 1s and 0s, algorithms constantly telling us what to listen to, but has Siri ever cried at a CMAT concert? Has Spotify ever had a first kiss to a Blur song? When did Apple Music first start going clubbing, and what was it listening to? These imposters don’t know us! Your fellow music lover knows you, they know your favourite song before you’ve even heard it, and you know theres. But the fact is that you’ll never be able to hear about these undiscovered gems until you start talking to one another.
So, here’s the thing: Yes, Record Store Day is a great day for you to support your local record store and buy some exclusive vinyl that you may not have been able to get otherwise; however, you, as a consumer, are not getting the most out of it unless you talk to people. I know, I’m like you, sounds horrible, doesn’t it? But you’re all there for the same reason: you all have a clear shared interest, and you should all rejoice in that.
The record shop is one of many things, but most of all is a communitive space where poor-with-money-music-obsessed weirdos like us can get together and know that we’re in safe hands. This is the one day of the year when we’re all in the same space, so let’s have a conversation and get recommendations beyond the exclusives being offered. Use the record shop to the fullest extent, which means turning up, buying something, and, for the love of God, talking to some people.
