What have your records meant to you? What has your music collection meant to your life? There was a time when my records meant everything. Lucky for me, there was a little place in my town I always liked to go.
Located at 179 S. Oak Park Ave, in Oak Park, Illinois, is a small record store called Oak Park Records. I spent many hours there as a youth. I found comfort in the smells of analog tape and the old cardboard smell from the vinyl covers, and the gentle creak of the floor as I walked in to find a new listening adventure.
The ceiling is covered completely with vintage posters of Metallica, Madonna, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, among many others. I would spend so much of my youth staring at the posters and digging through crates of records, CDs and cassettes, just to find something that might blow my teenage mind.
I’m not sure the age-group of most of my readers, but if you were born in the mid-90s and later, this might require a little bit of explanation. To those who are old-Millennials and older, this will give you a big chunk of wonderful nostalgia.
Before file-sharing existed, or mp3s, or YouTube and Spotify, you just had the radio and record stores. And that’s about it. But, you could also read music magazines and read about records that influenced some of your favorite artists, because they would sometimes mention them. And, of course, there would be sections reviewing new albums, and if you were interested, you could go to the record store and try to score a copy. Friends would also give you band recommendations. This is how I found out about Metallica, the Who, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, and many others. Oftentimes these recommendations came in the form of mix tapes.
I would go into the record store with a $20 bill, and come out with new music to listen to that weekend. Sometimes I would pick things I’d never heard of, but would buy it based on the album artwork.
Upon buying my new music, I would take it home and get lost in the lyric sheets and liner notes. I also noticed that not all liner notes smelled the same. I would also wonder what these people were like in real life, and sometimes I got an idea if they happened to be interviewed in a magazine.
I’m not one to say “things were better in my day”, but in this sense, they really were. Mp3’s are most convenient, but they don’t have a smell. You can’t hold it in your hand. They are also beholden to the battery on your mobile device. Turntables need only a mere outlet to bring the magic, and provided you pay your utility bill on time, you can have more magic than Gandalf. They also give you the gift of added responsibility to take care of your music collection. The more you give, the more you receive. Mp3’s aren’t going anywhere, and that’s just how things will be moving forward. And that’s fine. The fact is living in a time without them was special, and it can’t ever possibly come back.
Whatever your preferred musical delivery method, what has your music collection meant to you? What are your go-to records?
Above all else, listening to music gives me an escape. I can release a lot of negativity by listening to hard rock, or let it melt away by listening to Paul Desmond. It allows me to forget the buffet of nonsense life constantly serves up. It’s not that life is all bad, but, I mean…2020 and this year, or anything that is bumming you out. It can also act as a natural amphetamine and add a little something extra to a good time. Sometimes, a sad song makes you remember what you wish to forget, and shows your old wounds. Music reveals the truth. Music is the truth, and you are always better for listening.
Keep the records spinning,
-MM
Midwestern Muse 