Afterdays Media focuses on archaeological views of our contemporary culture. Artifacts, art, or cultural phenomena that picture us in the past tense.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Dead Record Stores


This blog has been on a musical theme for a while. I will steer it back into some mummified pop culture, while staying on the same topic. Here are two dead music stores in central Illinois. Both were located in low-income urban neighborhoods, and both served more than LPs or CDs.




Washington’s was essentially a community center, with a cafĂ© and a video rental store along with music sales. In its last days Top Cat was selling used odds and ends as well as old vinyl. These were interesting hybrids of home-spun entrepreneurialism and corporate product retailing. Both are gone, and most folks in the neighborhoods are downloading mp3s, if of course they have a computer, internet account, and iPod.


Alive and dead, our local culture matters.


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