R.I.P. Tower Records
Soon, Tower Records will be no more. A capitalist hero for fringe circles, Tower Records proved the vanguard posterchild of the music boom of the mid-1990s. For a time, it was the choicest destination for collectors of laserdiscs, as it carried titles ranging from the highminded (opera and classical performances) to the bloody (they stoked Fulci and Argento’s films before there was a signficant body of fan literature behind them). Their music catalogs were deep and second to none. Almost equally strong in Jazz, Blues, and Soundtracks as in Pop and Rock, Tower was THE destination for buyers hoping to browse for secret treasures. They defined the techno boom of the mid-to-late 1990s by carrying the freshest European titles - imports used to be a bigger part of their business, but even today, one can still find esoteric Japanese imports of neglected American bands.
I glowingly remember Tower for its extensive newsstand. Not only were they the largest distributor of zines (a recent discovery of mine), but they also dared to maintain a film section stocked with niche titles unavailable elsewhere. This is to say nothing of their excellent music, art, literary, and lifestyle selections, which I know less about. If any store could pay the rent solely with periodicals, it would have been Tower.
The death-knells are loud - Tower died because of online retailers, generic discount chains like Target/Walmart/Best Buy, and owing to the whole-scale digitization of music. These certainly had to do with it. Their prices always felt a bit steep, but I was willing to overlook this in lieu of their expansive selection.
As I shed a tear and do a pour-out for my favorite music retailer, I ask you to do the same. There are fewer and fewer brick ‘n morter stores to turn to for speciality retailing these days. Plan 9 stands strong in Virginia, Newbury Comics bears the torch in Massachusetts, Amoeba records serves the left coast. Virgin lives on, but they have only a third of the total stores once owned by Tower.
Farewell! Parting is such sweet sorrow!
