Re: [ARSCLIST] Is The Record Shop Dead?

[Dismuke <dismukemail@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- "Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


> >
> Well...the younger that kids/record buyers are, the
> more inclined they
> are to "follow the herd!"


I don't know how typical my experience was or if
things have changed much in the years since, but I did
not really become aware of "the heard" in my life
until I went to junior high in the 7th grade which
would have put me at 12 to 13 years old.

My mother is British and I was raised VERY different
from the other kids around me in the lower middle
class, largely "redneck" part of town I grew up in. As
a kid, I never questioned my upbringing and regarded
it as perfectly normal.  In grade school, the fact
that I had been exposed to and was interested in
different things didn't exactly make me "fit in" - but
I wasn't exactly an outcast either and some kids
thought it was kind of neat.  When I hit junior high
school it was a disaster.  The expectation was to
conform, "fit in" and not question - and I resented
and rebelled against it to my very core.  The most
difficult part was the kids who used to like me that
suddenly wouldn't be seen talking to me out of fear
that they, too, would become "it."  I have no idea
what became of those particular kids - but they sold
their souls out to the mob. I didn't.

I will never forget when a kid I knew was riding with
his parents through a main drag in town where the
teenagers used to congregate and hang out.  His
parents were listening to classical music in the car -
and the kid became quite upset and insisted that his
parents turn it off because he did not want to be
"seen listening to that sort of music."

That, I submit is pathetic - not only on the part of
the kid who clearly lacked a strong sense of self but
also a popular culture where such a mindset is
regarded as natural and normal.

Unfortunately, in this day and age, parents can only
count on themselves to provide the sort of guidance
and  wisdom to hopefully enable their kids to see
through such horrible and crippling nonsense.

I think pretty much the window of opportunity to do so
is at an early age.  Parents really need to expose
their kids to a very wide variety of music in the
home, the earlier the better.  Same true with regard
to art and other values where there exists a great
deal of room for personal preference.  When the kids
begin to respond to a certain type of music, the
parents really need to let them know it is a good
thing and encourage them and assist them to the extent
of their means in exploring and enjoying such things. 
 That will help give them a chance to develop a strong
sense of self and personal values and hopefully give
them the courage and knowledge to not be so impacted
by the various sorts of intimidations, both verbal and
physical, used to secure conformity to the mob. Of
course, the ideal would be to find a way to avoid the
kid from being force to interact with the mob in the
first place.  But that seems to be pretty hard to do
as it is a phenomenon that seems to exist in various
forms across the entire demographic range.


> I suspect that were I counting the number of modern
> young people who
> had been exposed to ANY music of the "78 era" I
> could use all my fingers
> still visible after I had made fists of both
> hands...?!
>

Actually, I think the Internet is a bright spark of
hope in that regard.  I get occasional emails from
kids in junior high and high school who were told to
listen to Radio Dismuke or visit my website as an
assignment for history class who discover the music
that way and think it is wonderful.  I would say that
98% of my audience is of people who were NOT alive
when the music was popular.  Someone who was 15 in
1935 at the tail end of the music I feature would be
87 today.   Some are people who discovered the music
through their parents and grandparents records.  Many
fell in love with the music on cartoon soundtracks as
children and later discovered that the music that was
popular in the 1920s and 1930s was quite similar in
many respects.  Others discovered it as a result of
following a link they stumbled across to my station
and decided to give it a listen.  The emotions and
passions that the music expressed are timeless - if
enough people are able to have an opportunity to
discover it, eventually it will have its much deserved
renaissance.  And that is one of  many reasons that
Internet radio must continue and be fought for.  And
that is why the RIAA which depends on the existence of
such a mob for its very survival wants to shut it down
out of fear that people might start thinking for
themselves when it comes to deciding what sort of
music they want to hear.