Let's talk about music.
Rather - let's talk about how I'm a twenty five year old male who wakes up every day and doesn't understand the world I live in. About a year ago I finished University, attaining a BA in Filmmaking (if there were a more useless BA, I'd like to see it). Turns out the only thing a BA gets you when you are looking for a day job is sideways glances. You see, to do the things I want to do (write, take photos, play music) I have to have a day job. What kind of day job can a guy get when said guy only knows about three things (music, film and women)?
Why, a job at a record store of course.
In Canada, we had two great record store chains, Sam the Record Man and Musicworld. Sam died a slow death around a decade ago (nationally), and Musicworld succumbed to a quick stab in the face in the fall of 2007. Sadly, this occurred the day after I got a job as a manager at my local Musicworld location. We had but a few weeks to enjoy the last days of the semi-corporate record store (we were allowed to wear our own clothes, not uniforms), and enjoy we did. Although I had worked there only a short time, I had been hanging out at the store for a few years and the employees had become some of my favourite people. We would all go on to hang out, jam, go to shows and collaborate together on many film and musical endeavours. Let me just say: you can't make these kinds of friends and discuss music and film the way we did while you're downloading a torrent.
About a week later I got a job as a full time employee at another music chain, this one originating from across the pond. We are now THE mall music store (and get this: when the old manager would interview people she would actually tell them "this isn't Empire Records, okay?" No Shit. It definitely isn't Championship Vinyl, that's for sure). Daily I am asked to find the most generic records for people, asked about video games (something I know nothing about), or asked about the most obscure artists and given dirty looks when I havent heard of the certain group of Gregorian Chanters they saw on PBS the other night.
I do enjoy the people that I work with; at heart we're all big fans of music and film. But I feel our collective will to exist is being struck down by both the corporation's desire to make money (downloading and theft have driven us to sell video games, accessories, iPods and birth control pills -- well, not the last one) and the collective ignorance of the "music fan". A few years back the old joke was "Creed is music for people who don't like music" and I think it is fair to say that there are many artists that meet this requirement today:
Rock band for people that would have liked G n R had they been born fifteen years earlier: Buckcherry.
Folk rocker to "get mellow to after a night of gettin' ill at the bar": Jack Johnson (or his little brother, Matt Costa).
Girl I want to grow up to be like because she's not at all like Avril, she's REALER and has a REAL band: That chick from Paramore.
It is the old hat of kids being told what they like and being afraid to admit that they don't actually like it, save some girl won't like them if they don't dig the new Tokio Hotel record (and this is something that makes me feel like I'm getting VERY old because I cannot fucking tell if this is a group of two girls and two guys or four very confused young men). Actually, two girls buying that record were complaining about how Feist took home five Juno Awards (a Canadian Grammy) this weekend (they said she wasn't that good), to which I responded, "yeah but she's no Tokio Hotel." I was met with puzzled glares. I told them to call me when they'd worked their asses off for fifteen years and eventually got some recognition from peers and mainstream audience.
I suppose it does just come down to the circle of life here. I went through certain bands that I've grown up and out of. I'll admit to being a huge Finger Eleven fan a decade ago, and how could I forget my flirtation with Third Eye Blind? I'm now the cynical twenty something, working a job I hate, pandering to kids and parents about bands I hate (and hate knowing about even more) and thanking Christ when a kid brings up a Pavement or Elliott Smith record. I want to save the kids in the "punk" section, or at least direct them towards Teenage Head. I want to tell Interpol's fans about Joy Division. I want to tell Coldplay fans about Echo & the Bunnymen. But mostly, I just take solace in the fact that despite what people say, the kids are still buying records.
Now, if we could just get them to stop playing the Guitar Hero demo all day long -- seriously, if I have to hear "Even Flow" one more time...
Nicholas Friesen is a part time lover and a full time friend. He was putting Moldy Peaches on mix tapes and digging Ellen Page in "Wilby Wonderful" long before you were in junior high. His radio show "The Mix Tape" airs Thursdays from 5-7pm on 92.9 Kick FM in Winnipeg (www.kick.fm)
