The Oldies Are New Again
At Least According To Wal-Mart
Recently, while wandering around Wal-Mart with the ladies, on a whim, I decided to check and see what the vinyl situation is all about these days.
Well, I have good news and bad news.
While I wasn’t at all surprised by the massive amount of albums and displays dedicated to Taylor Swift / Chappell Roan and so forth, one thing was unexpected.
Rock and roll is well represented apparently. What’s curious is that apparently only oldies rock and roll sells these days, at least in album form.
Queen. The Beatles. Van Halen. Aerosmith. Fleetwood Mac. Even CCR! Present and accounted for! Some things, I suppose, never get old. So, that’s the good news.
The bad news is that not a single album by literally any current rock and roll band appears to be on Wal-Mart’s radar. Heck, I didn’t even see the new Linkin Park there.
This isn’t hard to suss out, of course. It’s Wal-Mart. If it makes them money, they’ll sell it. And that means content coming from established record labels with known entities and bands that have already sold millions.
I’m guessing it’s easier and cheaper to promote ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ than the latest Plush album and both the label and Wal-Mart will make more bucks that way.
There may be some element here of the state of digital services and how different generations consume their music these days as well. Not being in album form, at a Wal-Mart, doesn’t mean you’re not a successful rock band, it just means streaming and YouTube and merch play a much bigger role in your promotional strategy.
Plus, the fickleness of an American audience versus, say, a Japanese audience plays a part. Most new metal filling arenas can be found in Asia these days.
Anyway, the unfortunate side effect of all this is that to many listeners it appears as though there’s no new popular rock music out there, which simply isn’t true. You just have to use different means to find it.
In the meantime, I’ll have to go check the condition of my vinyl copy of ‘Abbey Road.’ Might be time for an update!
Definitely a sign of the times. No one under the age of "older than dirt" buys vinyl, cds, dvds, etc. Why would they? You can stream everything on paid services and a lot on free. Bluetooth speakers have great sound and quality. No need for all the equipment to play the "old style" formats, just use your phone and bluetooth speaker.
I still have my hundreds of vinyl records and thousands of CDs, but lately, I do tend to stream more than anything else. Thankfully, most of the new bands I follow are on Bandcamp, so that is a great way to enjoy them on the Bluetooth speaker.
More than anything though, is the realization that I still listen to music daily, but so differently. When I was a teen, I figured I would have a room full of records that I'd have to carry with me everywhere I moved. The reality is that for all but a small percentage, I can listen to them all off my phone. Never would I ever have considered that.