The Wall of Sound, Torn Down

Virgin Records on Michigan Ave is closing soon. I went in there today, as I do every week or so to browse, but now that the shelves are cleared and most of there inventory is gone, its finally hit me. And I'm sad. I work down the block, so I like to stop in and listen to the new CD's on their feature wall. Granted, I rarely, if ever, buy anything. But still, it was my source to see what is new and big in the music industry. Sure, there's still my subscription to rolling stone and spin, there's hip friends and neighbors to bring me up to date, and there's the endless ocean of the internet. But its not the same as seeing the packaged item, and taking a listen with those big padded headphones.

It seems the major record stores are dying, but does it that make it feel like music itself is dying? I couldn't live in a world where I thought that was true. But something definite and concrete is passing, and it is yet to be seen if that is something to be missed or not. To me, music never had anything to do with labels, units sold, music magazines and critics, or even the people on the scene. Its something small and fragile inside of us that needs to be let out. It is what makes man, Man, not just a collection or cells, or just another ring up the evolutionary ladder.

But when Jann Wenner (founder of Rolling Stone) goes on the Colbert Report, and answers to "isn't music dead?" with the affirmation of no - we have John Mayer, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Prince - I knew that a generation who once got "it" is now so painfully removed - and they don't even know it. Now don't get me wrong, I love all three of those artists. But are they the best our generation has to offer? I'd say no. Are they even the latest and greatest? Certainly not. Another Bob Dylan could come along and Rolling Stone will have completely missed the boat this time around.

So maybe Tower Records going out of business, and now Virgin, and the declining record sales and panicking record labels are just signs of artists, and listeners, slugging off this insipid tumor know as the Music INDUSTRY. After a decade of Christina Aguileras, lord knows its definately needed. But it goes back much further - I'm not sure who Phil Spector is (apart from what I read on wikipedia) but the term "Wall of Sound" puts shivers down my spine, and I might pinpoint that as a beginning of a half century of decline. And shoving music down our throat.

But what do I know? All that I can tell you for sure is that I will miss going to Virgin on my lunch breaks. And that big empty space on a busy corner on the Magnificent Mile will loom like a ghost.