How much is your music taste conditioned by where you shop?

Kresge rocks!

The '3 for £21' selection in Solo Music Exeter has had a profound effect on my wallet lately. I love HMV, Virgin, Amazon, Spinadisc Northampton, but I love Solo most.

Selection -- do they have a good used section? From there, everything follows.

I have been a slave to the shops lately. There's a great little techno/electro/IDM boutique around the corner; I go there before I go to the "real" record store, and I buy what they stock. I count on the display rack at the indie store to remind me what the significant new releases are. I rarely remember to order things I want that aren't in stock. I am maybe getting bad about this.

Cost is a major factor on what I buy, so from that point of view the record shops have a major impact on what I get. If HMV have got a particularly good range of jazz stuff on sale then I'll get more into jazz that month. And I can be put off trying certain bands for ages if their albums are too highly priced.

I remember the 2 years I worked at a a pretty hip record store and I chose to work at one of two locations farther away because it had less student shoppers and less pretense to it. I wanted to learn more about bluegrass, country and blues and this store had equal sections of that to the normal pop/rock.

And I remember the only 2 times I actually sold something I was playing over the PA was the first Basement Jaxx (I sold 5 copies during the duration of the album to like aerobics instructors and farmers asking what it was) and a copy of Tindersticks "Can Our Love" to this middle age suburban couple that loved it. The only time there was a complaint on something played was this gamelan music. So, not my taste conditioned but weird instances where I conditioned others into buying something they would never have otherwise. But our store also had the best selection of folk and bluegrass and classical and we had employees that specialized in that. OK I don't think this really answered you question at all. I can barely go to record shops anymore because it's too pricey and I still get my discount at my other one.

I only go to rec shops of a mostly specialised sort. These are the ones where I spend an hour there. more than half of the time is spent trying to tell myself not to get 10 CDs but get four instead. When a specific set of genres is concentrated I browse a lot more because there is so much variety within that rather than HMV, which is just loads of genres covered in a more superficial manner (at least yr local HMVs anyway)

Yesterday I did go to the HMV at oxford circus but i ran to the classical section (to get the scelsi string quartet Cd i wanted).I had that in mind. Its no use as browsing and buying a completely diff rec to the one you originally intend to as it does, more often than not, lead to disappointment.

''In most other aspects - price, friendliness, etc. - HMV is rub.''

There are bargains, and HMV can be friendly Tom, or a certain HMV can, anyway.

Big HMVs, particularly when there's a good sale on = great

Small HMVs = shite

The new one at the Angel is useless.

I remember I used to go to Virgin on the corner of Oxford and Tottenham just because they had those nice solitary bathrooms with the black lights. I used to recommend that rec shop to everyone I knew. Just because it was hell to find a bathroom to piss in that area. So, I guess it was my natural needs conditioning where I shopped.

But it's right next to a Macdonalds. Surely everyone pisses there?

Dude, have you been in that bathroom? It's not pretty.

I'm scared to touch myself in that bathroom.

every cd i've bought in the last few months has been because it is something i want that is cheaper than i would have expected,(eg-cornelius-point,for 10 euros,or miss e so addictive for 13)or something i would be curious to hear that was really cheap (eg eric b and rakim-let the rhythm hit em for 3 euros)

it's weird i don't have ANY salsa rekkids despite hearing them every time i buy milk

I guess pretty much so, as I'm one of those "random buyer" types. Like in Rough Trade, I always look at the ones that are on display in the window, or mounted on the wall. Though, I have my sections now: indie pop (gotta find those Elefant and Siesta albums!) and American in Ladbroke Grove, in Covent Garden I look at the German stuff.

HMV, I usually know what I want - ie chart albums, or back catalogue stuff

CD Warehouse - old stuff and whatever takes my fancy, usually classic rock.

Well... there are a couple of specialized stores I shop at in Providence.

Contrast, where I used to go a A LOT, is 85% punk&hardcore, the rest is weird indie pop, noise, local etc.

Armageddon, where I go frequently now, is a lot of metal, industrial, hardcore, noise, punk. Small amnts of indie rock and the like.

Newbury Comics has a fair amount of stuff, tho mostly rock/pop. They actually have a hip hop section now, though. The jazz, folk, country and blues sections are pretty small. And no used vinyl.

In Yr Ear is a good store with a wide array of stuff--used and new CDs and vinyl. You can find a fair bit of popist stuff, though it's more of a rockist store... little hip hop, and the jazz and blues sections are very unorganized (massive shelves crammed with LPs but no ordering to them whatsoever.)

i've become a huge fan of west end, tk, casablanca, salsoul, and italo-disco after getting myself full of musty dust (and cat hair) in the 12" racks of double decker in allentown, pa.

it affects it big time... i have yet to find a store that always quenches my need.... examples:

saturn records: great weirdo selection. tons of old rarities and forgotten 80's and 90's 7" that even they don't know are good. yet don't count on anything very recent being there.

amoeba records: in berkeley, don't count on as much depth as the one in SF. being so close to a college it gets destroyed on certain days and the used bin is nothing but shit. (although, that's a great way to see what's been over-rated and over-hyped.) in SF, it lacks some of those boutique selections you might want.

aquarius records: tremendous for rare, good shit. but you'll be damned if you're not dipping so far into rare and obscure.

mod lang records: amazing pop and psych selections. pretty average or poor otherwise.

rasputins: great 7" selection. their store suffers from clueless employees who don't know the band from the album title or random words that might be on the cover. they separate things a little too much. i find myself running from alternative to punk to heavy metal to pop and rock to finally finding some release in experimental or soul or something. headache! not as much of a rat race as amoeba, which is nice.

since i go to amoeba berkeley by default because they have an easier time buying up my used stuff for trade, i find myself buying less 7" stuff and missing out on some of the super obscuro stuff or weird re-issues. i have to compete with college kids for the one copy of something that got ordered. rarely are there copies of an older album of a more obscure artist unless it's in the used bin.

in a smaller town i found myself mail ordering a lot because the store would wait 4 months for enough order requests to come in for smaller labels and so on.

oh well... i'm glad for it. materialism needs some speedbumps!
m.