Philly girls buying old Fleetwood Mac albums on vinyl

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So a friend of mind who runs a used record store in Philadelphia just started carrying old vinyl a few weeks ago, and he tells me it's been selling really well, mostly to people in their 30s and up, but not exclusively. Which is not that big a surprise, but this is, maybe: He says that, when he told another record store manager he knows that he was exapanding to include vinyl, the guy told him to expect lots of female customers in their late teens and early 20s to come in and start buying old vinyl Fleetwood Mac albums (and "stuff like that" -- mainly, I guess, extremely popular '70s/early '80s music with female vocals: Joni Mitchell/Benatar/Heart, etc.) Sure enough, my friend says, he has had 15 or so such customers in the past couple weeks. So apparently this is some kind of fad in Philly....and maybe, um, elsewhere? He doesn't know, and neither do I. In fact, I have no idea what the phenomenon even otherwise entails. Are these DJs? Courtney Love fans? Who? Anybody who has an explanation, please offer it up.

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

THAT KINDA SHIT KICKS ASS, THAT'S WHY

― [that bastard] jaxon (jaxon), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:14 (twenty-one years ago)

jaxon OTM.

― Ian John50n (orion), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Well yes. But is there more to it than asskicking?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)

their boyfriends collect vinyl but won't buy sissy girly crap. the girls want to connect w/said boyfriend, but also want to buy stuff boyfriend doesn't already have. my wife owns a benetar record

― [that bastard] jaxon (jaxon), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Because it's becoming cheaper to just buy a good turntable and buy used vinyl instead of buying a cheap CD player but $14.99 - $18.99 + tax priced CDs at the local shopping mall (although most of these people could just buy online or just go to better stores, especially in the great Philly area, I think, but anyway)

― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, yeah, no shit. I own all that stuff, duh. On vinyl no less, but so what, I've had my copies for decades. Why aren't they buying CDs? Did all these college freshman girls in Philly just suddenly get turntables for graduation presents or what? Do sororities have turntable parties these days? Is it possible this might be a *cult*? Or a scavenger hunt, even?? (Actually, that is my new theory.)

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Clearly we must ask them to fill out surveys.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Donut debonair otm ... a large number of used vinyl shops have sprung to life in Toronto in the past couple of years as well ... records like FM, Blondie, Joni, Benetar are really easy to find.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:20 (twenty-one years ago)

are these female customers in their late teens and early 20s from the same or different social strata?

― W i l l (common_person), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:20 (twenty-one years ago)

...because they need a large picture of Mick Fleetwood's balls to try to figure out just what in the fuck those things are.

― diedre mousedropping and a quarter (Dave225), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:21 (twenty-one years ago)

This has been happening a lot. In conversation with the folks at the local used vinyl store in my neighborhood (Jive Time), they make a surprising amount of money off the 99 cent to $3.00 used records (i.e. Rumours excelsior) as much as they do the somewhat-but-not-that-much-cheaper-than-eBay pricing on the harder to find vinyl they carry. There's a bit of a nostalgia element to it, I think. Also, I think there has been an overproduction of Technics and other turntables since the initial blast in the 90s, you know, that "The turntable is fast becoming the most sold item at Guitar Center than the guitar" mantra that fueled all of this. Now retailers are trying to clear out new turntables at ridiculous discounts now that the economy kinda busted, so it's a combination of this and the nostalgia/checking out the past and trying to relive it through one's parents thing.

― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I got the idea they were sort of popular-girl/sorority types, but obviously there's no way to be sure. Not artsy hipster bohemians, apparently. (I guess one of the things that surprised him is that more girls than guys around that age seem to be buying old vinyl from him. But who knows, maybe Jaxon's explanation makes sense. Maybe their boyfriends are all listening to shitty indie noise bands on their turntables.) (The store doesn't carry new indie vinyl, only old stuff.)

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:24 (twenty-one years ago)

meaning.. this isn't just a Philly thing. It's a Seattle thing too. Which makes me think this is a nationwide thing. Also, it's analogous to fascination with kids getting into the Atari 2600 or whatever. Old technology fascinates kids, it always has, and it always will. Old technology is "hip" (*cue Alan Hunter smirk*)

JaXon's point is very symbiotic here.

― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:26 (twenty-one years ago)

xhuxk my friend off grape street said she just started decorating her walls with "records from the past" -- maybe her/that?

― Nick Sylvester, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Which record store in Philly? I got some cheap Joni in '03 at this great store, AKA Music, I think it was.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

also now that i think a minute there was that bit in the inky two years ago about vinyl pushers/demand for vinyl going up despite it all. i'll hunt it down and fwd

― Nick Sylvester, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:29 (twenty-one years ago)

"my friend off grape street said she just started decorating her walls with "records from the past"

pffft - I decorate my walls with RECORDS FROM THE FUTURE.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:30 (twenty-one years ago)

>Which record store in Philly?<

Main Street Music, in Manuyunk (near Grape Street, right Nick?)

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:31 (twenty-one years ago)

they make a surprising amount of money off the 99 cent to $3.00 used records

don't they much of their 99 cent stock for free? i always figured it was the crap they "can't use" and when they try to give back to the person who broght in their mom's collection the seller doesn't want it back.

― john'n'chicago, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Not sure what words you forgot to type, but, yeah, the main buyer at Jive Time buys collections en masse, and he just throws the "unsellable" stuff into the 99 cent bins. But the 99 cent records sell... a lot.

It's entirely possible they are being bought for reasons outside wanting to listen to the record. Maybe it's a cheap form of getting cardboard or vinyl for art projects. I know I have to peruse the 99 cent CD bins for clear plastic tray jewel cases.. I end up just throwing away the actual CDs and the liner notes.

― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:35 (twenty-one years ago)

You can't buy those for less than 99 cents?

― diedre mousedropping and a quarter (Dave225), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

vinyl *is* kind of trendy design material at the moment. My wife bought a "one-of-a-kind" purse that was made out of a copy of Rush's "2112". $60.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Not sure what words you forgot to type

i forgot to type "get". i also mispelled "brought". it's tough to get the fingers and brain twiddling correctly after a long weekend...

― john'n'chicago, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

vinyl *is* kind of trendy design material at the moment. My wife bought a "one-of-a-kind" purse that was made out of a copy of Rush's "2112". $60.

aha!! mystery solved!

― john'n'chicago, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Xhuxk, for the love of ladies, GET ME THEIR PHONE NUMBERS.

― Je4nne ƒur¥ (Je4nne Fury), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

FISHTOWN HIPPIES

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Weirdly enough, the first time I bought a Fleetwood Mac album on vinyl, it was in Philly. (Tusk. Kicked off an extended obsession with them.)

― Douglas (Douglas), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Re: clear tray jewel cases

You can't buy those for less than 99 cents?

Not on demand in stores here you can't (that I've seen.) Online, I'm sure you could. I'm just lazy in that way, admittedly.

― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe this scouring of used-record bins will reignite love for "Mirage" and "Seven The Hard Way."

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

"Dude, sooo many people have completely glossed over the brilliance of Men Without Hats's underrated Mosaic"

― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:56 (twenty-one years ago)

(sorry that's Wang Chung's Mosaic)

― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:56 (twenty-one years ago)

In Montreal, I've noticed that over the last year, Fleetwood Mac and Kate Bush are popular used record buys amongst females in their early 20s.

― Jay Watts III (jaywatts), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know, but I'm definitely buying a Fleetwood Mac t-shirt.

― RS (Catalino) LaRue (RSLaRue), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Philly loves Classic Rock more than any town. It is a bit odd.

― BlastsOfStatic (BlastsofStatic), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

It's the home of Hall & Oates!

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm baffled by Chuck's bafflement. I mean, I guess ladies didn't purchase ragtime 78s for their Victrolas back in his day, but I don't think that necessitates the whole WOMEN BUYING MUSIC OMGWTF!?!?! question. And the whole "buying vinyl as a fashion accessory" idea seems just a tad condescending - MAYBE THEY ARE BUYING THE RECORDS TO LISTEN TO THEM? And the "Why Fleetwood Mac?" question - didn't "Rumours" sell like 8 kazillion copies in the seventies? So why should people want to stop buying Fleetwood Mac records now? And yes, some women like to buy albums by bands with female singers - perhaps they like to hear someone singing from a feminine perspective. I'm just not sure what's supposed to be weird about this scenario.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, this is terrifically unbizarre! I thought everyone did this all the time, cause I know I do: you flip through the $4-and-under pile and you feel free to pick up whatever 70s or 80s pop or oddities seem interesting, particularly the ones you're not about to spend a whole $12 to $15 on. I don't think there's anything girl-oriented about that, apart from the fact that it's abnormally boy-oriented to buy the $40 Naked Raygun LP on the wall instead.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Although, that said, I will note that cheapo album sleeves, whether kitsch or actually-lovely, seem to have become popular wall decorations in a lot of apartments. I don't know that anyone would choose Fleetwood Mac covers for that, though -- it tends to be something interesting-looking and context-free (until some dork comes over and goes "Wow, the 'Hairstyles and Attitudes' twelve-inch -- you didn't throw away the record, did you?").

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I BLAME SETH COHEN

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm just not sure what's supposed to be weird about this scenario.

if the friend, as a record store owner, didn't find this behavior to be anomalous, maybe you'd be right. from the information given we can however infer that these types of sales are, in fact, out of the ordinary. therefore i declare the subject to be thread-worthy.

― john'n'chicago, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, girls are dumb!!!!!!!!

― Jay Watts III (jaywatts), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Umm, John, the record store owner just started carrying vinyl "a few weeks ago" -- he's in no position to start noting alarming new sales trends.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

"Why aren't they buying CDs?"

Because we prefer to drool over Lindsey's large sized face. *sigh* I don't know why I bought'em back in the day - also in my twenties - probably as an alternative to all the Punk and No Wave I was obsessing over. And, yes, I also bought Blue. I even bought the BuckinghamNicks record because I was that obsessed with the Rumours/Tusk'n'ST records.

I'm baffled by Chuck's bafflement. ... I'm just not sure what's supposed to be weird about this scenario.

I don't know, probably because there aren't any guys buying it,only women. If that is indeed the case, why not try to find why this is so? It's not mysoginistic/sexist to ponder this phenomemon.

― nathalie's baby (stevie nixed), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll talk to the Jive Time owner, or the people that work there on the way home tonight, if I get a chance. The owner has made a living off reselling used vinyl for most of his life, pretty much. All of people who work there have vinyl store experience as well, and I can pick their brains on the matter -- for those of you who are baffled by this.

― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Umm, John, the record store owner just started carrying vinyl "a few weeks ago" -- he's in no position to start noting alarming new sales trends.

hrmmm. a good point and a potential hole in my theory. but what of the fellow store owner who tipped him off to this phenomenon? we need to dig deeper. names, phone numbers, dates, etc.

― john'n'chicago, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Did all these college freshman girls in Philly just suddenly get turntables for graduation presents or what?

vinyl *is* kind of trendy design material at the moment.

A fair amount of time spent reading livejournal fashion communities would suggest that both these statements are pretty accurate.

And the whole "buying vinyl as a fashion accessory" idea seems just a tad condescending - MAYBE THEY ARE BUYING THE RECORDS TO LISTEN TO THEM?

Y'know, I think it's condescending to assume these girls don't actually LIKE the records, but I don't think it's condescending to suggest that they like them in a DIFFERENT way to most/all of ILX. In my experience w/ scene girls they don't view recs as a particularly SERIOUS or PERSONAL or INVOLVED thing - they like music they can have fun and dance to (that's practically a direct quote). Buying recs for fashion and buying them for enjoyment aren't mutually exclusive - records ARE trendy, but that doesn't mean they aren't enjoyed in their own right.

― Livvie (Livvie), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:01 (twenty-one years ago)

(And obv you could also see ILM as a scene.. wink wink nudge nudge)

― nathalie's baby (stevie nixed), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Ahem, I got a grey-vinyl copy of The Smiths' Strangeways - anyone wanna decorate their wall with it?

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

In my experience w/ scene girls they don't view recs as a particularly SERIOUS or PERSONAL or INVOLVED thing - they like music they can have fun and dance to (that's practically a direct quote). Buying recs for fashion and buying them for enjoyment aren't mutually exclusive - records ARE trendy, but that doesn't mean they aren't enjoyed in their own right.

This here REALLY depends on where you live. I can *maybe* see this as a cogent argument to sum up trends in, say, Orange County or Los Angeles..

but Seattle? nooooo. Women here are just as much music geeks as guys in this town, in the having-a-strong-opinion sense. I've heard more snarky one-line dismissals about bands from girls than guys here, certainly.

― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:11 (twenty-one years ago)

(and yes, newer vinyl releases may be more of a guy thing in general, but it's just barely less so here.)

― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh dude I didn't mean women in GENERAL, I meant these girls and their ilk:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/livvietapper/12711601110190l.jpg

― Livvie (Livvie), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

classic rock-type vinyl sells well to college age kidz of either gender all the time/forever.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:22 (twenty-one years ago)

You should have seen the glares and scowls the young twit behind the counter gave me when I bought "Bad Girls" and H & O's "Big Bang Boom" a couple of months ago.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Where do all of you live where the record store clerks give you scowls and glares? What the fucking fuck? Everyone here is just really nice, no matter what you buy.

― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Serious tho, I think that was kind of a misinterpretation of what I said. Maybe the term "scene girls" has different connotations for you - in Auckland, NZ "scene" pretty much means the indie club scene, the leading lights of which I just posted a pic of, not the music scene in general. I'm the same demographic as most of them and I like to think I'm just as into records/music as most guys (and Fleetwood Mac are one of my absolute favourite bands, haha), but these girls listen to records lightly (I guess you could say) by their own admission. I'm just saying that it's not ridiculous to suggest that vinyl can be both hip and enjoyable.

x-post, blah blah

― Livvie (Livvie), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not sure if the confusion is over 1: women buying records 2: women buying VINYL 3: women buying early 80's music that came out before they were born

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

"Where do all of you live where the record store clerks give you scowls and glares? What the fucking fuck? Everyone here is just really nice, no matter what you buy."

Miami, land of Clear Channel, suntan oil, and Gloria Estefan.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 19:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Confusion (which seems simple enough to me, though maybe I really didn't state it well) is over: Women who grew up in the CD age buying old music on vinyl, when men the same age don't really seem to be doing the same, at this particular store (or at the store my friend's friend works at). (Most of the people on this thread seem to have figured that out, though.)

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Perhaps he built his store on the site of an ancient feminist burial ground.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.nicksfix.com/banner_philly_2003.jpg

― RS (Catalino) LaRue (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 01:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd guess it's closer to Chuck's scavenger hunt idea. They're not listening to them. They're weird items on a list, that are "hard to find."

Plus after the sorority scavenger hunt winner is announced, doing coke off of 'em (with Mick and Stevie looking on, hence these records in particular) is sooo cool.

― c@md3n (c@md3n), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 01:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Record store employees are creeps.

― Community Cornerstone (deangulberry), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 01:24 (twenty-one years ago)

wtf kind of person buys a $40 naked raygun record? wtf kind of person prices a naked raygun record at $40?

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 01:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I actually went ahead and asked my friend at Jive Time this very question and mentioned the issue. he basically says, "yeah, a lot of kids from the teens to the early 20s are totally scooping up all the classic rock material in the cheapo vinyl bins. They're basically the children of the baby boomers, whose entire musical growing up was always alongside the turntable basically, so those parents who are still quite into music still have their turntables, or don't want to lose that part of their growing up, and naturally their kids are going to find these 'relics' quite exotic to them, as will the music their parents listened to... so, for 99 cents, it's a shrug for kids to buy this type of stuff."

He didn't mention any breakdown between males and females. He said it was split between the two, essentially. So, xhuxk, I think your friend is basically just paying attention to one sex, me thinks... haha.

― donut debonair (donut), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Weird. To my mind, there's nothing nostalgic about wanting to get and own vinyl, despite the fact that's what the family had exclusively for music up until I was 17 or so.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned, *we* grew up when vinyl was still dominant, though!

― donut debonair (donut), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I think we're talking about kids who were born in the early 80s or later.

― donut debonair (donut), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

*thinks* I suppose that would make their parents baby boomers.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a feeling that this "15 or so" in the "past couple weeks" were really "a couple of girls" that he "thought were cute."

― Community Cornerstone (deangulberry), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 16:56 (twenty-one years ago)

It should maybe be noted here that my own daughter (age almost-16) has both a old-timey turntable (which she got for her 13th birthday or so) and a vinyl collection that includes everything from Phil Ochs to Tom Lehrer to the Kinks to Cyndi Lauper (to late '90s crusty punk singles and 10-inch Less Than Jake EPs she hasn't listened to for years). But her dad is a music critic, and she's been surrounded by shelves of vinyl all her life, so I don't think she quite counts.

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 1 June 2005 17:03 (twenty-one years ago)

But yeah, maybe the basic impulse is similar; she definitely has always thought vinyl was pretty cool, and maybe there's no reason to think that somebody who grew up around just a couple boxes of their parents' albums instead of thousands of them wouldn't think the same. I guess I'm surprised so many baby-boom parents would have kept their turntables though (most parents I know who don't write about music like I do defintely *didn't*), but maybe it's not so weird after all.

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 1 June 2005 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, if they didn't keep their turntable, it's not too much money to get one these days.

I guess we'd all like to think that only dudes in hoodies buy turntables today, but I guess that's not the case!

― donut debonair (donut), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 17:14 (twenty-one years ago)

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