Change of Seasons

ternyata tak hanya di indonesia saja era kolektor cd/kaset mulai meredup. di luar negeri pun banyak yg mulai mengumpulkan file mp3 daripada beli cd/kaset. bila harus beli cari aja kompilasi atau kaset yg dianggap esensial. 

sekitar tahu 90-an penjual kaset seken di selatan pasar Bringharjo, Yogya menjamur. sekarang hanya tinggal satu, maklum tak banyak yg menjual kaset lagi. bagaimana tidak, toko2 kaset gulung tikar menjadi toko pernak-pernik HP atau asesori wanita yang lebih banyak memberi keuntungan. lapak2 mp3 membanjir (utk wilayah yg aparat kepolisian membiarkannya) yg kualitas suaranya sangat jelek atau antara sampul dan isi tak cocok. internet menawarkan download gratis lagu dan sampul serta liriknya sekaligus.jadi, utk apa perlu mengoleksi fisiknya?

untungnya saya bukan termasuk golongan yg itu

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         You see back in the seventies and eighties, and into the nineties too just about, things were very different. Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda (Wal-mart) etc sold bread and cheese. If you wanted records you went to a record shop or in some places like Woolworths and Boots (yes Boots the Chemist) you went to the Record Department. Okay there were some National chains still like HMV but Virgin was an Independent little place, which was great for imports I seem to remember, and every town had a couple of good privately owned little record shops, some even had massive ones. The majority of these had secondhand sections too where you could dig out all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff that someone else had grown tired of. 

       How many of you reading this (that is of course if anyone is reading this) can remember, like me, wading through the endless racks of secondhand albums in the gloriously named 'Record & Tape Exchange' in Camden and Notting Hill Gate among other places filling in gaps in the beloved collection. It may have been more time consuming but it was much more fun than downloading them from the internet like people do nowadays.

      The other thing is that in those days musicians paid their dues. They made an album every year, they played in countless bands before hitting the big time. Touring up and down the country in a beat up Bedford van. So subsequently you would find albums in the secondhand racks and be surprised by the names of musicians you knew playing in bands you'd never heard of. Because they were so cheap you bought them and thats how you got to build up a proper eclectic collection rather than 50 issues of Now Thats What I Call Music and the three albums your favourite band have released in the last 10 years that a lot of people call a collection these days.

 (Martin Leedham, RYM reviewer)

 15 November 2011