Why do most music store employees play crap???

[Dan Gould]

They play crap because they sell crap and know crap about music.  Just like the phrase that "america gets the government it deserves", americans get the music they deserve.  Most of the population just doesn't know crap.

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yet they buy crap day after day ....

[JSngry]

Better the crap you know that the crap you don't know, apparently...

[clifford_thornton]

My place plays some pretty good music too, but my CD's are incredibly expensive to the public. The upside is that all CD's actually sold ($50 a-piece) come with a choice of tomatoe/parsley  salad or a handful of dried figs/walnuts combo... CAVEAT EMPTOR.

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[Brad]

They continue to buy crap because they don't know any better. Some guys were reading on the radio from Spin of a list of the 10 best songs in the last 10 years. There was stuff like NWA on it and that garbage. Please!

[chris olivarez]

A large portion of the cd buying public has their taste in their socks and a large portion of the music store employees come from that record buying public.

[chuckyd4]

Well the store I went into yesterday was playing a Jaap Blonk cd at top volume, so even when they are playing improvised music it can sometimes be hard to concentrate on what you're looking at.

It clearly did what it was supposed to, though, as I walked out buying 5 cds, including a Steeple Chase, a Soul Note and a Leo each under 10 bucks.

[Kalo]

Well the store I went into yesterday was playing a Jaap Blonk cd at top volume, so even when they are playing improvised music it can sometimes be hard to concentrate on what you're looking at.     

It clearly did what it was supposed to, though, as I walked out buying 5 cds, including a Steeple Chase, a Soul Note and a Leo each under 10 bucks.

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Now THERE'S a store I'd shop at. I'm not even that big a fan of Jaap Blonk (though I love his name), but any store that would play his stuff (can't even quite call it music, more like "sound poetry") is extremely cool in my book.

YEAH!

Edited July 10, 2005 by Kalo

[Jazzmoose]

Hmmm...I haven't stepped on any toes lately, so I'll suggest that the reason music store emplyees play crap is because they're young.

Oh, sure, WE were cool at that age, but....

[Kalo]

YOUTH is no excuse.

If anything, my taste was BETTER back then.

(Well, there WAS that Billy Joel thing.)

Edited July 10, 2005 by Kalo

[ejp626]

Young or old, I wouldn't play music so loud you can hear it down the street and send the browsing public running for cover.

[nemo7]

part of the kick (for me anywho) is going into all kinds of other places finding sounds, the dollar stores, the independent used vendors, garbage sales, pawn shops, chain stores, chain stores used sections, on-line hawkers, et cetera, like and i am amazed at what slips between the ears of the sellers.

[Bill Nelson]

Likewise with me!

First of all, the serendipity factor increases greatly in venues which are NOT primarily music-based. What you see is what came in the door -- as is.

No wiseguys to siphon off the $20-plus items they'll immediately cross-check via price guides and Ebay's auctions of the past 30 days.

No wiseguys to 'clean up' the vinyl by spraying it with Glass Plus or swabbing it with ethyl or isopropyl alcohol, or maybe some benzene from the back room.

No wiseguys to set aside the 'good stuff' for their best customers or buddys.

No wiseguys to treat you rudely and sneer at your purchases.

None of the usual wiseguys and jerks, period.

Also, since the vinyl is not obviously stored in genuine record bins, you really have to hunt, use your eyes, wander the premises, and ask questions. There's no telling where you'll end up and what you'll find along the way. Almost a Zen experience.

And no wiseguys!

[slide_advantage_redoux]

Years ago I worked part time at a music store. I was probably the only employee who liked jazz (I was certainly one of the oldest)

The store policy was such that if there were more than one copy of a particular cd in stock, we could open one and play it through the house PA. There was rarely anything in stock that I saw I wanted to hear in the first place, but one day one cd caught my eye. It might have been a Mingus CD. It has been awhile.

Anyway, I popped it open and fired it up. At least I was enjoying it. Fellow employees looked at me funny. So, not two tunes into the disc, I go to the restroom. As expected, when I got back, there was something else in the player.

Oh well. Pearls before swine.

[Jazz Kat]

I go through that man. It sucks.

[James]

I used to get bummed at the obnoxious crap that they blasted at the Music Trader store I used to shop at, but it usually wasn't played so loud that I couldn't preview the jazz discs I was considering buying. (They had cd players in the stores + headphones) On those occasions when the music WAS too loud to preview my selections I politely informed them, and they cranked it down.

On a positive note, I was once in a Tower Record store while they were playing Milt Jackson's "Soul Route." While in line, I noticed the guy in front of me was holding a copy of the album - so I asked him "Liked what you heard here and grabbed the album, huh?" His reply: "Oh no ---- I heard this on KSDS and decided to get it." At the time I was on the air at the station, and being a Milt fan gave that LP fairly heavy air play. It was a satisfying moment.

[Kalo]

Final answer to the question posed in this thread's title: because most people have crappy taste in music.

[keberobeats88]

Yea, I feel you, it seems like every time I go to Plan 9 there's an Iggy Pop song on. I mean Iggy Pop I can do sometimes, but look, give it a rest. Downstairs in the used EPs and LPs section they know their shit though

[Jazz Kat]

Final answer to the question posed in this thread's title: because most people have crappy taste in music.

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Nah, just average people you meet everyday. The real people with brilliant minds and love and knowledge for music have taste.