Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Tower Records

Tower Records is back! Sort of...

The music-selling giant began in California in 1960. From 1970-90 it grew into the largest music retailer in the country and became a cultural icon. Then, during the Nineties, the company evervated, heading south. By 2006 the company was finally bankrupt: all stores were closed, all assets sold.

Over the past winter, Tower Records resurrected as an online website where it now sells vinyl records and CDs. Broad collection, reasonably priced. The yellow/red colors are there, along with its "Pulse" magazine (online).

Do you have any Tower Records memories?

13 comments:

  1. Yes! I lived in LA briefly and could see Tower Records from my work window. I actually really miss record stores and wish they would make a comeback.

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    1. Me, too. Wandering around and finding interesting new albums was fun. It isn't the same shopping for music on the Internet.

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  2. I only know of Tower Records from media, including a documentary about it. Do you know about Amoeba Records, Ally? We've been to the one in San Fran and it's amazing!

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  3. Sadly, I do not.

    I only remember a huge Virgin records opening at the Disney shopping area in FL and I loved going there (mostly because of the a/c lol) because they had a huge wall of headphones to listen to new music before buying and lots of vintage music and even a book area. I spent hours in there.

    Karen @For What It's Worth

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    1. Same idea. A place to wander around, find new stuff and listen before buying. That experience isn't replicated online.

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  4. I don't think we had that in the UK but we had HMV and Virgin Megastore on Oxford street and they were HUGE! Loved going there to look!

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  5. We had one at Opry Mills mall IIRC.

    It died right during my teen years, so I remember it's demise. Along with all the other music and movie shops too. I never had a lot of CDs growing up. Always too nervous to invest in a CD I only liked one song on. Lol.

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    1. That was the problem with CDs: they were sold at artificially high prices. Vinyl LPs, in my youth, dropped in price and could often be picked up cheap, which made experimenting with music easy.

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  6. I used to go to Tower Records on Piccadilly Circus whenever I was in London. I'd no idea they no longer existed ... Good to hear they're back! xxx

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    1. I lot of peopled mourned their bankruptcy in 2006.

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  7. OMG tower records was my ham back when. Had many dates there back in the day. This makes my nostalgic heart very happy:

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  8. Seriously cool! As far as I know, just two Tower Records locations operated, rather briefly, in Canada. As one might guess, both were in Toronto.

    That was long before I ever got a chance to visit or live there, so I did not get to see this iconic music industry chain in person.

    Great to know that fans from around the world can now do so online. Thank you for sharing that exciting fact here with us, Ally.

    Autumn Zenith �� Witchcrafted Life

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