R.I.P. Tower Records - TTLG Forums

Rug Burn Junky on 5/11/2006 at 18:50

Tower was always a big corporate behemoth fuck-all chain, but they were the one chain that actually had a really deep, comprehensive selection.

Risquit's right, even if they weren't an independent, they had a mindset which catered to real music fans in a way that the other big chains didn't/don't. Especially back in the day, pre-internet, when being a dedicated music fan was as much about the hunt of finding the music as it was about knowing about it. And I consistently remember finding things at Tower that you'd never have seen at the other chains.

I'm not exactly going to shed any tears, but I'll take Tower over Walmart, Virgin, Best Buy, FYE, et al any day.

Scots Taffer on 6/11/2006 at 00:39

I agree with RBJ, not through personal experience but a family member's. He was a music junkie until his late thirties with a CD collection of easily over 1,000 CDs and about 1,000 or so vinyls before that and he was a regular patron of Tower Records for his wide and varied tastes. I'm sure he'll pour one out in memory, even if he is living a suppressed suburban existence these days.

Aerothorn on 6/11/2006 at 01:23

I guess for me it's just a generational and locational thing. Apart from the fact that I've been raised on the internet and buy very little music (not because I pirate any, but because I'm just not that into music), I never found anything at Tower that I couldn't find at the smaller Silver Platters, but SP had various things that Tower didn't.

Of course, SP is horrendously overpriced too, but we were talking about selection.

TheGreatGodPan on 6/11/2006 at 01:39

I've got good news for you people, although it's old news since I've mentioned it here before. The name of that news is (www.pandora.com) Pandora.