Abba Zabba

Apparently, Tower Records has gone out of business. I found that out a few minutes ago. I don't care. What I do care about is the Washington Post's coverage of the Tower closing, in an article by Paul Farhi:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/10/AR2006121001003.html

The article talks about the "dying CD", and the loss of the "sense of wonder" and "joy of discovery" you would get when music shopping. Okay, that might be a legitimate point, but not about Tower Records! The author acts like his favorite little used record store is closing, when it's really a nation-wide chain of megastores. It's like getting nostalgic about the local Office Max going out of business because you really liked buying paper there.

Tower Records deserved to go out of business primarily because of their prices. Not only can you get music cheaper than that online or used, you can get better prices at independent record stores! (I didn't see any normal CDs for more than $14 or $15 when I was at Soundgarden, a large independent store in Baltimore, a few weeks ago.) Other places charge that much, such as the music stores in malls. I can only assume they'll go out of business soon also, and I say good riddance.

But here's what pisses me off most about the article:

I hear the music geeks whining: Tower wasn't the cheapest place around, and it often employed contemptuous or conveniently nonexistent salespeople. It also pushed the same Top 40 pap as the marts (Wal- and K), the big boxes (Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, etc.) and the surviving mall chain stores. Yeah, yeah and yeah. And so what?

That's not how you write an opinion piece! You can't just say "Lots of people disagree with me, but I don't care." He admits that there are arguments which completely blow away his premise that Tower Records was a great place to buy music, then he ignores them and just keeps on going. And he insults people who care about record shops as "music geeks" in an article about his favorite record shop! I can't believe this crap got published. But it's a fitting tribute: A shitty article about a shitty chain.