
My eyes darted back and forth between two items on a sparsely populated shelf of records at the downtown Los Angeles Target. I couldn’t decide which one was more offensive. Was it the new vinyl reissue of a 15-year-old Celine Dion greatest hits collection? Or, was it the copy of Now That’s What I Call 90s R & B with the sticker that read “limited edition” and “exclusive”?
Target’s music selection has always sucked. Today, however, it sucks in a way that’s a lot like gentrification. It helps bolster the sales of the music industry’s 1% by selling exclusivity and collectibility to fans inside big box stores, an irony that I still can’t quite wrap my head around.
Continue reading Target’s Music Section and the Gentrification of Vinyl