A Question For Record Store Day: Is The Fruit Sweeter When You Harvest It Yourself?

What if you had to perform a series of real-time tasks in order to hear the latest work by your favorite recording artist?

What if the artist set up a scavenger hunt, or something akin to a video game – go up three levels to hear track 2?

What if you had to prove how motivated you were before being granted the chance to buy the new release – or, even, the back catalog?

A friend of mine, a guy who’s spent twenty years prowling secondhand stores for audio treasure, believes in the idea of earning your music.

That’s his philosophical orientation, but more importantly that’s what you had to do back in the olden times, when he first caught the bug for rare Sun Ra vinyl. We were talking about Record Store Day (coming right up, 4/20!). He’s not opposed to the notion of celebrating the great cultural institution of the record store – rather, he’s a bit dismayed that such a rear-guard action is needed. I have to agree with him, but then I’m still waiting for somebody to start up a Hometown Newspaper Day (come meet our young cops/courts/cupcakes reporter!). You have to admit it’s a bit pathetic, this random pause for the purpose of looking wistfully at another aspect of life that’s being flattened by the Internet. Get the balloons! Mark down everything! Line up some bands to play (for free)!

His larger point, which is by no means unique to him, is that today’s instant access to everything ever put on wax (or hard drive) has slightly shifted the way we appreciate music. We’ve come to take things a bit for granted. The path that once involved several discreet steps – hearing about a piece of music, becoming curious, then tracking it down – has been reduced to a single click. That’s great for efficiency, but potentially not so great for savoring and appreciating: Easy to get can equal easy to discard.

When you had to hunt for a record, the investment was on several levels – time foremost. You searched the shops with hunter’s focus, and when you came up emptyhanded, there was always a clerk nearby with the cheerful but nonetheless heart-sinking offer “We can order it for you.” Which could take agonizing days, or weeks. The wait was frustrating, but it activated a kind of idle curiosity that is unknown to modern music sleuths: You had no choice but to wonder what the music was like. You were suffering with the now mostly eradicated plague known as Gratification Delay. This forced you to anticipate what secrets the work might hold, if you’d agree with the awe expressed in the reviews. By the time the music finally reached its destination, you had skin in the game, and as a result, you approached the new arrival with an open mind. You’d endured the wait. No reason to rush to judgment now: The time investment on the procurement end could inspire a parallel time investment when listening. You were willing to return more than once, happy to linger over stuff you didn’t immediately understand.

That’s one meta-concept worthy of a moment of silence on Record Store Day. Here’s another: The discontinuous search. Nowadays we can zip straight to whatever we’re interested in, as though on an express train. That’s a timesaver for sure, but it circumvents one delight of music shopping: the accidental detour. You’re burrowed deep into a bin of psychedelic rock of the ‘60s, and you flip to a record that reminds you of some long-lost folk classic with a similarly trippy cover. Off you go on that pursuit, until something else catches your eye. Of course it’s possible to replicate this type of browsing on the Internet, to a degree – you don’t get to hear whatever the hipster clerk is foisting on patrons, or overhear conversations that might trigger yet another search.

It seems to me that Record Store Day is not simply about celebrating the enchanted space of the store – it’s also about the hunt (and the spirit of hunting) for the next sliver of illumination, the curiosity, the chance encounters with the unknown. That recently reissued Joao Gilberto classic you’ve heard about? Sure, it’ll sound great if you download it right this instant. Might sound even better if you work a little bit for it.