The Rise and Fall of Tower Records

Ratings

2 of 5 stars
What’s this?

Celebrity son and actually pretty good actor in his own right Colin Hanks is working on a documentary that tells the story of one of the most hallowed institutions of my youth: the now defunct music and media chain Tower Records. This nicely sums up my experience browsing the aisles in Tower branches in nearly every single city I visited that had one:

“Tower Records had a monumental impact on millions of people, worldwide. It was ‘the place’ to escape for a few hours; a sanctuary, a haven. Tower Records was a place to meet your friends, your co-workers or a place to meet new friends who shared a common love of music, literature and all things cultural.”

It was really sad for me when the company closed down just five short years ago, and shocking to think that a chain with such reach and that played such an integral role in so many people’s lives could just disappear.

Hanks’ movie is a Kickstarter campaign, and I pledged a small amount, but they reached their goal fairly quickly. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product. Read more here.

By the way, I nearly didn’t post about this because the number of fascinating Kickstarter campaigns has skyrocketed in the past few months, and if I blogged about every one of them I found interesting, it would quickly get out of control. We’re going to need some kind of Kickstarter filter soon…

+
  1. Tower Records was a huge part of my life. It was a mystery in that something so “huge” could still be cool and cater to the most obscure interests. There was always an understanding that if you could get to Tower, you could get what you wanted, it was there, and if it wasn’t it probably wasn’t available.

    I’m reminded of it’s demise everyday in my neighborhood as I walk down Sunset Blvd:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/clintfisher/5838936771/in/photostream/

Thank you! Your remarks have been sent to Khoi.