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Model a "Functioning" American Record / Music Store

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Model a "Functioning" American Record / Music Store
Posted by AntonioFP45 on Wednesday, July 28, 2004 12:02 PM

To those of you that grew up in large and mid-sized cities or towns  - How many of you remember those good ol' fashionRecord stores? Big SmileCool

http://talkinaboutmygeneration.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/image010.png

As as a kid, how well I remember seeing these stores "all over" New York City, Connecticut, and Florida! Big Smile

They often:
(1) Were small, cramped and housed in older brick buildings (like a Walthers Cornerstone kit)
(2) Had bright flourescent lights. One or two small house fans blowing.
(3) Display table rows packed with records and 8 Track Tapes. (Cassettes by the mid 70s).
(4) Posters all over the windows of popular singers and groups.
(5) In some, there seemed to be a "Stereotype cool guy" behind the counter with a big smile and wisecracks. For some reason they often wore sunglasses indoors!  Cool

One neat (or annoying) aspect I remember: There would be a small horn or PA speaker mounted near or outside the doorway and the latest hits would be blasting loud enough that persons within a 30ft radius could hear it. However, in urban areas you could often hear the music from across the street since the sound bounced off of buildings. Wink

I remember: The Jackson Five, Credence Clearwater, Aretha Franklin, Seals & Croftt, Mamas and the Papas, and other hit groups back in the early 70s. Customers went in, often purchasing the latest "singles" on 45 records. Sometimes though, Latino, Jazz, Classical, and Country music would also be "pumped up". Managers usually paid attention and tried to attract a wide customer base.

Modeling potential:
These stores very much resembled the buildings offered in the DPM kits and Cornerstone series. Using cutouts and small pictures of singers a record store is easy to model. Window signs were often oversized and flashy with

"BUY 2 ALBUMS, GET A SINGLE FREE!!    or  

 "CHEAPEST PRICES IN TOWN!"

For the ultimate realism
A friend suggested mounting a portable CD unit underneath the layout and have one small "2 to "3 speaker inside the store, flush mounted on the floor. The music playing out of record stores was usually in "mono". Stereo was available but many people owned record players or "Vitrolas" that played in mono, anyway. Stick out tongue

When you're running your railroad,
you can have music for the time period that you're modeling playing from inside the store. Should be slightly audible. The idea is to keep the volume low to make it believable that the record store's open for business as your railroad and town goes on about its business. At the same time, you get to relax with music from your youth (especially those of us over 40!).

Regardless of your age, this would be a neat project to do as it adds another Idearealistic dimension
to our hobby and many of us are always looking for that "special extra" that makes our railroad's theme and time period believable.

"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"

 


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Posted by lupo on Wednesday, July 28, 2004 1:27 PM
That is a [8D] cool [8D] idea, !
btw: overhere in Holland lots of these oldtime record stores were more music stores, selling records, sheet music and musical instruments ranging from flutes-organs to electric-guitars and drum kits as well. I looked at those instruments fantasizing being able to play the records i bought on those instruments ![8D][8D]

Did similar businesses were around in the US?

modeling opp.: every thursday at 12 noon a que of eager teens formed outside as the new charts ( dutch equivalent of the billboard hot 100 ) were handed out by the owner .
L [censored] O
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Posted by chutton01 on Wednesday, July 28, 2004 5:30 PM
Around Long Island, there are (and were) several used CD/DVD stores and chains such as Empire Disk, Mr. Cheapo's, CD Warehouse, Music Arcade, etc.
A number of these (in particular, Mr. Cheapo's in Mineola, 2 blocks from Willis Hobbies) are housed in buildings similar to the more generic DPM/City Classics 2 story brick buildings (others are in strip malls and the ilk). There are probably quite a few more in New York City itself, and north Jersey, but the previous ones are ones I've been too.
So you need not limit yourself to Record and Music stores of the past...
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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, July 28, 2004 6:36 PM
I always fancied the idea of building a record store, only that from 1941! Does anyone know if record stores from that period had fancy art-deco fronts? I think I saw one on a WWII documentary. And, what kind of name does a record store have?
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Posted by Jetrock on Thursday, July 29, 2004 3:15 AM
There are still record stores like that around today!! Despite the encroachment of chain record stores in malls, you can still find the genuine article--and most of them still actually sell vinyl records!

They were in all sorts of buildings--Tower Records got its start in a drugstore attached to a fancy art-deco movie theater in Sacramento, California, but they could be in any sort of building. Record stores can have any sort of name--there is even one in my town just called RECORDS. Take a look in the local yellow pages for some ideas for record store names, but you could just call it JOE'S RECORD SHOP and not be too far off the mark.

Some decor suggestions: Find some show posters appropriate to your era (or reproductions in a book), and scan them at fairly low resolution. Using a decent graphics program, print them out at a size appropriate for your scale (in HO, maybe 1/2"x3/8" would look about right.)

Doing the same with record covers could be done, although it would be a bit more delicate--an LP cover would be a bit more than 1/8" square. Rather than print out a bunch of 1 HO foot square bits, one might print out a strip of them in a row and glue them onto a "display rack" in the store, or make a whole grid of record album covers and glue them to an interior wall--many record stores will cover a wall or two with records, either on display for sale or old/interesting covers separated from their records and attached permanently to the walls.

lupo: Normally, at least in my experience, record stores and music stores are two separate things--record stores sell recorded music, and music stores sell instruments and sheet music.
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Posted by lupo on Thursday, July 29, 2004 3:57 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by Jetrock


lupo: Normally, at least in my experience, record stores and music stores are two separate things--record stores sell recorded music, and music stores sell instruments and sheet music.


Overhere the musical instrument and record stores are seperate as well nowadays, the kind of store I refered to was around here untill the mid 60's, specially in smaller towns.
L [censored] O
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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, July 29, 2004 10:24 AM
Cool idea, Antonio! I may not be from the 50s, 60s, or 70s, but I listen to oldies all the time. Imagine running your layout jamming to The Beach Boys![8D]
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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, July 29, 2004 10:48 AM
Two I can think of in the Milwaukee area are Rushmor [sic] Records and Recordhead.

How about a music store that promotes all kinds of music, say "Guiness' Store of World Records"?

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Posted by AntonioFP45 on Thursday, July 29, 2004 1:54 PM

Interesting to know that there are still some stores around. But it's worth notiicing which word our younger members are using here. "Music Store" instead of "Record Store" which is what they used to be known as, even though Reel-to-Reel and 8-Track tapes were also sold.


http://www.uncamarvy.com/Teenchords/teenchords15.jpg


NOT a Criticism....Just shows how time and technology have gradually changed this industry since my teen years. We now have CDs, Mini-Discs, MP3s, and other storage devices that I have to ask my students how they work!

I had thought that with this technology, "music" type stores would have fewer customers as so much is available on-line. Looks like they're changing but surviving; just like our model railroad hobby stores.

I am planning modeling a record store, but the theme will be 1965-71, my layout's time period. The DPM store kits are excellent for the typical record stores seen in the eastern U.S of that time period. For flourescent lighting, the "Blue White" L.E.Ds look like they would work well (same type of light like in BLI's early GG1s and J1 Hudson).

Hope that some of you with layouts and basic electrical knowledge try this! Seems like it's not a very difficult project. If you plan to, or get it done, please post it! CowboyThumbs Up

Thanks!

"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"

 


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Posted by Jetrock on Friday, July 30, 2004 4:25 AM
With 1965-71 as a project period, certain things come to mind--you'll certainly want to have a couple flower children hanging out at the record store, and might consider doing a couple of the "posters" in the store in fluorescent paint (maybe just make a B&W poster and dab it with a Hi-Liter pen.)

I don't think brick & mortar music stores are going anywhere soon. In addition to providing the physical product, they also function as meeting spaces, where folks can discuss music and otherwise exchange information. Used record stores also serve a purpose, and while profit margins aren't as high it's easier to sell your records at a used-music store than on eBay or something. Independent record stores also tend to function as public bulletin boards, too--every indie record store I know has a bulletin board, information kiosk or shelf dedicated to flyers for local music shows, whereas many chain music stores do not.

They mutate a bit--during the Nineties one saw a lot of techno record stores open up (specializing in the myriad styles of house, rave, jungle, drum & bass, etc.) and then close once the fad starts to fade. But small stores still open and close--and, even though some folks don't believe it, records (the vinyl ones) are still being made! I worked for a music distributor last year and packed and shipped plenty of them.
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Posted by AntonioFP45 on Sunday, August 1, 2004 7:00 PM
Hey Jetrock,

I remember the flourescent posters. One thing though, there were "flower power" and "hippies" here and there, but not really in great concentrations as many people today speculate due to "Woodstock". It was more of mostly typical young people dressed casually (jeans, tee shirts, and leather vests). Every now and then you'd see the "extreme" ones with the full flower decals on their cars,  giant bell bottoms jeans, psychedelic colors, and either the stringy long hair or huge afros! Saying "yeah" to an adult was considered very rude. Just typical youth in that time period. For me, it does seem like yesterday!

"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"

 


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Posted by fec153 on Sunday, August 1, 2004 7:21 PM
Hey, how about Glenn Miller's Chattanouga Choo Choo.
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Posted by fec153 on Sunday, August 1, 2004 8:56 PM
Model subways? " Take The 'A' Train.
Midnight Special . Mountain pike?- "She'll Be Comin "Round The Mountain".
Brio-? " I Think I Can"
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Posted by AntonioFP45 on Sunday, August 1, 2004 9:09 PM
Fec,

I think Glenn Miller and Duke Ellington music would be very appropriate for the 1940s. 

The idea is basically to play a CD "LOADED" with a bunch of songs that record stores played during the time period that the modeler is basing his/her railroad on, not an individual song here or there. On a single day, the old record stores could easily play 40 to 50 songs, while repeating only the top hit singles several times a day.

It's so easy today to just "burn" a CD with songs we want to fit in our modeling era.Wink

Cheers and 10-4! Big SmileThumbs Up

"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"

 


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Posted by wd45 on Sunday, August 1, 2004 9:21 PM
Along this same line, I've thought about putting a radio station on my layout (set in the 1970's) and perhaps recording some airchecks from airchecks.com, which features oldtime top 40 jocks from the 50's - 70's.
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Posted by cacole on Sunday, August 1, 2004 10:13 PM
A record store sounds like a good project -- but where are you going to find them tiny little records in HO or N scale to put on the shelves <g>
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Posted by AntonioFP45 on Monday, August 2, 2004 9:52 AM
Hello Cacole, - Wow! You really want to get into detailing. Tongue [:P]Shy [8)]

Good question. One thing to consider; nearly all the records in a store are in "square shaped" carboard or paper sleeves to protect them from becoming scratched. I guess in HO this would be very tiny. In detailing something like this I imagine this would involve having several tables along the walls and in the center area. Standing vertically could be, many tiny, square shaped paper pieces of various colors lined up in rows
to represent records. Wink [;)]

In my case, since the store's front window would be covered with pictures and posters, I'm not going to worry about interior decorations other than a dim, white light. Music will be heard through the open doorway. Big Smile [:D]Cool [8D]

Cheers!

"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"

 


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Posted by Jetrock on Wednesday, August 4, 2004 1:12 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by AntonioFP45

Hey Jetrock,

I remember the flourescent posters. One thing though, there were "flower power" and "hippies" here and there, but not really in great concentrations as many people today speculate due to "Woodstock". It was more of mostly typical young people dressed casually (jeans, tee shirts, and leather vests). Every now and then you'd see the "extreme" ones with the full flower decals on their cars, "peace symbol" trinkets around the neck, giant bell bottoms, psychedelic colors, and either the long hair or huge afros! Saying "yeah" to an adult was considered very rude. Just typical youth in that time period. For me, it does seem like yesterday!


That's why I said a couple of them, rather than a mob scene.

I know that not everyone dressed like that, but if one seeks to set a mood sometimes one must resort to stereotypes. Not everyone in the Fifties wore a black leather jacket and drove a hot rod, but when modeling a Fifties layout it certainly helps set the mood to have a few DA'd delinquents sitting around their vehicles.

Of course, a Fifties record store could also feature a few beret-sporting beatniks. A 1970's or 80's (or 90's to modern) record store could benefit from a few spiky-haired punks (just modify your greaser miniature a bit with some squadron putty and some dabs of silver paint) or grab a few Vespa scooter miniatures, slap on some natty lads in suit jackets and ties and you have a gaggle of Mods for the outside of your record store, perfect for 1960's Britain or 1980's urban America.
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Posted by AntonioFP45 on Wednesday, August 4, 2004 7:11 AM
JetRock,

O.K, now I understand. You've brought up a good point!

Sometimes in order to capture the "atmosphere" of a model scene you have to use stereotypes! I can put a couple of teens with 3ft long hair or huge afros around the record store!

I laugh sometimes when I remember my dad. A wonderful sweet guy who absolutely couldn't stand to see all that hair on a man!! Goes without saying that as a kid, crew cuts and slacks were the "norm" for me, though I was taught to treat all others with respect! I can't complain though, I pretty much adopted his solid conservative values though today I occasionally grow a beard.

Cheers with an E7 in Run 8!

"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"

 


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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, August 4, 2004 11:12 AM
Great Idea !!!! I am listening to the beach boys right now . Kokomo to be exact. Oh man this saxaphone insturmental part rocks !! anyway, since pretty much all I listen to is oldies (despite the fact that I am 12 [8D][8D] ) and some contemperary christian. I don't mind gospel either. I need to build somthing like that !
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Posted by Dbcxyz123 on Wednesday, August 4, 2004 12:37 PM
Oh......................................no?...
Norfolk & Western Railway "The light at the end of the tunnel; is probably that of an oncoming train!" Don't forget, Model Railroading is fun
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Posted by Dbcxyz123 on Wednesday, August 4, 2004 12:39 PM
...Why?
Norfolk & Western Railway "The light at the end of the tunnel; is probably that of an oncoming train!" Don't forget, Model Railroading is fun
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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, August 5, 2004 2:24 AM
Looks like the "For Lease" signs in my latest DPM store will be coming down!
Thanks for a great idea.
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Posted by Jetrock on Thursday, August 5, 2004 2:29 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by AntonioFP45


I laugh sometimes when I remember my dad. A wonderful sweet guy who absolutely couldn't stand to see all that hair on a man!! Goes without saying that as a kid, crew cuts and slacks were the "norm" for me, though I was taught to treat all others with respect! I can't complain though, I pretty much adopted his solid conservative values though today I occasionally grow a beard.


My folks taught me to treat people with respect, and while they may not have approved of what I did with my hair and clothes, they figured that was part of the whole respect thing. In my younger years I found that, if one had, say, bright blue hair and a leather jacket, being cheerful and courteous confuses people much more than being rude. I don't dye my hair anymore (it petulantly stopped growing on the top, which I attribute to genetics rather than hair dye) so I just keep it shaved off. I still try to be nice, though.

Which brings us back to model railroaders...who, despite some of the reactions one sees on this forum, tend to be a very courteous and nice bunch.

And back to the topic...one could have an equally interesting 60's era record store scene called "Square Records" with a group of nattily-dressed youths outside in crew-cuts and cardigans, with a little piped-in Lawrence Welk audible on the hidden mini sound system...
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Posted by AntonioFP45 on Thursday, August 5, 2004 7:55 AM
Jetrock,

In the 60s? I could see that in the early 50s .Wink [;)]

As pointed out on page one of this post, using a few "steroetypes" helps identify an era almost immedietly when viewed. I prefer a "typcialy mix" of people. Teens, workers, business people, seniors, etc, since all tend to like one or more types of music. Cool [8D]Kisses [:X]Cowboy [C):-)]Chef [C=:-)]

One thing not mentioned previously is that in the 60s, "Americanized" Latin Jazz was also very popular with the over 30 crowd in some of the urban areas. These tunes often served as background music for a lot of the Hollywood movies during the early 60s. Beats were fast, so some of the younger crowd also listened and danced to it.

Some of you might remember the "Capio"drink commercials of the 1990s. The background music was a 60's Latin Jazz tune from Ray Charles (r.i.p).

10-4! Big Smile [:D]Cool [8D]Cool [8D]Wink [;)]Tongue [:P]

"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"

 


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Posted by Jetrock on Friday, August 6, 2004 3:03 AM
My dad introduced me to a lot of non-Americanized latin music when I was growing up--he was an embassy guard in Central and South America in the early Sixties and that's what he listened to.

There is/was a whole subculture of modern lounge enthusiasts who are very into the sort of thing you mention--fans of folks like Esquivel, Yma Sumac, even Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass (I recently DJ'd for a midnight-movie series at a picture-palace theater here in Sacramento and made much use of my copy of "Whipped Cream and Other Delights"!)

One of my local-history missions is to find out what sorts of bands played in Sacramento (the city I live in and model) during the early sixties, and find flyers and posters for them to stick on lamp-posts and store windows (in HO scale form.) I may make some up--for folks like downtown Sacramento icon Bobby Burns (who died recently) used to play drums with various jazz legends as well as folks like Sinatra, or for local Sixties garage-rock bands like Public Nuisance.

If it's not obvious, I am just a little into music.
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Posted by AntonioFP45 on Friday, August 6, 2004 7:39 AM
Hey Jet!

Gotta say you've got a well rounded and impressive background in the music area! BTW: I'm a big Herb Alpert fan too!

Do you think that you'll be modeling a record store? It's defintely on my "to do" list.

"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"

 


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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, August 6, 2004 10:23 AM
Many of the old record stroes in LA (Tower Records comes to mind), had huge posters depicting actual album covers. With today's computer technology it is probably easy to scan a CD cover reduce and print a miniature poster of your favorite album.
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Posted by darth9x9 on Friday, August 6, 2004 5:57 PM
That would be cool....a record store with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon coming out of it.. hee, hee, hee, hee, hee.

Bill Carl (modeling Chessie and predecessors from 1973-1983)
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Modular railroading at its best!
If it has an X in it, it sucks! And yes, I just had my modeler's license renewed last week!

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Posted by Jetrock on Wednesday, August 11, 2004 1:32 AM
Tower Records is kind of an anomaly--each store has a "store artist" whose job it is to make those giant graphics. The original Tower Records was about half a mile from where I'm sitting now...of course, it was actually a drugstore.

I'm not sure yet if I'll actually have a record store--I'll have to do a little research and see if Records on K Street was around when the trolleys were still running in these parts. But music will play some role on my layout...

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