Stopped by an old record shop in Philly and saw something weird

I was in Philly last weekend visiting a buddy and we wandered into this tiny record store on South Street I hadn't been to in like 10 years. The owner had a whole table set up with CDs from bands that got blacklisted on streaming platforms for their lyrics, stuff that was too "controversial" for Spotify. He told me he sold more of those CDs in a month than he did of any new vinyl, and he wasn't even trying to make a political point. It got me thinking about how censorship has just changed shape over time. Back in the 90s it was the PMRC and store bans, now it's algorithms quietly removing stuff from playlists. The owner said something like "they don't have to burn the books anymore, they just hide them." I ended up buying three CDs I'd never heard of, just to see what all the fuss was about. Has anyone else noticed local shops picking up the slack for stuff that gets pushed out of the mainstream?

2 comments

2 Comments

white.alex5d ago

Labels on records actually made some bands more popular, censorship always backfires.

clark.iris5d ago

Remember the uproar over the "Parental Advisory" sticker in the 80s? @white.alex is totally right, I grabbed my sister's copy of Appetite for Destruction because my mom hated that sticker. It was like a shopping guide for the kids who wanted the "bad" stuff and it made those bands seem way cooler.