A WARMER SOUND by
L E B ISA
N E OW
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to give a big thank you to Amoeba Music in San Francisco, for their unique warmth and their passion for music, and to Freestyle Academy. I would also like to thank Mr. Greco and Ms. Parkinson specifically for being very supportive throughout this project, and for helping me achieve the final product at last.
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“We are very much counterculture in that we carry a lot of old music because we believe in it, ya know?� -Joe Goldmark
TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE
INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: loss of culture CHAPTER 2: Preservation of culture CHAPTER 3: vinyl comeback CONCLUSION WORKS CITED
PREFACE One evening I found myself rummaging in the cluttered mess of my garage, looking for something, and came across a large, dusty box full of old vinyl records, which had belonged to my parents back in the day. Immediately I forgot what I had originally been looking for, and my attention was completely directed at this large dusty box. I was intrigued. I began to sift through the stacks of vinyl, now and then seeing a name I recognized and feeling overwhelmed by each record’s art and the countless names of artists I did not know. Each record in its paper cover seemed so huge and weighty compared to the small plastic boxes of CD’s that I was used to, with so much more space for striking artwork, and the yellowing, vintage look of some of the records that gave them a breathtaking appeal. My interest started to grow. Three months later my mother bought me my own turntable for
Christmas. I was overjoyed. I had been collecting a few records of my own. I would take the train to San Francisco and rummage around some old record stores on Mission and Haight, picking out some of my favorite artists. My own small collection of records was spread out on my walls, as I had no means of listening to them. But when this turntable came into my hands, my excessive vinyl listening began. I started to love listening to a record. I loved the warm, slightly scratchy sound of the music, so different from the sound of my iPhone or stereo, and I loved listening to a full album, the way the artist made their music to be captured and experienced. Given my growing interest in records and the whole “vinyl experience” and my love for the City by the Bay and for music, I chose Amoeba Music of San Francisco as my location to explore and document. Throughout this process, I
indeed faced a few challenges. Reaching out to Amoeba and getting hold of the store was somewhat difficult at first, but once we had our first interview with the manager, Joe Goldmark, the process became much easier. Every Sunday, my partner Katie and I drove up to San Francisco to interview one of the staff members of Amoeba. I started to love being in the store and exploring its aisles, getting to know the staff and the business as a whole. My appreciation for this independent and quirky record store has only increased throughout this project, and I hope that after reading and experiencing Amoeba Music through this book, you will share a similar appreciation for this record store and the vibrant essence of San Francisco it captures.
“If you’re alive, you can’t be bored in San Francisco. If you’re not alive, San Francisco will bring you to life…… San Francisco is a world to explore. It is a place where the heart can go on a delightful adventure. It is a city in which the spirit can know refreshment every day.” -William Saroyan
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION “San Francisco is thriving. The unemployment rate is just 4.8%, compared to 8.3% for California as a whole. In 2013, job growth in San Francisco County led all others in the nation.” This is a good thing, isn’t it? An unemployment rate of 4.8%, isn’t this something every city, county, and state is striving for? San Francisco is thriving. Businesses have begun to develop and spread throughout the city, primarily tech companies, and have started to shape San Francisco as a whole. With this immense increase of innovation, business, and technology, has anything been lost? From the eyes of the techy business man, no, nothing has been lost. San Francisco is at its peak, with large companies building offices and headquarters on the city’s steep and tight streets. Technology and life is booming in the city. Google, Twitter, and
DropBox have located themselves here. Business is prospering and “history is being made again,” some say. It’s almost as if San Francisco has awakened from a long-dormant nap and is up and running again with the rest of the business world. With the increase of business has come the rise of prices throughout the whole city, ranging from street stores to rent, making San Francisco the new, competitive and inventive place to be. Now, take a step out of the eyes of the techy, and jump into the head of an independent artist who has just been evicted from his apartment on Mission Street. The artist is forced to pack up the scraps of his life and move away from the city, his home, in which he has been dwelling for years. He will soon find himself in Oakland, where his life as an artist is cheaper and sustainable. The artist later finds out that he has been
displaced from his home by a new, thriving business who can afford the rent, and who will therefore be the one to survive in San Francisco, where technology is soaring. Alongside these changes, the eviction rates in the city are also soaring. The unique bohemian culture of San Francisco is fading. San Francisco’s soul, the rich hippie culture that thrived in the 60s and attracted free spirits from all around the globe, is losing its quirky nature. Yet, you can take a stroll down Haight Street, and you will still find yourself breathing in the culture of individuality, love, and freedom. San Francisco’s soul still lives in the nicks and cracks of the city, in the people, and in Amoeba Music, one of the largest music stores in the world.
“One of the things about Amoeba is we see some of everything. People bring everything. We see people clearing out their aunt’s attic and their old records that maybe don’t have much of a market of much interest anymore to kids...there’s no real trends as far as what people bring us. People just bring us, people bring us everything.” -DAVID JAMES
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an Francisco has had a unique place in my heart ever since I first stepped into its districts. A booming city with skyscrapers and a grid of straight and incredibly steep streets, yet a personality that has a taste so distinctive and unique on anyone’s tongue. This city embodies the word unique, with its many districts, each another taste bud making up the city’s quirky essence. “San Francisco itself is art, above all literary art. Every block is a short story, every hill a novel. Every home a poem, every dweller within immortal. That is the whole truth” (William Saroyan). Filled with art, diverse neighborhoods, hidden secrets, kooky record stores, and strange yet fascinating
E R U T L U C f O S S O L individuals, this city has such soul that you can feel it in the air while strolling down the streets, whether it be Haight, Mission, or Castro. Home to the booming countercultures of the 60s and 70s, San Francisco is a place of psychedelic history, attracting individuals who found a safe place here, who felt that their difference in character was aligned with such a special city. Countercultures increased with the rise of the African-American Civil Rights Movement, hastening social change and freedom for the individual. Alternative lifestyles were established through experimentation with Eastern Religions, Bohemianism, and the hippie movement. Yet things have taken a
turn; whether that be in the right direction is debatable. Zoe Corbyn captures this shift: “times have changed in San Francisco. San Francisco has become the hype- and capitalfuelled epicentre of America’s technology industry.” After reading some statistics, it is difficult to not see what Corbyn is describing. The arty culture and independence of San Francisco in its art and music has turned into capital of innovation and technology. Why things have changed– well, one could say is inevitable. Joe Goldmark, the manager of Amoeba Music on Haight Street, says, “For better or worse I mean there’s always gentrification and cities need gentrification to keep renew-
ing themselves but it’s a bit of a bubble going on now and it’s just accelerated incredibly.” Artists have been replaced by techies, because it comes down to the simple science of natural selection - the ones who have the “traits” to survive are the ones who will thrive. The quirky home of the independent artists of the 70s’ has been ripped from their feet and replaced. Individuals are losing a connection to the place where they felt that their difference, whackiness and quirkiness could be accepted and celebrated. Economically, a life inspired and pursued through music and art is not sustainable any more in the city. Corbyn writes, “The median monthly rent is already the highest in the country and is still increasing at a rate three
times the national average.” No wonder the post hippies and alternative punks are despairing about recent trends in San Francisco. If this is the current trend, what will the city look like in 10 years? 20 years? This is almost painful for me to imagine, as I have always felt a deep personal connection to San Francisco. The ambiance of acceptance, tolerance and quirkiness, felt by millions, was fostered and developed by the influx of hippies on Haight in the later 1900s and is now beginning to fade. Joe from Amoeba Music talks about the effect this has had on his employees: The main way it’s changed is that it’s much harder for our employees to live in San Francisco because its gotten so expensive and the techies
have driven up the real estate around here...a lot of the areas where our employees were able to live fairly cheaply say 10 years ago they are getting priced out of now, and a lot of them have moved to the East Bay and have to commute in and or move out of town...so in that way it impacts us. Oakland, where rent is somewhat affordable for “post-S.F.” inhabitants, is starting to become the “new” San Francisco. Difficult to imagine, yet unfortunately true, artists and musicians have migrated to the East Bay because it is a place where they can afford to live. However, some look at these changes through a different lens. Observers and inhabitants of San Francisco realize that life is changing, and understand that this change is be-
yond our control. What is happening is something that we have to accept, and let thrive as these changes are permanent. Gary Kamiya, a long term inhabitant of San Francisco, who has recently been evicted from his household, acknowledges this inevitability: But it’s time to reckon with reality: There is no enemy here. Or if there is, its an enemy that won’t be defeated. What has hit San Francisco in the last couple years can be summed up in one word: capitalism. And that is a tsunami that no seawell can keep out...The building or business that you saw yesterday, that that was an old friend for decades, today is gone forever. (Kamiya) Although individuals who
have had a home in San Francisco for years are protesting and reacting to this loss that is so dear to their hearts, others realize that this trend has no possible way of changing or reversing itself. Realists see it as a matter of acknowledging and accepting the new San Francisco, and moving on from there.
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CHAPTER 2: PRESERVATION OF CULTURE
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o, how are the funky and unique city dwellers of San Francisco, who have spent timeless days in their city, supposed to react? Nod their heads and agree? Often acknowledgement and acceptance don’t come so quickly and easily. Being evicted from your home, an direct and simple message that the life you’ve been pursuing isn’t sustainable anymore, can seem unbearable, especially when you see a rich startup company, booming in profits and success, take over the place regarded as your own for years. Kamiya writes, “Enormous changes are never easy to deal with, and it’s human nature to want to fight back, to assert control. So it’s understandable that many progressive San Franciscans, people whose values and vision I share, are kicking and screaming and spray-stenciling sidewalks as they watch their city
turning into something they don’t recognize.” However, the changing city’s colors and personalities are preserved and captured through something we are all familiar with, music. Take a walk down Haight, and find yourself on the corner of Amoeba Music, one of the world’s largest independent record stores. Amoeba Music pursues this exact purpose, of preserving San Francisco’s unique bohemian counter-cultures, of music, quirk, and acceptance. Amoeba Music originally began in Berkeley on Telegraph Avenue in 1991, but spread rapidly, and six years later another Amoeba Music was opened on Haight Street in San Francisco in 1997. Amoeba sells both new and used music, cd and vinyl, posters and dvds. Step into Amoeba, and you will be overwhelmed with the wealth of music surrounding you; the artists and possibilities within this store are endless. I stum-
bled across Amoeba recently, while I was walking down Haight, and found myself flipping through vinyl after vinyl as I was engulfed in the sounds of blasting classic rock and surrounded by music lovers. I felt a connection and sense of happiness while I was in the store, and a strong whiff of the embodiment of the counter-cultures that I wish I had experienced in the 60s. The culture of Amoeba stands out in the transforming techy city of San Francisco. David James, the used product buyer explains what is special about this record store. Well, one of the sadly unique things about Amoeba Music is that it’s one of the last of a certain kind of large general audience, general public serving record stores that exists anymore...when Amoeba Music opened, there were many stores
like this. Just on Telegraph avenue alone there was...Rasputin’s Records, there was Leopoldt’s records...Amoeba’s unique in the sense that it’s still here. Amoeba music has been the home of diverse music for many years, and still continues in that role, as it fosters and preserves the unique counter-culture of San Francisco. Amoeba’s genuine culture is expressed through its impassioned employees, or more appropriately music lovers. Walk around the aisles and you will bump into unique alternative individuals, who are all there for one pure reason: a passion for music. There are reasons why it’s still here...one reason is that the people who were hired to work at Amoeba, from the beginning are huge music fans...when this store opened, they advertised across the country for the store’s opening, ‘we need people who are
very knowledgeable... to come staff our store. And people came. From Detroit, Michigan. From Lawrence, Kansas. You know...these were just the hardest, the most hardcore record nerds, and music nerds, and geeks, and people who are just so into...their kind of slice of music fandom that they want to share that with other people. And that, I think that is a particularly special thing about Amoeba. So yes, San Francisco’s techies are thriving, but some of the artistic countercultures are authentic and preserved, through passionate people and Amoeba’s independence as a record store. Diversity and acceptance: two things that San Francisco embodies along with Amoeba Music. Whether you’re a young kid, an edgy teeanger, a middle aged adult, or a old bearded man looking for some punk records, Amoeba has
it all. From 15 hundred dollar records to one dollar records, anyone can find their taste and home here. Looking for a wall to cover with vintage Fillmore concert posters? Amoeba has it. An old DVD of your all time favorite classic? You can count on Amoeba. “We are very co unterculture as I’ve said a few times. And we are very organic here very much ya know you walk in and you feel like you’re at home. Young people feel they can hang out here and it’s a cool place to be and they’re welcomed which is not often for a lot of younger folks especially if they’re scruffy or anything” (Joe). Whoever you are, or however you identify yourself or your music taste, it is all welcomed and loved at this record store.
“If you bring in some of your old product we are happy to...it’s like a trading post. We buy, we sell, we’ll give you credit for your stuff and you can go shop, so it’s a win win.” -Joe Goldmark
CHAPTER 3: THE VINVYL COMEBACK
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moeba Music specializes in vinyl. Stroll down their aisles, and you will see countless records of all sorts of design and art, catering to any kind of music listener. What is so special about records? And record stores for that matter? The answer often lies in the listener and the seller. Walk into Radio Shack or Best Buy, for example. What do you see? Cables, MP3 players, CDs, and millions of other high functioning electronics. What do you feel? A sense that every regular modern chain store gives off, lacking in any unique personality, sterile and shiny, yet what can one expect from a music store associated with the digital music industry? Radio Shack caters to downloading, mp3s, and cds, which are considered to be simpler, faster, and cleaner.
Walk into Amoeba Music, what do you feel? The same way you did when you found yourself in Radio Shack? Not even comparable. Amoeba Music lights up a passion and love for music, specifically vinyl, in any record store lover. It is difficult to pinpoint what is so special about record stores and vinyl, yet this “so special” quality has kept the industry alive and running, from the 1900s to today. Authors of the book Record Store Days, Gary Calamar and Phil Gallo, capture this “so special” quality of record stores that attract so many individuals. “Without record stores, there would be far less joy in our lives. We’ve tasted their transcendent buzz, and now are joyously, irredeemably addicted. We go to the record for our fix. To people like us, downloading music feels like musical methadone” (Gallo).
There is a feeling, often indescribable, that people experience in record stores, towards music, towards vinyl, towards San Francisco as a whole. That feeling, one could say is the whole counter-culture in itself. That feeling is what the word “alternative” attempts to capture, yet words often can’t do it justice. This feeling is also what many people feel towards records, and what makes them gravitate towards turntables and the entire vinyl experience. John Kunz, a record store owner of Waterloo in Austin theorizes about the love people have for vinyl records:. I have always maintained that we have these wonderful analog listening devices on the sides of our heads that don’t want to hear zeroes and ones. They want sound waves, a human-size arc. Vinyl is always
going to have that place, especially among the people who work in this store. There is still a tremendous romance for the record. When people bring in their collections, they’ll tell you about their attachments to records. CDs never had that romance. (Kunz) Maybe this romance could be a reason for the surprising resurgence of vinyl in recent years. CD’s seem to be flying out the window, while vinyl are making yet another appearance in an industry that many record stores thought was dead ten years ago. “In 2013, there were 6.1 million vinyl records sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks music sales. That was a 33 percent increase over the year before. To show how much sales have increased, in 1993 there were well under 1 million vinyl records sold.” (Associated Press - New York Times). The numbers are clearly rising, even though the overall
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ritual. (David James) Vinyl provides far more than a CD or MP3 player could offer. The physical aspect of a vinyl is simply exciting. Holding it in your two hands, feeling the presence of music on your finger tips. The unique artwork and lyrics on the album cover. The process of playing a vinyl, overall is a very personal experience, physically involving you with the artist and album, and the soft, analog sound. All of this could potentially make someone feel cool, like a knowledgeable alternative “hipster.” The resurgence of vinyl sales seems to be primarily because of a certain crowd: young people. It want is as if the tables have switched. “Twenty years ago, diehard via thing, nyl fans were still buying LPs people who want an artifact, and saying, ‘The kids don’t get people who want album cover it.’ Then, about five years ago, art and that kind of tactile experience to go along with their the younger generation started buying vinyl, and their parents music, a record is...you know you get more art, its bigger, it’s were flummoxed. Now, millennia little more of a special kind of als and boomers are all together in
personality of San Francisco is fading. Quite a paradox, isn’it it? David James explains the strong attraction to records: If you want to have a thing that contains your music, a record is a much cooler thing. That’s what people are kind of deciding. People who
“The physics of a needle in the grooves of vinyl, it’s going to have some certain kind of resonance and distortion. That in some instances comes across as just warmth. It’s warmer. It’s a warmer, rounder sound. It’s not clearer. That’s for sure. But it’s warmer. And there’s something to be said for that.” -david james
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the same stores buying LPs” (Joel Oliphint). Young people are chasing after the hype and the feeling that vinyl imparted in the 60s and 70s. Whether this attraction to records is authentic or not is difficult to say. Of course, there are still many oldies who seek out record stores just as they d id in the 70s, when vinyl sales were booming. There is always a pure and genuine customer element within the record store industry, just as there is for Amoeba, as it preserves this “purity” and counterculture.
Whether young people are chasing the “hipster” persona through vinyl, or are simply drawn to them for their distinctive essence, the purpose and authenticity of record stores does not change. Specifically Amoeba, whether their customers are teens who are looking for popular hip hop for their new turntable, or an oldie from the 70s seeking out some classic rock vinyl, Amoeba Music caters to everyone. Joe, manager of Amoeba, captures the diversity of the record store. We of course get all ages - we
get a lot of new people who are coming because of the vinyl thing...they just got a turntable, they’re pretty young or they wanna buy records, and you can come in here and we have thousands of them for a dollar. And you can start there. We have a lot of what I call grey beard folks in their 60s who never stopped liking tensile or something you can hold in your hand type music. Cds, LPs… and everything in between. (Goldmark).
CONCLUSION
What lies ahead for the record industry and counter culture of San Francisco? Looking at the booming industrialization and technology transformations of the city, the future doesn’t look too great. Rent prices are only getting higher, and more struggling artists or passionate music loving employees of Amoeba Music will be forced out of the city. In the face of these changes, it is my purpose as an individual to seek out the quirky places and people, specifically in San Francisco, to bring attention to them through this book and try to contribute to the overall preservation of the countercultures of this city. Through my in depth research and exploration of Amoeba Music I see that the people of this store are pursuing the same mission that I myself feel is almost an obligation of mine. Without
places like Amoeba, who work, sell, and function to embody the unique essence of San Francisco, once known as the City of Love in the 60s and 70s, the current increasing gentrification will fully overrun the vibrant cultures that have been part of the city for years. Amoeba Music is significant because of its warmth and uniqueness; it is significant because it still remains true to its authentic roots even though San Francisco may be transforming, Amoeba still stands strong and independent. For the independent artists and city dwellers who have had a home in the city for years, and are losing it because of the increasing prices, this record store is an embodiment of what they have lost, and serves to retain the special culture of San Francisco. However, the future of Amoeba may be even brighter than we
see. With the dramatic increase in vinyl sales over the recent years, there is a sliver of hope, as Joe Goldmark dares to predict: We’re selling more vinyl now than CDs which is an amazing turnaround...it’s really beginning to make an impact and we’re hoping that the whole thing tips...and suddenly every high school kids needs to get a turntable! And if that does happen, and it could, because we’re just selling turntables like crazy and vinyl, then it’ll just turn everything on its head and this business will be really vibrant again!... It’s still pretty strong but it’s not like it was, and now there’s a chance it could get back to that. Even though techies are taking over, San Francisco is still thriving in a different way, and the future for the vinyl industry, specifically Amoeba, is looking up.
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WORKS CITED WORKS CITED
Associated Press. The Washington Times. TWT, 9 Nov. 2014. Web. 29 March 2016. Calamar, Gary and Phil Gallo. Record Store Days: From Vinyl to Digital and Back Again. New York: Sterling, 2012. Print. Calvey, Mark. Business Journal. Upstart, 15 Dec. 2013. Web. 28 March 2016. Corbyn, Zoe. San Francisco The Observer. The Guardian, 23 Feb. 2014. Web. 26 March 2016. Goldmark, Joe. Personal interview. 1 March 2015. Kamiya, Gary. San Francisco Magazine. Modern Luxury, 29 April 2014. Web. 26 March 2016. James, David. Personal interview. 8 March 2015. Oliphint, Joel. Pitchfork. The Dissolve, 28 Jul. 2014. Web. 30 March 2016.
Isabel Owen is a Junior who attends both Mountain View High and Freestyle Academy. She enjoys music, art, and making coffee. Isabel has two quirky dogs who she loves very much, and works at Philz Coffee in Palo Alto. Isabel is also passionate about world travel and photography/film, and hopes to pursue both of these interests in college and beyond. 31