He may look like
Weird Al Yankovic, but there's nothing odd about Music Millennium
owner Terry Currier's business acumen. For 27 years, he has
directed one of Portland's most successful retail stores.
Willamette Week: Did video kill the radio star?
Terry
Currier: Video was a blessing and a curse to the music industry.
MTV, in the very beginning, seemed to be a very exciting
thing, but then it burnt out. People were now buying music
for imagery and not for the music content itself. They were
putting scantily clad women in there, fast cars. Things
that would get 80 percent of society going, "Yeah, I gotta
go out and buy that." And the big distributing companies
and big labels were going, "Yeah! This is great." Even the
record stores thought it was great. But, at the same time,
because they were bought on imagery, those bands don't carry
over to today. Whether you like them or not, you know, we
sell a lot of Doobie Brothers stuff, we sell a lot of Grateful
Dead stuff, we sell a lot of Yes, we sell a lot of Doors,
we sell a lot of Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Janice Joplin.
The lyrics meant a lot to people. When people get things
on imagery, the lyrics aren't that important--a lot of things
aren't as important. The imagery becomes the focus, and
down the road, you can see what it has done. I mean, I don't
get millions of people coming in to get Flock of Seagulls
albums.
Do you remember the first record you ever bought?
Yup,
I do: "We're Only In It For The Money," by Frank Zappa and
The Mothers of Invention.
Which do you play more at home, records or CDs?
I
play more vinyl than CDs at home. My turntable is like a
shrine. It's the most important part of my sound system
that I have at home. More so than the speakers, or the amp,
or the CD player or any of that.
How do you think MP3 technology will change your business?
It
will change our business; to what extent is still out there
on the table. Some say in three or five years, there won't
be record stores out there. I don't agree with that. I think
a certain amount of the public is going to go to this digital
downloading. The movie industry thought it would go under
when the video boom came out. Well, it did tone down, but
eventually the movie industry came back.
Who had this look first, you or Weird Al?
Well, in
some respects I have to give the credit to Weird Al, because
for years I didn't have to wear glasses, and when I didn't
have the glasses on, I never got mistaken for the guy. As
soon as I got the glasses, it was "Oh, it's Weird Al, it's
Weird Al."
So that still happens pretty frequently?
Yeah. It
probably happens at least once a week.
Have you guys ever met?
Yeah. I was at a convention
in Washington, D.C., for NARM [National Association of Recording
Merchandisers], and I was walking through the lobby this
way and he was walking through the lobby the other way,
and this guy from Jazz Times Magazine grabs him and
me at the same time and goes, "Take a look!" And, when you
get us right up next to each other, we don't really look
the same. But it's amazing: In some cities it comes up worse
than others. I'll be in New Orleans, and there'll be a bunch
of frat boys down the street going, "Hey, it's Weird Al."
And they'll all just go into it.
If this is possible to answer, what is the best band
of all time?
The Kinks.
I guess that's not that hard to answer.
No. Ray Davies and the Kinks are definitely my favorite
band of all time. I can narrow it down to a top five, but
Ray Davies is my favorite artist of all time for his songwriting
and wit and everything that goes along with him as a persona.
And the Kinks as a band--for me. And that's the beauty of
music: What hits your nerve, hits my nerve different--that's
why there's so much music out there, because it all hits
us a little bit different.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Willamette Week | originally
published September 15,
1999
|
