Articles — record stores

Before streaming playlists and social media promotion, record labels had a much more physical way of grabbing fans’ attention: giant cardboard standees, hanging mobiles, oversized album displays, and elaborate in-store cutouts that transformed record shops into miniature music museums. During the 1970s and 1980s in particular, these promotional displays became a defining part of music retail culture. Walk into a mall record store in 1974 and you might see a towering Queen standee near shelves of their records. In 1979 a KISS display hanging over the cassette racks. Or by 1984 into the 90s, cardboard versions of Prince, Madonna, and...