Attention K-Mart Shoppers(archive.org)
archive.org
Attention K-Mart Shoppers
https://archive.org/details/attentionkmartshoppers
114 comments
Thanks! I knew this topic sounded familiar.
Attention K-Mart Shoppers: Collected K-Mart background music tapes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35593133 - April 2023 (8 comments)
Attention K-Mart Shoppers: Piped Music Collection on the Internet Archive - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25271464 - Dec 2020 (91 comments)
Attention K-Mart Shoppers: Recordings of K-Mart In-Store Music from 1992 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10369105 - Oct 2015 (13 comments)
(for those curious, EvanAnderson's prior comment was https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25296389 from the Dec 2020 thread)
Attention K-Mart Shoppers: Collected K-Mart background music tapes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35593133 - April 2023 (8 comments)
Attention K-Mart Shoppers: Piped Music Collection on the Internet Archive - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25271464 - Dec 2020 (91 comments)
Attention K-Mart Shoppers: Recordings of K-Mart In-Store Music from 1992 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10369105 - Oct 2015 (13 comments)
(for those curious, EvanAnderson's prior comment was https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25296389 from the Dec 2020 thread)
Wild to actually hear the prices. Shoes for less than $3 USD![0] It's a fun time warp!
[0]https://archive.org/details/KmartJuly1992Generic?start=447
[0]https://archive.org/details/KmartJuly1992Generic?start=447
I think you started about 20 seconds late, https://archive.org/details/KmartJuly1992Generic?start=427
sigh upvote
Leave it to k-mart to never let you down.
Leave it to k-mart to never let you down.
What a needle in a haystack find... excellent.
This was a covert Rickroll execution (if you kept listening)
Never does a deep search in The Archive let anyone down!
Woah, awesome find!
Women's flats were $6.44 a pair.
Oh boy this was a good one
[deleted]
Oh god...
Boo but also lol.
Dude... thanks for the laugh.
lol, never expected that to happen here
Anyone else hiding inside of clothing racks away from siblings (or the world) listening to this???
There was a security guard dressed like a NYC cop as they did back in the early 60s who grabbed my ear and made me leave the toy section because I was trying to open packages with my tiny hands when mom was in another aisle. I was terrified of K-Mart from then on.
I'm listening to this because Spotify is (was?) down, what a gift to find.
apparently ears were a real liability back then
Favorite vaporwave rendition of this: https://adamneelymusic.bandcamp.com/track/k-m-a-r-t
From "The music theory of V A P O R W A V E" where Adam Neely not only explains and critiques Vaporwave but takes a big steaming dump on it by creating the track that captures and parodies its entire aesthetic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdVEez20X_s
He got his source material directly from this archive.org collection, as it says in the opening titles:
"On October 2, 2015, Mark Davis posted his prized collection of digitized K-mart elevator music cassette tapes to archive.org, free for anybody to use.
Vaporwave producers rejoiced."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdVEez20X_s
He got his source material directly from this archive.org collection, as it says in the opening titles:
"On October 2, 2015, Mark Davis posted his prized collection of digitized K-mart elevator music cassette tapes to archive.org, free for anybody to use.
Vaporwave producers rejoiced."
Excellent video, thanks for that.
I thought this remark in the comments was pretty interesting:
> Something that helps identify Vaporwave is the natural vibrato that occurs from using tape cassettes etc. I often wonder if vibrato, as an effect, gains it's ability to evoke emotion through a psychological connection with the natural vibrato of a person's wavering voice while near to crying. If so wouldn't that be a potential factor in this kind of music's popularity?
I thought this remark in the comments was pretty interesting:
> Something that helps identify Vaporwave is the natural vibrato that occurs from using tape cassettes etc. I often wonder if vibrato, as an effect, gains it's ability to evoke emotion through a psychological connection with the natural vibrato of a person's wavering voice while near to crying. If so wouldn't that be a potential factor in this kind of music's popularity?
It's a good video, but I wouldn't go anywhere near as far as saying he's taking a "big steaming dump" on it. He takes pains to explain why the experience of listening to a piece (accounting for the emotions that a given piece evokes) takes ultimate priority, and the trappings of classical music theory only follow from there. To a listener it doesn't particularly matter if a piece of work is unserious, amateurish, low-effort, etc. if the emotions that it evokes are genuine, and nostalgia is a legitimate emotion to evoke, and sampling from period-appropriate music only enhances that effect.
Here's a whole remix album based on these recordings:
https://juicytheemissary.bandcamp.com/album/attention-kmart-...
https://juicytheemissary.bandcamp.com/album/attention-kmart-...
On a slightly related note, Internet Archive archivist and notable speaker Jason Scott (@textfiles) shared to his Twitter followers Juicy the Emissary's "Attention K-Mart Choppers" - an enjoyable remix from this collection. He linked to the Medium article here: https://medium.com/micro-chop/traveling-back-in-time-with-ju...
If you like this kind of thing (as background ambience or whatever), the 'WJSV broadcast day' recording from 1939 is worth checking out too: https://archive.org/details/001WakeUpMusic
It was apparently the first recording of its type, clocking in at 19 hours: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WJSV_broadcast_day
I chopped up bits of it for the 'Old American radio' option on an ambient sound mixer I made called Ambiphone: https://ambiph.one/?m=1-Ambient+old+radio-bf37bi80
It was apparently the first recording of its type, clocking in at 19 hours: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WJSV_broadcast_day
I chopped up bits of it for the 'Old American radio' option on an ambient sound mixer I made called Ambiphone: https://ambiph.one/?m=1-Ambient+old+radio-bf37bi80
I wonder if anyone remembers the K-Mart diners and cafes. This image search[0] shows various styles. Some or all of them were branded as K-Café.
The one that I and my older brother remember from our local K-Mart is the sit-down experience with the brown chairs and tables, the server greeting you with the brown coffee canister. (Brown dominated the palette.) It was removed from the store before my younger siblings could register memories of it. They thought we were trolling when we brought it up.
[0]: https://www.google.com/search?q=k-mart+diner&udm=2
The one that I and my older brother remember from our local K-Mart is the sit-down experience with the brown chairs and tables, the server greeting you with the brown coffee canister. (Brown dominated the palette.) It was removed from the store before my younger siblings could register memories of it. They thought we were trolling when we brought it up.
[0]: https://www.google.com/search?q=k-mart+diner&udm=2
Yes, the K-mart in my town had one when they opened the store in the 1970s. I think they removed the cafe some time in 1980s? The store itself closed about 6-8 years ago, sat vacant until about two years ago and was finally torn down.
Remember blue-light specials? They had a little cart with a flashing blue light that they would roll around the store and have short-term unadvertised sale prices on things.
Remember blue-light specials? They had a little cart with a flashing blue light that they would roll around the store and have short-term unadvertised sale prices on things.
The K-Mart where I worked in 1983-1988 had a cafe, called 'The Grill'. Ours had booths, with smooth curved plastic (unpadded) benches. The ones along the edges were typical booths but there was also a row down the center of the same thing without side walls. Orange seats and brown tabletops, I believe. A quick look at the google'd images from above doesn't show anything that looked quite like what my store had.
I announced Blue Light Specials from time to time myself. There were a bunch of rotary-dial phones throughout the store, and if you dialed a certain number (I forget what it was) you could talk on the PA system. It's surprising it wasn't abused.
I announced Blue Light Specials from time to time myself. There were a bunch of rotary-dial phones throughout the store, and if you dialed a certain number (I forget what it was) you could talk on the PA system. It's surprising it wasn't abused.
They even have images of the tapes with the legal notice to not duplicate them on there ;)
K-Mart headquarters were in my hometown and I drove by them yesterday and they finally tore them down. Happy to see some K-Mart nostalgia here.
I don't know why but I absolutely love to go through things like this. They are a window into a past in a way no history article/book can bring out. Just raw, unfiltered content.
Little did I know as a child that those security alert announcements weren't real. I'd often go around the store looking for the police arresting someone they chased down for shoplifting but always ended up disappointed. Probably watched too many cop shows in my youth.
It was cool when mom finally let you roam around on your own. Beeline to the electronics section usually.
The 30th anniversary one is amazing:
https://archive.org/details/Kmart30thAnniversaryProgram
All the facts about 1962 from a perspective 30 years later, but 30+ years in the past to us!
For example the fact that when K-Mart opened no one could have predicted that it would be one of the biggest real outlets in the country. :)
https://archive.org/details/Kmart30thAnniversaryProgram
All the facts about 1962 from a perspective 30 years later, but 30+ years in the past to us!
For example the fact that when K-Mart opened no one could have predicted that it would be one of the biggest real outlets in the country. :)
It's giving CVS Bangers[0]
[0]https://www.mixcloud.com/TOLKIENBLACK/cvs-bangers/
[0]https://www.mixcloud.com/TOLKIENBLACK/cvs-bangers/
Listening to October 1989 right now. Loving it! I'm going to download every single .ogg file and create a radio station that I can just tune into while working. Surprisingly effective for the flow state - even with the random product announcements.
Who knew that K-Mart music from 1989 would be the perfect sound track for vibe coding in 2025?
Were you able to find the tracks using Shazam? It is having trouble matching the one from the 28:00 mark here: https://archive.org/details/KmartFebruary1990
Wow... I spent a lot time in the Naperville, IL Ogden Mall Kmart in the early/mid 1980s, so I probably heard these exact tapes.
ditto...i tried from afar seeing what the spot is now, what happened to flipside, and ogden 6.
It's a collection of K-Mart PA tapes. Enjoy.
I grabbed this about 5 years ago and stashed it on the media server.
Two years ago I got into a docker compose project to use mpd and rern/rAudio to stream music 24/7 over multiple channels on a bunch of pis with dac hats, including my wood shop out in the woods.
So I'm out there at midnight a year or two ago and I had it pinned on these kmart rips.
It's creepy out there.
All of a sudden this booming voice yells "SECURITY TURN CAMERAS TO AISLE 13" or some such thing.
So be careful if you are likely to get into the same predicament.
Two years ago I got into a docker compose project to use mpd and rern/rAudio to stream music 24/7 over multiple channels on a bunch of pis with dac hats, including my wood shop out in the woods.
So I'm out there at midnight a year or two ago and I had it pinned on these kmart rips.
It's creepy out there.
All of a sudden this booming voice yells "SECURITY TURN CAMERAS TO AISLE 13" or some such thing.
So be careful if you are likely to get into the same predicament.
Listening to some of these, and it just floods back the horrendousness that was cassette tapes. They were horrible, yet they were amazing. They were great in every way except for their main purpose of listening to the recorded content. The sound was atrocious. From the muddled sound from losing all the fidelity of the highs because they were usually lost to any attempt at lowering the infamous tape hiss. The slow draggy sound from a tape that was stretched or the player having loose belts on the driving mechanism. Or worse, when the recorder did and no other player has the exact same issue so every player sounds like the batteries are dying.
For those too young to have to suffer through your youth of listening to such inferior sounds, just be grateful. For those trying to be hip and bring back old formats, stick to vinyl. Cassettes are worth losing to history.
For those too young to have to suffer through your youth of listening to such inferior sounds, just be grateful. For those trying to be hip and bring back old formats, stick to vinyl. Cassettes are worth losing to history.
My brother and I bought the same album back in 1994. Stone Temple Pilots—Purple.
I had it on CD, he bought the tape.
The CD sounded (obviously) so much better than his tape. But a little while later I made my own tape copy of the CD, and my copy sounded really close to the CD! Way better than his store-bought copy.
Those bastards didn't even have the decency to use Type II cassettes for the released album.
A Type II (or even better, Type IV-Metal) tape could sound pretty damn good. Still sucked to have to rewind or fast-forward, though.
(Also, Dolby NR was terrible. I'd rather have the hiss than have the muted highs)
I had it on CD, he bought the tape.
The CD sounded (obviously) so much better than his tape. But a little while later I made my own tape copy of the CD, and my copy sounded really close to the CD! Way better than his store-bought copy.
Those bastards didn't even have the decency to use Type II cassettes for the released album.
A Type II (or even better, Type IV-Metal) tape could sound pretty damn good. Still sucked to have to rewind or fast-forward, though.
(Also, Dolby NR was terrible. I'd rather have the hiss than have the muted highs)
Don't forget about quality loss from manufactured cassettes being high speed dubs. There's significant quality loss as you increase the dub speed.
Yeah mass-produced tapes were pretty bad but if you copied an album to cassette using a good tape and decent tape deck they could sound pretty good. Good enough for a Walkman or playing in the car anyway.
Pioneer, metal tape (TDK) and Dolby, man.
Maxell man!!! j/k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk71h2CQ_xM
even the tape hiss in the ad about a cassette tape is golden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk71h2CQ_xM
even the tape hiss in the ad about a cassette tape is golden
One of the all-time great iconic ads. The photo of the guy in the chair was available as a poster and graced many a young man's bedroom or dorm room wall.
I still have cassette tapes encoded with dbx rather than Dolby and the former's sound quality is much better than the latter. I'd recorded them on Technics decks, which is why I still keep an old deck of that brand for playback and ripping as the bias values are identical.
Cassettes had a bit of a resurgence in the late aughts to 2010s among DIY/punk/indie bands due in part to the widespread availability of cheap (often free) old players, older used cars with tape decks, and cheap four track recording devices.
It would be very common for a new band in that time to have their first release on cassette, and then after they could scrape up the dough, press a vinyl single (CDs being very digitally uncool). There were several niche labels from that time whose bread was buttered with cassette sales.
You're absolutely right the sound quality sucks, but as a child of the '80s whose first music collection was purely cassette based and played back on a Radio Shack cassette dictation player, that sound has a nostalgia for me.
It would be very common for a new band in that time to have their first release on cassette, and then after they could scrape up the dough, press a vinyl single (CDs being very digitally uncool). There were several niche labels from that time whose bread was buttered with cassette sales.
You're absolutely right the sound quality sucks, but as a child of the '80s whose first music collection was purely cassette based and played back on a Radio Shack cassette dictation player, that sound has a nostalgia for me.
nails across the the chalkboard has a nostalgia sound as well, but I don't want to spend time listening to it if I don't have to!
Yeah. I lived on tapes, stuff ripped from radio, other tapes, and CDs. I honestly don't remember thinking tape sound was that bad, worse than CD's sure. Most of the audio gear kids and young people had access to were cheap walkmans & headphones, boom boxes, and crappy all-in-one stereo systems likely made everything sound like shit and we were oblivious. It wasn't until I was older and befriended someone who was into sound production that I put a bit more thought into audio gear.
I used to work for a VHS dub house while working graveyard shift. There was a weekend radio program that would play underground tunes not normally broadcast. It was a multi-hour broadcast longer than cassettes. Instead, I would hook up a tuner to a VHS audio-in, and record the entire broadcast on VHS HiFi tracks. I'd then listen to that tape through out the week. Lather, rinse, repeat.
We all put up with stuff when we have to. We no longer have to. Bringing back formats for nostalgia is fun, but for anything other than cassettes. Hell, my first car had an 8-track in it. My dad had a supply of blank 8-track tapes and an 8-track recorder in the home HiFi setup. I would record modern releases from CD to 8-track and rock it in the car. So yeah, been there done that
We all put up with stuff when we have to. We no longer have to. Bringing back formats for nostalgia is fun, but for anything other than cassettes. Hell, my first car had an 8-track in it. My dad had a supply of blank 8-track tapes and an 8-track recorder in the home HiFi setup. I would record modern releases from CD to 8-track and rock it in the car. So yeah, been there done that
> and record the entire broadcast on VHS HiFi tracks.
That's a neat Idea. I once did something along those lines when I was a kid. A friend and I were trying to dub as many albums as we could on to a 160 minute VHS tape in LP or SLP, whatever gave you nearly 6 hours of play time. Was just for fun though.
That's a neat Idea. I once did something along those lines when I was a kid. A friend and I were trying to dub as many albums as we could on to a 160 minute VHS tape in LP or SLP, whatever gave you nearly 6 hours of play time. Was just for fun though.
Growing up I had a cheap stereo that I think came from a garage sell. Can't remember the brand, but it had an am/fm tuner, an 8 track player, and rca jacks for the speakers to plug into. Later on, I guess for my birthday or something, I got this adapter thing that could plug into the 8 track player and then you could play cassettes with that.
That was my setup for many years until one day I made friends with this new kid at school and stopped by his house afterwards. They were, uh, not so hygienic and had trash and clothes laying all over the house. In the mess I found some 8tracks just laying around. He didn't even know what they were so I tossed one in my backpack and took it home to try on my stereo that had an actual 8track player.
I remember being shocked by the sound quality. To me, it sounded way better than a cassette. I was also amazed that you could push a button and hear a different song. That seemed way better than a cassette that you had to rewind and fast forward through to get the right spot. I ended up taking the 8track apart for fun and of course got tape everywhere so in the trash it went. And that was my first and only 8track experience.
That was my setup for many years until one day I made friends with this new kid at school and stopped by his house afterwards. They were, uh, not so hygienic and had trash and clothes laying all over the house. In the mess I found some 8tracks just laying around. He didn't even know what they were so I tossed one in my backpack and took it home to try on my stereo that had an actual 8track player.
I remember being shocked by the sound quality. To me, it sounded way better than a cassette. I was also amazed that you could push a button and hear a different song. That seemed way better than a cassette that you had to rewind and fast forward through to get the right spot. I ended up taking the 8track apart for fun and of course got tape everywhere so in the trash it went. And that was my first and only 8track experience.
I need one of those "Blue Light Special" lights attached to my laptop.
Probably will need to develop an SDK for it..
Probably will need to develop an SDK for it..
A buddy has these Woot lights: https://www.woot.com/offers/usb-powered-woot-off-lights-6
Sadly, they only draw power from USB-- no controlling them in software.
(They got me a cheap laugh when I started singing "Turn on your Woot light..." to the tune of Neil Diamond's "Heartlight". Yeah, I'm a dad... >sigh<)
Sadly, they only draw power from USB-- no controlling them in software.
(They got me a cheap laugh when I started singing "Turn on your Woot light..." to the tune of Neil Diamond's "Heartlight". Yeah, I'm a dad... >sigh<)
SomaFM NEEDS to put up a stream of those recordings atop ambient electronica, please!
SomaFM does have a Vaporwave station [1]
[1] https://somafm.com/vaporwaves/
[1] https://somafm.com/vaporwaves/
How new is that? I used to listen to pretty much every SomaFM station all the time and never saw this one.
Great to see this here. I was reading to my 8yo yesterday and there was a reference in the book to a "blue light special" so I took a diversion to explain to her what that referred to. Now I can show her the real deal! (btw, it blew her mind to think that stores did this, and imagined it was like a mass of people all running to one place to grab a deal... and sometimes it was!)
Quite a bit of wow and volume instability on these tapes. Wonder if this is due to the cassette player quality or the tape being worn.
yes. cassette tape was a shit format. the longer the cassette, the thinner the tape itself was. the type of tape formulation also played into this. the more brown the tape was, the lower quality. higher end tapes were much darker nearly black.
tapes could also stretch which would give you some of that wow. the tape duplicators motors/belts could wear out so that even if the original tape used to make the dubs was solid, the dubs would have that wow when played back in other cassette players that turned at a more consistent speed than the recorder. dirty heads on the dubbers would also lower the overall sound quality.
I used to make cassette dubs with professional dubbers for years. We'd clean the heads after every X number of passes. The value of X changed depending on the length of the tapes used. I'd check for loose belts at the beginning of any dub order. For primarily talking content, we'd use the more brown colored tape. For music content, we'd use the darker tapes. At least that's what we'd recommend, but plenty of people would choose the cheaper tape regardless.
tapes could also stretch which would give you some of that wow. the tape duplicators motors/belts could wear out so that even if the original tape used to make the dubs was solid, the dubs would have that wow when played back in other cassette players that turned at a more consistent speed than the recorder. dirty heads on the dubbers would also lower the overall sound quality.
I used to make cassette dubs with professional dubbers for years. We'd clean the heads after every X number of passes. The value of X changed depending on the length of the tapes used. I'd check for loose belts at the beginning of any dub order. For primarily talking content, we'd use the more brown colored tape. For music content, we'd use the darker tapes. At least that's what we'd recommend, but plenty of people would choose the cheaper tape regardless.
A once common sight lost to time is the cassette tape that got eaten by someone's car stereo and thrown out the window (presumably in anger). In later years, broken CDs sometimes made an appearance but nowhere near as frequently as strung out cassettes.
I couldn’t afford too many cassettes growing up. I managed to save a few roadside discards and add them to my collection. I distinctly remember being introduced to Whodini that way while living in the farmlands of Michigan.
we used to collect the AOL CDs and make different art projects with them. from simple hanging mobiles to catch/reflect light to melting them with torches and other ways of using them in random ways.
can't forget the tying cassette tape to your antenna as a streamer. kids today look at cars and ask what's an antenna. no, i don't mean the sharkfin for XM radio.
can't forget the tying cassette tape to your antenna as a streamer. kids today look at cars and ask what's an antenna. no, i don't mean the sharkfin for XM radio.
I think it's interesting how they've worn.
> The monthly tapes are very, very, worn and rippled. That's becuase they ran for 14 hours a day, 7 days a week on auto-reverse. If you do the math assuming that each tape is 30 minutes per side, that's over 800 passes over a tape head each month.
> The monthly tapes are very, very, worn and rippled. That's becuase they ran for 14 hours a day, 7 days a week on auto-reverse. If you do the math assuming that each tape is 30 minutes per side, that's over 800 passes over a tape head each month.
This just transported me to the past, shopping with my mom... The difference in tone is sharp vs. e.g. modern Wal-mart
The old Kmart tapes had a frequency that kept teens from loitering and summoned exact change. Scientists don’t talk about it because they’re scared. I played one backwards once and the parking lot stripes repainted themselves. That’s how you know it’s good audio.
So I'm watching one of the really old sales training videos [^0] and am wondering: for anyone here who shopped for stuff in the 60s/70s, were retail employees friendlier and more assistive than retail employees today? Do you think the brick-and-mortal retail experience is any better or worse than then?
[^0]: https://archive.org/details/S.S.KresgeTraining-TheABCsOfFrie.... It's also really trippy that the tips being given here STILL apply today at a basic level, even in complex technical sales!
[^0]: https://archive.org/details/S.S.KresgeTraining-TheABCsOfFrie.... It's also really trippy that the tips being given here STILL apply today at a basic level, even in complex technical sales!
It was definitely better back in the 80s, which is as far back as I can remember. Back then being a retail worker provided a livable wage, so you had people who actually cared and wanted to keep their job and actually help people.
Brings back a lot of memories. I worked at K-Mart when I was in high school. I recall in 1983 when the TI-99/4A was discontinued, and the Sunday morning when we were selling them for (I think) $50 with a $100 mail-in rebate. When the doors opened people sprinted down the midway aisle to the TV/electronics department at the rear of the store where the computers were. I was an Atari snob at the time and had no interest in one for myself. I think we had less than a dozen in stock.
If only vapourwave was still popular.
With enough age, I've found that popularity has little to do with my enjoyment of a particular song or artist.
I still have it as my main coding music. Along with Wii Shop/lo-fi Nintendo. Still bops.
Mallsoft - or martsoft?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallsoft
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallsoft
Some of my favorites are the purile humor of FrankJavCee and the Simpsonwave excellence of DANKMUS.
RIP FrankJavCee
i mean, it still is, it's just that the window of nostalgia shifted so "vaporwave" has mutated into various strains of Y2K [0] and "windows 7" feeling music [1]
[0] https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX9D5dmCM8Lo3
[1] https://open.spotify.com/playlist/47t3ywNfFeeqSj6gJDjvgF
[0] https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX9D5dmCM8Lo3
[1] https://open.spotify.com/playlist/47t3ywNfFeeqSj6gJDjvgF
Yep, vaporwave is very millennial-centric, with song samples rooted in '80s and '90s pop, with an intentional pre-Internet feel. Things that millennials would have fading, but extremely resonant, nostalgic memories about.
The younger generation caught on to vaporwave's appealing use of slowed and reverbed samples, and created their their own spin on it now with "Frutiger Aero", which is 2000s vaporwave with a graphical/audio aesthetic that brings to mind Windows XP/Vista, Nintendo DS/Wii, Neopets, Flash games and early Youtube but cuts off before the iPhone age.
The younger generation caught on to vaporwave's appealing use of slowed and reverbed samples, and created their their own spin on it now with "Frutiger Aero", which is 2000s vaporwave with a graphical/audio aesthetic that brings to mind Windows XP/Vista, Nintendo DS/Wii, Neopets, Flash games and early Youtube but cuts off before the iPhone age.
Reminds me of a mix between Wii and Gran Turismo 3/4
They have overdrive and inconstant playback speed! Wonderful.
The Egghead Software store I worked at always played the same CD on loop in a lock box. It was a passionless rendition of The Four Seasons by Vivaldi.
I can't figure out which is the special tape with the 30 years of history. The one I thought it would be 03.01.1992 just seems to be a normal tape?
https://archive.org/details/Kmart30thAnniversaryProgram
Week of 3/1 is presumably what they played on the other 6 days of the week.
Week of 3/1 is presumably what they played on the other 6 days of the week.
Thank you!!
This is what the internet was made for, this is great
I'd say it was how the internet was used for a short period of time before the greedy corporate overlords moved in.
I listen to the Christmas tapes from this collection each December. It's become my defacto Christmas soundtrack.
My kid and I use these tapes sometimes as lyrics for songs because we don't have a singer (he plays drums and I play guitar)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPoSe_qMRr4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPoSe_qMRr4
This is awesome! Thanks for posting.
Reminds me of this, similar vein: https://twcclassics.com/
Reminds me of this, similar vein: https://twcclassics.com/
Are Americans unusual that they'll do anything for money? Weird for an artist to sell out and make advertising jingles?
This is amazing, but I wish they were in FLAC
Some of these tracks are absolute bangers
so many emotions. thanks for sharing.
[deleted]
The "Tower Sound and Communications" (TSC) company that recorded many of these was located a few miles up the road from my home town. The booming male voice on the recordings also sounded familiar to me, too. I'm fairly certain I heard him on the local radio station that my father played over the PA system in our family grocery store when I was growing up.
Turns out that Cecil "Lee" Rutherford, the voice on the recordings, did VO work for local radio stations near my home town, too. He died in November, 2020.
He was involved in some ventures that persist today. His company EchoSat[1] (which I'd heard of because I had some involvement in the convenience store / retail petroleum industry) merged with an IT security firm to become "ControlScan", doing PCI testing stuff because gas stations and credit cards.
Quoting the obituary[2]:
He started Tower Sound and Communications while in Greenville to pursue a venture that would eventually spearhead "in store" broadcasting for companies such as Kmart (he became the voice of Kmart) and Jamesway which evolved into another corporation in KY called EchoSat that would use satellite technology in helping with multiple stores for POS processing and security.
There's an interview with Lee Rutherford in 2011.[3] He absolutely still has that "radio voice".
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25271464
[1] https://www.dandb.com/businessdirectory/towercommunicationsg...
[2] https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailyadvocate/obituary.asp...
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQqoQL3pkyI