Avalanche

When I was young and discovering music for the first time it took a few years to discover what genres I really like. A big influence on my own tastes was Avalanche Records on West Register Street in Edinburgh.
Before discovering this shop I was quite often influenced by the mainstream which was reflected in my first few albums being the kind of manufactured pop acts I hate now. I did enjoy these at the time but it's almost as if I wasn't fully in charge of making these selections.
However Avalanche Records changed this. It allowed me to define my own tastes through stocking the kind of obscure and random cd's the high street shops didn't. There was a great selection of cheap second hand cd's which meant I could take a chance of artists I had only vaguely heard of. There was always something exciting about buying a random album on a whim, going home and listening to it for the first time. Admittedly there were some disasters but quite often the albums turned out to be really good, almost as if I knew I would enjoy them.
I used to love browsing in the shop for ages even though it wasn't very big and listening to the music that was being played. It was a fairly safe bet that it wasn't top 40 music.
In short I owe some of my love of music to Avalanche Records (along with friends to discuss it with) so I was quite upset to find out on Saturday that the shop has now closed.
I hadn't been to visit it for a couple of years mainly due to the fact that I don't find myself in Newington very often these days but I just assumed that it would still be there helping to shape the tastes of the latest generation of teenagers. Guess I was wrong and that is a bit sad.
The advent of mp3 music and itunes probably contributed to it's decline. It is easier to purchase music over the internet but for me you can't replicate the good times that you could have in a proper record shop.