Before everyone could access all the music in the world at their fingertips, discovering your taste in music meant spending time in one of the coolest places in the world. Record shops in the seventies were more than just stores; they were hangouts and cultural hubs where people flipped through vinyl sleeves, asked for song recommendations, and spent entire afternoons surrounded by music.
Rows of album covers, people listening to albums together, and browsing customers reveal a slower, more hands-on way of engaging with music. Each photo reflects a time when finding a new favorite record meant wandering the aisles and talking with staff. Let’s take a look at 20 vintage images of seventies record shops.
1. The OG Try It Before You Buy It
2. Shop Founder Geoff Travis (right) in the Rough Trade Shop in London, England, 1977
3. ‘Nothing Like Going Home and Checking Out the Cool Album Cover, While Playing the Music’
4. ‘Vintage Record Store in 1979’
5. ‘I Miss the Nostalgia of Being in a Record Store Looking for a CD to Play or a Vinyl of Your Favorite Metal/Rock/Punk/Ska Band and Finding Out You Got the Last One.’
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6. We Just Know She Had Some Fire Recommendations Up Her Sleeve
7. Elvis Presley Goes Through a Record Store for Inspiration, Circa 1970
8. Before Spotify, This Is How We Found Our Favorite New Tunes — One Flip at a Time
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9. A Collection of Soul, Funk, Jazz, and Disco Records From the ’70s
10. People Shopping at the White Front Discount Department Store in Los Angeles
11. Young Music Fans Look at Vinyl LPs in an Unidentified Record Store in Falls Church, Virginia, 1977
12. British Businessman Ted Carroll, Co-Founder of Ace Records, Holds Up a Copy of ‘Here’s Little Richard’ in London, England, 1977
13. ‘A Woman Inside a British Record Store in the ’70s’
14. Neil Young Finds His Own Albums at a Record Store, 1972
Looking for more music content?
Don’t miss 10 of the Most Expensive Musical Instruments in the World and 15 Vinyl Records That Are Now Worth More Than You’d Expect. And for a peek at what one of the world’s most famous music festivals looked like in the ’60s, be sure to check out 17 Vintage Photos From Woodstock ’69 That Show What the Festival Was Really Like.
