The Target Shoots First - documentary inside Columbia House record club

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i saw this documentary years ago on bootleg VHS. it's totally fascinating, because this guy was just out of college around 89 or 90, and he got a job at columbia house record club. he brought his video camera to work the first day, and no one told him to stop filming. so he kept filming, for a year. i saw somethign about it being released fall 04 on DVD, but can't find anythign to back that up. it's really worth a view if you can find it. it catches the inside of the corporate world, the music biz, their attempts to jump on "alternative" music, and all sorts of other fun stuff.

some links:
buy the VHS: http://www.mediarights.org/search/fil_detail.php? fil_id=02157
review: http://www.documentaryfilms.net/Reviews/TargetShootsFirst/
review: http://www.hermenaut.com/a172.shtml

― chr1sb0y (chr1sb0y), Monday, 4 October 2004 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember it being kind of boring, but it was a couple years ago.

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 4 October 2004 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

i scammed BMG and columbia house so many times in the late 80s and early 90s, and for some reason was totally curious about what life was like inside those organizations. i guess for me it scratched that weird itch.

― chr1sb0y (chr1sb0y), Monday, 4 October 2004 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I liked it quite a bit.... I found the whole thing pretty fascinating (it's also been a few years for me too, though). I remember being amazed by the sheer numbers of discs in stacks in the scene where they are interviewing some poor underpaid laborers stacking Aerosmith CDs in some some warehouse.

― Taxi Dancing in the Soft Prison (Ben Boyer), Monday, 4 October 2004 17:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Has anyone ever faithfully fufilled the obligations of their Columbia House membership?

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Monday, 4 October 2004 17:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Sure.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 4 October 2004 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

i did - i mean, i did the bare minimum, but i think a lot of people do exactly that...

― peter smith (plsmith), Monday, 4 October 2004 17:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow. I've seen people change addresses just to get out of that thing.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

A guy I knew in college scammed them all the time because he worked in the mail office and knew which boxes weren't in use.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, the fun one could have with a job like that.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

B-b-but that's like taking food out of the record executives' mouths!

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

[Finally, the waiting is over - I knew I'd get my chance to use "b-b-but" if I waited long enough! Now, to wait for the opportunity to say "Grebt"...]

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:11 (twenty-one years ago)

columbia house sucks now, it's all about teh bmg music service

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:12 (twenty-one years ago)

five months pass...

Finally saw this; it's been airing on...IFC? Sundance?... this month. Anyway, you wouldn't be able to have 'fun' at the job for long without getting fired. Columbia House seemed to share the foul atmosphere at the ad agencies I've worked at. (Actually, the guy Chris Wilcha worked there '93-95. Good timing.)

I do manage to buy enough from BMG cheaply enough to make it worthwhile.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 15:15 (twenty years ago)

Is 'Sasha' in the movie, Sasha Frere-Jones? It seemed to be correct since Sasha Frere-Jones scored the music for the documentary.

― righteousmaelstrom, Tuesday, 22 March 2005 16:44 (twenty years ago)

SF-J is credited as one of the CH employees who appears in it, yes.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 16:48 (twenty years ago)

ok, that credit I missed. Thanks, doc.

― righteousmaelstrom, Tuesday, 22 March 2005 16:49 (twenty years ago)

i saw this last night!

― i love scotch, scotchy scotch scotch (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 16:50 (twenty years ago)

i actually thought the kids were really naive... cmon dudes, you work for COLUMBIA HOUSE. what creative license do you really expect to have?

― i love scotch, scotchy scotch scotch (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 16:52 (twenty years ago)

That's why it's called youth... and there was that moment in '92-94 where it seemed like *some* things could change in the industry firmament.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 16:57 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, it's a perfect metaphor for that moment, though I don't find myself wanting to watch it again for pleasure, even to look for SFJ, maybe because the filmmaker turns into such a dick...

― Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 22 March 2005 22:56 (twenty years ago)

people make too big a deal of "that moment." they did then, they do now.

― Blossom in Paris (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 23:31 (twenty years ago)

Do you guys like FUGAZI?

― Dr. Eldon Tyrell (ex machina), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 23:50 (twenty years ago)

i used to steal their tapes from tower records!

― Blossom in Paris (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 23:56 (twenty years ago)

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