Travis Harvey: Good music can make you a better person

Photo of Village Green Records' entrance taken by Henry Davis, II

MUNCIE, Ind. – “Good music can make you a better person,” that’s the motto Village Green Records (VGR) has been operating under for 10 years. This motto represents the store’s commitment to creating a more open minded community at Ball State.

Located in a green colored house at 519 N Martin Street, VGR carries hundreds, if not thousands, of albums

in various formats to please any customer. Each of these albums was hand-picked by the store’s owner, Travis Harvey.

Harvey has been developing his knowledge of music since he was nine years old. Now, at the age of 39 he uses this knowledge to suggest new genres of music to customers; usually ones they never considered listening to before.

“I like to attempt to talk to each and every customer, and kind of gauge what kind of mood in music they’re looking for and sort of tailor what I have in stock to best suit their mood,” Harvey said. He went on to describe the importance of aiding customers based on mood, rather than taste in music.

Harvey explained that a person’s taste in music can limit them to only listening to one genre. He reminisced about listening to punk rock as an adolescent, and being surrounded by “punk rock purists,” (people who only listen to that one genre, and won’t compromise for anything else).

Photo of some of VGR’s many records taken by Henry Davis, II

Now, every album he listens to becomes another building block that Harvey can use to construct sort of a “musical journey” for returning customers. This is crucial if you look at a Ball State student’s four-year progression.

Harvey said that many of the customers he gets at the beginning of the year are wandering freshmen. So, if a freshman walks into the store and seeks a Coldplay album, and only a Coldplay album, Harvey’s mission is to look ahead and think of several other albums of different genres that might match the mood of Coldplay.

By doing this he prevents the student from being trapped in a regurgitated world of Coldplay and like artists. Instead that student will be able to draw on artists from multiple genres that happen to match the mood of his/her Coldplay obsession.

If all goes according to plan, by the time that freshman reaches his/her senior year they should have a large repertoire of artists across the musical spectrum.

It is through this progression that the VGR motto comes to life. Harvey said, “it’s bigger than just good music. It’s searching out good music, the soul of good music. Experiencing the journey to find good music. I believe it can make you a better person. It will make you more open, and make you more excited about different things.”

While this has been his record store’s mission, Harvey has noticed a decline in this train of thought in our generation. He said that many of the customers are almost scared to give new music a try. Because of steaming applications such as Pandora, Spotify and Apple Music, people can now tailor their listening experience to exactly when/what they want to hear.

Some see the surge of streaming apps as a benefit, but Harvey sees this as a detriment to people. He said that this privilege can ultimately close people off, making them closed to trying anything new.

“I am absolutely haunted by the thought that of Ball State’s 20-thousand students, only around nine hundred of them will ever step foot into my store.” And, of course, the majority of those are not recurring customers.

This calls into question the success of other record stores around the country. While many people might not see much of a need for record stores, Harvey said “I think every town in America should have its own little record store. I think they’re a certain kind of sincere, unadulterated beacon of culture and hope.”

Despite the decline in record store patronage, Village Green Records does not seem to be en route to go anywhere anytime soon. Any music lovers, interested in trying something new or expanding their horizons, are encouraged to visit the store. VGR is open Monday-Friday at 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., as well as Saturday and Sunday from 1:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

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