MARCH 1984 – Three ladies stand in front of the World of Music store in Kiel, Germany, and watch a music video that is presented on several TVs. © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com
The story behind the image
This is one the first images I shot with the brand new Canon AE-1 Program camera my mother had purchased. Originally, she had bought it for herself but very soon I was the one who regularly used the camera. 🙂
Anyway, this must be from the first roll of film and I lost the negatives. Just a print has remained, and the colors have totally faded over the past four decades (see below.) So when I stumbled upon this image the other day, I decided to do a fresh scan and transform it into a nice black-and-white shot.
The image triggered interesting memories.
You see, back in 1984 there were not that many record shops in Kiel, a mid-sized city in northern Germany. In the 1970s there were just three sources I can remember: Kihr Goebel (a store selling HiFi equipment with a substantial record department), and the department stores Hertie and Karstadt, both with big record departments. The first genuine alternative that opened its doors was WOM – World of Music. They were founded in Kiel in 1982 and completely focused on the music itself and sold records, tapes, and concert tickets.
And they presented music in a new, cool, and fresh way. I remember countless record players that were positioned under the ceiling of the store, over the trays with the records, and these relentlessly played the top albums. Customers could grab headphones and listen to the album to find out whether they liked (that side of) the album. And the stores were large. Any young music fan could easily spend the afternoon just listening to the newest albums – for free!
They also hopped on the trend to present music videos. My photo shows their shop window at the Holstenstraße in Kiel where they promoted Nena, one of the popular German bands at the time. To attract shoppers they put six TV sets into the window promoting Nena’s latest album ? (just a question mark, that’s the title of the album) which got released in January 1984. And as you can see, it worked!
Someone had to pay for all these treats and innovations, and it were the customers. I remember their record prices to be rather high.
WOM was sold off to Hertie in 1987 and soon new WOM stores (and store-in-stores) opened across Germany. However, with the consolidation of department stores and changes in the way music was consumed, distributed and sold, the stores were closed in the first decade of the millenium. Today, the brand is still operating as an online specials for CDs and vinyl records.
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | March 1984 |
| Location | Kiel, Germany |
| Camera | Canon AE-1 Program |
| Lens | Canon FD 50mm f/1.8 |
| Image Source | 9 x 13 cm print |
| Digital Image Source | EPSON Perfection 4870 Photo |
| Digital Image Source Format | TIFF, 48 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Dimensions | 6100 x 4071 Pixels |
| Copyright | © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
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