Gibson Guitars On The Move To Hollywood
My Guitar Lessons has found out that Gibson guitars has taken over the space formerly occupied by the recently closed Tower Records on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. Constructed in 1971, Tower Records was a key feature of West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. Offering everything from CDs and cassette tapes to films and video games the legendary store left large shoes to fill for any successors after filing bankruptcy in 2006.
In 2010, one of the owners of the property, Sol Barket, announced plans to have the site demolished to make way for a new three-story project that was intended to house a number of rentable offices and a gym. This sparked outrage and preservationists were able to fight against the proposed plans in an attempt to protect the remnants of the sunset strip’s musical legacy that dates back decades. Under pressure, the city withheld approval for the project, forcing the owners to look into renting the site instead, resulting in a great deal of interest from varied sources, eventually resulting in Gibson arranging a 15 year lease on the site.
In recent years, Gibson has expanded its reach through a professional audio recording line and the acquisition of Philips Home Entertainment, famous for the creation of the cassette tape as well as the CD and MP3/MP4 formats.
Despite having its own image and brand, Chief Executive Henry Juszkiewicz announced on Monday that: “We want to reinvent this site to be the international phenomenon that its legacy deserves,” showing that, as well as using this opportunity to showcase their instruments and consumer electronics there is a desire to inject some life back into West Hollywood’s music scene and do justice to its past.
Another value that Gibson seeks to uphold is the development of new talent, helping them to break out, Juszkiewicz claiming: “What artists need to develop their craft is to get exposed to an audience and not have to fill 10,000 seats. Hopefully we will contribute to bringing out up-and-coming artists of all genres.”