The DVD Shop Around The Corner

To see movies or listen to music these days, you subscribe to a streaming site or, like most Nigerians do, get it from illegal websites for free. Life can get hectic and fade into a dark hue, but movies and music bring that light to colour our lives and make them more interesting. I am an avid movie watcher and music listener; I probably listen to music more these days, but there is no denying that they are both my favourite mediums I use to escape. In 2019 I was trying to complete my project after the ASUU strike. I was overwhelmed because I desperately wanted to graduate, and I couldnʼt figure out how to finish my project; I was nowhere near the middle, let alone the end but watching SNL clips kept me sane. I laughed and forgot I had a deadline. Whenever I remembered an event in my life, I also pointed to a song I was into or a movie I liked at the time. I grew up in a house that cherished the arts, so it rubbed off on me.
One of my favourite things to do as a child was to go to CD/DVD shops; if you grew up in the early 2000s, you know there were dozens of them around. Weʼd go to rent movies or buy them, and I liked to walk through the store and look at everything on display. It was like being in a candy store, Iʼd beam up when my older family members suggested a trip to get new movies.
While they picked out the movies they wanted to see, I would look at all the titles and make a mental note to look for them later; I would pick up the cd cases and run my fingers over the body, then turn over the cd to look at the tiny posters it carried. You could get a dozen movies on one DVD, and I thought it was amazing. At 11, I wanted a portable DVD player to carry around and play whenever I wanted. I never got it, and it wasn’t until 2020 that I stopped trying to get one.

When I was old enough to save money to buy movies I wanted to see, I would go with friends and weʼd walk around the store in awe of the films they had and be disappointed when they didnʼt have the ones we wanted. I remember the last time I went with my friends to buy movies at a DVD shop, we had finished writing WAEC, and after begging, we were finally allowed to leave our strict boarding school. We walked to the DVD shop; we didnʼt want to waste money for the movies on transport; it was quite far on foot, but we didnʼt mind. We walked into the store and got all the new releases we wanted to see, and I picked up a John Legend cd (it was 2014; everyone loved him) and a Rihanna cd. I still think of that day as one of the best days of my life, it may seem mundane to you, but it was truly amazing.
Lately, with the rise of affordable cable tv and streaming sites, DVD shops have suffered a decline in patronage. While some store owners have moved on to other businesses, others have diversified, selling DVDs and running another business simultaneously. I havenʼt been in a DVD shop since 2016, I watch movies on my phone now, and I listen to music on it. But whenever I walk past a DVD shop with all the huge posters outside and loud music blasting, I feel nostalgia for a time that was simpler, I was younger, and it took going to a DVD shop for me to be impressed and feel immense joy. Those days are over, and DVD shops may disappear in a few years, but Iʼm happy I got to experience being in one and holding a new DVD/CD in my hands.