Selection could be a lot better. Seriously...ONE Stevie Wonder record??? I did come up on an awesome Isley Brothers record though so I'm not too mad. read more

Awesome record store and it's a spot you can spend hours at wondering off into their vast music collection.

Stopped here out of curiosity and ended up buying some stickers, buttons and a t-shirt. they have a great selection of merch especially for punk and hardcore, and the staff is great. The guy that helped us out was super helpful and friendly. Good prices for merch as well. read more

I came in here yesterday I was not too happy. They did not have any of the music I would be interested in. Also, their discounted CDs were still very expensive. read more

If you are like me and still shop for cds and LPs then you will probably like this store. Yes, the cds are a bit pricey and yes the staff could be friendlier, but they do have an awesome selection when it comes to cds and t-shirts. I have to give them props for a few things. They are part of a dying generation (no pun intended) of record stores. They are huge. It is generally a fun time to look around in here. I supposed I am spoiled by Princeton Records back in my home state of NJ. However, if you are looking for live bootlegs from your favorite artists and don't mind coughing up some extra mulah, then this is the place for you. read more

Solid prices, great selection, and tons of live bootlegs. Lots of obscure stuff. A lot of band clothes downstairs too. An Inside Out / No Spiritual Surrender hoodie? In 2012?! Really? That's kind of awesome. I bought the self-titled Classics of Love vinyl here, and they were cool enough to let me open it in the store to check if it was warped. (It wasn't.) read more

Love this place. There's no better place with a huge selection of metal and punk music, tshirts, pins, and patches. The staff is friendly and helpful and I generally shop here once every couple of weeks. They have a selection for every price range. read more

Cool place and good selection, I can spend hours downstairs. Really love this place. Just wish the staff was nicer. They could at least acknowledge customers and say hi. Or maybe don't ignore me completely and move slow when you ring me up bc you're having a chat with a friend. :/ read more

It's always great to find an eclectic record store, full of great selections, decent prices and retro atmosphere.

Would have been 5 stars had the clerk not been such a drag. ZIppo on personality. I spent some money here and will continue to go here. But tell the clerk to drop the "I'm an angry punk guy" Still highly recommend! read more

Started going here a very long time ago, in the beginning was one of the best but over the years I have felt less inclined to go there for diminished selections for things I like, but still overall not a bad stop for you when looking for something. read more

I love this place , I was able to find a rare pressing of one my favorite bands, as well as cool odds and ends still my favorite place to be by far. read more

Hey sometimes you like a place because it's trying - and Generation always tries. A fine independent record store with a focus on metal and punk lps and cds. The used cd selection is very good, while the used lp selection is only fair - though you can find that old Testament record if you're lucky hanging on the wall. They really excel at stocking new vinyl, lots of it and well curated. A definite stop by when visiting the west village. read more

I'm an admitted vinyl junkie and Generation Records is one of my favorite places to hunt for vinyl. I am mainly a House/Disco 12 inch collector but I buy all genre's including R&B, Gospel & Rock but this store is mainly a Rock store. A customer since 1993 I have found some unbelievable finds in there for dirt cheap but In recent years with on-line bidding and the shrinking world and the so-called demise of vinyl records there have been slim pickins' . I don't bother with the thousands of CD's or DVD's they carry I'm strictly old school vinyl but they definitely do have some hard to find stuff in there. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because they don't put out enough records on a regular basis. read more

A superb selection of records. Their prices are a wee bit on the high end but a great location and knowledgable staff must be paid for. If you're having trouble finding a specific record, go here read more

This place has a great selection of used cd's and vinyl. They also have a great collection of music DVD's--such as the RBF live dvd they put out a few years back. And if you're one of those people who enjoys wearing t-shirts with band names on them (me and every single one of my friends) then this place has a decent selection of stuff. The new CD section upstairs is a tad pricey and I would never personally buy anything new from these guys, but the basement is totally worth checking out. read more

One of the few places to get some vinyl. A good used CD collection, too.

The home of bootleg audio in NYC. If someone's recorded a live show, odds are it's here and overpriced. Avoid the new CD section and go downstairs for a healthy helping of used vinyl & CDs, great posters (new & vintage), and more black t-shirts than should ever be allowed in one location. read more

I love this shop. It has an amazing selection of punk, indie, and modern rock. I didn't go downstairs but I'm sure it is just as awesome.

Favorite record store for used CD's in the country. I'm the type of person that will literally browse every CD in the store looking for hidden gems and this store is perfect for that. Loosly organized by alphabet but nice seperation of genre, which makes browsing awesome because you can't just go in and look for certain bands, which makes you end up finding stuff you would have never been "looking for." Combine that with an EXTENSIVE used Metal and Hardcore section and you have my favorite place in the city. It is a bit pricey for Used averaging about $9 but most of the stuff is hard to find new so it makes it worth it. If you are looking to run in and find a specific CD not the place for you, but if you have three hours to kill and love the thrill of the chase, this is your store. Only negative, used Metal vinyl is the same hair metal and no name 80's bands they have everywhere. read more

AWESOME staff and selection. Been going here since im a little kid. Never lets me down. Great vinyl and tshirts. read more

As promised, I'm updating my review after concluding my most recent business with them. They examined my most recent collection, offered me a fair price, which I accepted, and once I have more records to sell, will definitely contact them to offer them another collection for sale. good doing business with you. read more

Great selection (although not all genres). I just wish it was organized better.

This place has an unbelievable used CD selection downstairs. I can't walk out of there without a handful of them. The prices can range from decent to a total steal. If used CD's are your thing...get here. read more

This place has a great selection. I once spent days calling around trying to find an old record, and sure enough they had it. The staff can be super helpful, or super snotty, either way it is worth it for the variety they carry. read more

I have loved Generation records since highschool. If you ever want a totally random bootleg, EP, or import from a band you love, head over to Generation and they may just have it. You can find recordings here from your favorite artists, ones that you didn't even know existed. The prices they charge are sometimes a little overblown, and if you want the latest release from a major artist then you'll definately find a better price on Amazon or some internet music site. However, if you are looking for something really special, then you might think it worth to pay a bit of an overblown price because, truth be told, you may not find it anywhere else (not easily at least). This is especially true if you are fond of more extreme music styles (punk, industrial, hardcore, metal, etc...). Lately I've found the staff to be less knowledgeable than they were 10 years ago, but I still find that I can get a good recommendation most of the time when needed. If they don't have something, they are generally willing to try and find it for you, and that is pretty cool. One thing I really love about Generation is their selection of posters downstairs. When I was in college I litterally papered my walls with awesome posters from Generation, and their prices are really reasonable. If you want a 5' x 3' poster of Jim Morrison, or a Japanese movie poster from A Clockwork Orrange then you have a good shot of finding it there. They also have a decent selection of band or pop culture related attire and things like patches. It is definately worth a look, even if it's just so you can say, "wow, I've never seen this recording before". read more

the guy at the desk is mad rude. Don't go here unless you want to be insulted by the staff.

Great used store. Lots of live-bootlegs which fun if you are into that.

You may not be able to find all the "classics" here, but between its new and used collections, Generation Records carries a wider variety of contemporary metal and punk rock vinyls (among others) compared to other places in the Village. The store also offers an extensive stock of CDs, posters, and t-shirts--you'll find things you didn't even know you needed in the first place. read more

Generation Records is the sort of place you think doesn't exist any longer. A bona fide old-school record shop. Over two floors there's an eclectic mix of music and memorabilia. The ground floor CD department is less interesting than the basement, where you'll find racks full of LPs and singles. The collection of punk and new wave is impressive - check out the records lining the walls for some rarities and esoterica - but there's also plenty for everyone elsekitsch, electronic, easy listening, pop etc. Half of the basement is also given over to a comprehensive T-shirt department with a rock/punk bent. I could spend hours in hereand dollars. I was in a hurry but found some bargain Christmas LPs and a lesser known Dusty Springfield album from the 1970s for only $6. read more

I've been going here since I was 14 and I still love this place over 10 years later. Still one of the best record store in nyc.

Back in the day in NYC, there used to be these things called "record stores" where you could actually by products called albums and CDs which came comeplete with artwork and non-crappy MP3 quality sound. That was a long time ago, and most of those places have gone the way of the dial up modem, but Generation Records still proudly stands in the West Village, and that's where I go when I want anything in the rock, metal, or punk genres. They rock. read more

Generation Records is great. They have a pretty good selection of used stuff and mostly have what you are looking for in the "new" section. Though they are often out of what I'm in search of. The stairs are treacherous though, watch your step! But it is worth it to browse their used collection downstairs. read more

Went here with no expectations, they didn't have more than my record store back home except some noise/avant-garde records. Get rid of the shirt section and add more records. read more

Forget this shop!!! It used to be a great place to find good records but NOT ANYMORE.......This is the right place to buy a nice t-shirt . It is lame they every nice record they have on e-bay. SAAAAADDDD read more

Upstairs is new rock/alternative/etc while downstairs is new/used soul, jazz, rock. Some great finds in the $1 bin, as well as some nice soul 45s. Staff wise, I did find one particularly rude although another was friendly enough. Decent prices on their new records and some real steals on the used jazz and soul downstairs. read more

Great selection in the basement. Found some gems in the clearance boxes and some steals as well. Nice management and a good vibe.

Pretty much everything you need from a record store: a general music section with little off-to-the-side racks of specific music genres (metal, rockabilly, etc.), as well as a decent vinyl collection and t-shirt shop downstairs. Generation sells a lot of records/t-shirts/posters that most other record shops won't sell do to either their extremity of utter obscurity. You must check this place out. read more

When you need to find that rare punk record and you don't know where to turn, turn on thompson... Got my first cramp records here.

I have been coming to this record store for over a decade. Every time I visit New York, I find some time to stop by to see if I can find something that interests me. I think that I listen to quite a few different styles of music that include classic rock, prog, ambient, jazz and metal, but I primarily come to this store to look for metal, and thus the rating. In the past, I have been able to find music at Generation that was otherwise difficult to find in most physical stores (everything is available on the internet). For example, when I was getting acquainted with Opeth and Katatonia back in the day, this place used to stock most of their albums on CD. So, when I visited recently, I was hoping to find some of the albums by Enslaved that I didn't have and check out some other Scandinavian bands. I did not find any of the music that I was looking for, nor did I see any of the titles that I purchased here in the past, either new or used. I then proceeded to look for vinyl by some of these bands to maybe get one of these as a special treat and to support the store, but nothing. The entire metal collection seemed kind of sad, honestly. It's not just that they didn't have what I was looking for, but also, there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to what they did have (some stores focus on doom, others on death metal, and so on, but that wasn't it here) - it almost seemed to me that they were trying to get rid off most of the metal stock and what I found was just what happened to be available at the time. Also, unlike the CD collections which were separate, rock and metal were all grouped together in the new vinyl section, so that made it little bit difficult to browse. I am still giving this store three stars, because they do have a large collection of classic rock, indie rock, and many used albums for which I wish that I would have had more time to browse. But honestly, Rough Trade in Williamsburg had a more up-to-date and diverse metal collection than Generation during my most recent visit, and that's saying something (maybe not as many releases, but they seemed to be better curated, honestly). Having said that, I do hope that this business makes it regardless of what direction they choose in the future. I am sure that I will be back anyway when I come back to NYC. read more