In the pre-Internet days, the way I discovered content (movies, books, music), was to take a trip to a store (Blockbuster, local bookstore, B&N, record store).

In the pre-Internet days, the way I discovered content (movies, books, music), was to take a trip to a store (Blockbuster, local bookstore, B&N, record store). There were two broad categories of content: the mainstream stuff with the primo shelf space, and the mysterious aisles of Everything Else. Judgments were based on things like cover art, in store promotional material, how many copies were still sitting on the shelf, sampling the content in-store, and recommendations from friends or store employees. Im not sure if the success rate was any better or worse than the online star rating system these days, but it seemed more fun. However, the barrier to trying something else was also a lot higher if you made a poor choice, which might have had a side effect of narrowing one's tastes.