infinite album...?
a) Beck isn't the first to create the notion of an infinite album...or the downloadable/non-album "album". I have friends in the electronic music circuit who have been dishing out this model for years.
b) It takes someone with prestige, power, and money to support a model of this sort.
My question is this: Why are we so congratulatory to major label artists and major label company spin-offs who are able to rejuvinate music, while still not addressing the thousands of good artists who aren't able to land a major record label and have to create these models out of neccessity instead of "organic corporate evolution?" I feel bad for musicians who have been creating unique models of delivery for their music but never get anywhere with it.
posted by wayne.madsen at 10:59 PM
4 Comments:
You're right. Technically, the idea of an infinite album has been around since 78 RPM records, where they'd record something into the trail-off groove near the label, so non-automatic record players would play the same thing forever until the needle was picked up. Probably the most famous use of this was the first pressing of the british Sargeant Pepper LPs; it utilized this. The Who even used this on the british Who Sell Out LP.
But at any rate, it's true, the record industry and seemingly the majority of the record buying public (if you look at Billboard charts, etc.) are congratulating people who know which nerves to hit. I think it's not necissarly a bad thing to have target audiences, and be formulaic; if you can make money by doing it, more power to you.
It's just funny, and somewhat sad, how much of it is blatantly recycled, and these people are being hailed as great; no offense, but Jet's two biggest hits are rip offs. "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" is suspiciously nearly identical to "Lust for Life" by Iggy Pop & the Stooges and "Look What You've Done" is a LOT like "Sexy Sadie" by the Beatles. Is this a "tribute" or "tip of the hat" to these artists? I think it's a bit more than that, throwing a riff in or something is more like a tribute, but entire songs seems to be a bit iffy.
This goes both ways though; remember when the Verve had that hit "Bittersweet Symphony" and the Stones sued them because they sampeld some "cash in" album released by their producer, Andrew Loog Oldham, of orchestral arrangements of Rolling Stones songs? The Rolling Stones ripped off a lot of things in their career (Chuck Berry, famous blues artists, etc.) so it seems sort of hypocritical.
Also, check out any Billy Joel song. Odds are, it's "inspired" by an Elton John song (Movin' Out vs. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Funeral for a Friend, You May Be Right vs. Dance Little Sister by the Rolling Stones, Uptown Girl vs. any Four Seasons song, My Life's melody vs. Someone saved MY LIFE tonight by Elton John..etc!)
That said, I've bought albums by these artists. I guess you have to be inspired by something, even if it's a little too close to home. Whoops, I think I got way off topic there.
9:20 AM
I am not surprised that music is going this route, whether or not it 'been around' for a long time or not... this type of business model is definitely gaining momentum in this day in age.
The same idea has really started to become popular with video games as well. The prospect of buying a game for your XBox, playing for a while, and then deciding you want to pay for more downloadable content is a common trend now. Some companies are even designing games that are completely based on downloadable content... pretty much you start out by buying the game's 'shell,' and then all other content is purchased separately, allowing people to completely customize their version of the game with the content they specifically want.
9:41 PM
don't we all miss napster when we could actually listen to 'unsigned' artists?
3:20 PM
chris -
I guess you're probably correct about Britney and Napster; I just hate to think I was alone in looking for new music through such a great medium. iTunes doesn't do it for me because their 15 second snippets of songs are hardly enough for me to connect with the feel of a song and want to buy it. I don't have money to burn unless I'm serious about a band. I became serious about bands after listening to their full music through napster. pandora.com offers a similar idea where i can listen to new artists, but I do agree with you that they are HARDLY unsigned artists. sad.
7:09 PM
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