The Box Set Quandary

I have long maintained that music is dying if not already dead. Funny for me to refer to it this way, but I sometimes sound like a broken record when I say that. It is true though. Pure excitement in the music world went away a long time ago. The true creative spark left in the mid to late 1990’s for much of the industry. Once the newness and wonder of the digital age became sort of passé…the music industry imploded. For us diehard music fans still out here…these are dark days.

I have a 4G Android phone. I have Blu-ray. I have an iPod. I have a laptop. I say these things to let you know…I am not anti technology. I have more than my fair share, and I wouldn’t know what to do without it. But…the fact is that with people feeding their brains with so much information, the format or art of making “albums” anymore seems silly. This is an age of small sound bytes and short attention spans. People move on to the next thing at an ever increasingly rapid pace. There are only 24 hours in a day. This is an age where things are cherry picked. Some of it is luck, but it’s hard to pin down a lasting success anymore. This is an age where we have little time for deep album cuts, yet that’s all that seems to be left. Bring on the box sets…

I wrote an earlier post about being worried to a certain degree about how all my musical heroes seem to be getting on the upper end of old. They can still perform and entertain, but the rules have most certainly changed. As a result, I think what we have left is little to no real new creativity anymore. The people that created all this amazing, emotional, and inspiring work have now moved on to nostalgia, reworking bits of old glories, or morphed into things that are sort of cartoonish. Sometimes this stuff ends up endangering the legacy of a very vital and stunning career. If it ain’t broke…why fix it?

Does it bother you that some of the biggest things to come out of the music world in the past couple of years (and especially in 2011) are from things from yesteryear? The Beatles remasters from 2009. The 2011 repackage/reissues from Jethro Tull, Rush, Pink Floyd, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Ozzy Osbourne, and The Beach Boys? I was recently standing in the box set aisle at a local (and to remain nameless) retailer. I stood there for a moment and thought to myself…wow! Perched in front of me was no less than $1000.00 in repackaged and upgraded music. Part of me really wanted some of these slick new versions, but I already own or have purchased some of these things so many times before. Where does it end?

I get that bands need to keep the wheels of the marketing machine chugging along. Everybody has to pay their bills. I get it. It just becomes almost a contest or project to decide if I love an album or artist from my past so much that I am willing to spend upwards of $100.00 to $200.00 again for slightly better sounding stuff stuffed in a shiny new package. Weren’t CD’s supposed to sound kick ass to begin with? That’s what we were sold when we starting scarfing them up in the mid 80’s right?

Being as addicted to music as I am…I find it a struggle to decide who is going to get my music dollars these days. Simply because it is a NEWER version does not mean that it is automatically a BETTER version. For the completist in me…I bought into the ploy years ago of buying albums a second time around because they had “bonus tracks” on them. Many times this would work out to be either a weird remix of a track, a demo version, a live cut, or alternate take of some random song. This trick worked on me for a while. It doesn’t anymore. I can be deep into an artist. I can love everything they have ever done. I just don’t always feel like I am going to find myself going back and listening to a studio outtake that was left behind years ago. 99% of the time…there is a reason they were left behind to begin with. In most cases…bands got it right. The album version is the better version. The versions we already know and love.

All of those artists I listed above have created music at some point in their career that has brought me joy. Some inspire me and move me more than others, but…it seems like they are mining the wallet just for moneys sake these days. The shine and awe of cracking open that Pink Floyd box set lasted a few days, but once I had ripped it into my systems for playback…well…it was back to just sort of having them in my collection like they were before. And like I said…some of it sounds a million times better…while some of it…just doesn’t feel all that extra special. I feel like I get fooled by the shiny new box.

Then there are things like a long lost article from the archives. Deep Purple released a project called PHOENIX RISING this year too. It comprised a documentary and never properly released (in any clear format) concert from a mid period of the band. The highlights include David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, and Tommy Bolin in this particular lineup of the band. I normally am one that is drawn in by some of the lesser known (or in some cases lesser appreciated) periods in a bands history. I figured this would be right up my alley. Instead…I was kind of left with a bad taste in my mouth. It certainly looks like they worked hard to get it all out there. The package is pretty…complete with a booklet and accompanying CD, but the performance is sloppy and a bit cringe worthy actually. Almost like…it should have remained uncovered. At least that way the mystery about how good it really was would still have a bit of intrigue about it. In the cold light of day…it’s just not that good.

I know a lot of times it is not always the bands themselves putting this stuff out there. In many situations it is the dying record companies that are grasping at those last few dollars that are getting swallowed up by people downloading from iTunes instead. In the end…it just makes me wonder what they will pull next. Even tours are packaged together these days with a sense of nostalgia. Yes went on the road with Styx. Neither band has been very potent in the new material department for a long time. Night Ranger, Foreigner, and Journey were also boxed together. Sure they each had new albums…but I’m gonna make a calculated guess that 80% of the people in the crowd were there for the hits. Most probably didn’t even know they had new albums out. Roger Waters trotted out The Wall. Sure it was cool, but that album is from 1979. This is a slick updated version complete with new technology…but it isn’t a brand new idea. Do you see where I am going with this?

I don’t know where this goes from here. It really feels like the bottom of the barrel has been reached. All the stops have been pulled. Once you release a multi-layered collection of an album with a huge book and tons of other add ons…where do you go from there? It certainly looks like 2012 is also shaping up to be yet another year crammed full of new versions of stuff from decades ago. Already we know the original Black Sabbath lineup is hitting the road and doing a new album. The surviving members of The Beach Boys are going through the motions as well. Plus…like we have been hearing forever…2012 is to see the dramatic return of Van Halen…also complete with new music (supposedly). Makes me really respect David Bowie. He silently slid into retirement without some huge marketing blitz. Things could change, but there is a humble dignity in that. His reputation as a musical legend will not be tarnished by some halfhearted CD complete with a scarf and playing cards.

The sad thing is that somewhere out there in the ether…I’ll be listening, watching, and maybe even purchasing some of this stuff anyway. I moan, but I can’t help it. Music is in my blood. It just frustrates me as a fan sometimes. Just when I think I have it all in hand…BOOM. Here is something new. But it’s not new. It just looks new. It’s almost like a grilled cheese sandwich. It’s good. It’s tasty. It’s satisfying. You’ve known and loved them for years. Then someone comes along and makes a super duper ultra mega special edition crazy fantastic wicked awesome deluxe limited edition previously unreleased shiny new cheese sandwich. It’s still just a cheese sandwich though. What’s a boy to do? I mean I am still hungry.