From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V7 #236 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Wednesday, June 24 1998 Volume 07 : Number 236 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Finally a good reason to watch VH1 ["JH3" ] Re: Truman Show [Capuchin ] Re: coupla thoughts on this year's shows/Rams Head [nicastr@idt.net (Ben)] Re: And if your hands were metal, that would mean something ["Bret" ] fwd: Contest!!! [Russ Reynolds ] Viva Sea-Tac lyrics [hal brandt ] a cavalcade of stars!...plus .05% Robyn content [Chris ] Re: coupla thoughts on this year's shows ["mr. pointy" ] by REQUEST: Carl Palmer!! (warning: some Sting content) [Eb ] Re: Neat Neat Neat [Viccicraig@aol.com] Re: Neat Neat Neat [Viccicraig@aol.com] Re: folk music again [The Great Quail ] CD buying on the net [james.dignan@stonebow.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan)] Re: This program has [donald andrew snyder ] Re: CD buying on the net [Eb ] Re: Neat Neat Neat [Gary Sedgwick ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 16:49:22 -0500 From: "JH3" Subject: Finally a good reason to watch VH1 I kid you not - I found this on CNN's web site: http://cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/News/9806/22/showbuzz/index.html#story5 VH1 going Rotten NEW YORK (CNN) -- Anarchy for VH1? Former Sex Pistols' front man Johnny Rotten will host a new program on the music video channel, introducing videos with his trademark sarcastic commentary. "The Johnny Rotten Show" -- a weekly half-hour magazine, will debut in a late-night time slot. The project is one of a dozen original programming pilots in production at VH1. The Sex Pistols rose to fame in the 1970s with their hard-edge punk anthems "Anarchy in the U.K." and "God Save the Queen." - ------------- As excited as I am about this news, I'm really only posting this because three postings in a single hour is a personal record for me. John H. Hedges ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 14:56:09 -0700 (PDT) From: Capuchin Subject: Re: Truman Show On Tue, 23 Jun 1998 MARKEEFE@aol.com wrote: >Ed sed: > << ok, is it just me, or is The Truman Show way, way WAY overrated? >> > It was "way" overrated, but I don't know about "way, way WAY." I think > it's biggest problem was presenting too many other avenues that could have > been explored (like, what about all the actors on the TV show? what's their > *real* story?). I don't know. It was a good movie, but it was far from being > anywhere near one of the great movies of the decade. I'm going to disagree here with two folks whose opinions I respect. The Truman Show was pretty brilliant. I liked the fact that it left a million avenues unexplored. It said "This is the world and its' very complex and we can't possibly tell you every story in it." How many times have you seen a film and thought that the internal world of the film was so whole and complete, yet completely contrived and phony, that it, at the same time, could take place right in our time and place and is totally implausible and unlikely. The Truman Show avoided that by building a complete and complex world without giving it all away. It's like George Lucas said about the Star Wars films (and I paraphrase)... "there's no point in building a big set and then showing the whole thing... people will just wonder what's beyond it". The Truman Show was that taken to the entire world as set. Note the two and separate listings of credits... one is Truman's World, the other is Christof's World. There is no "real world", it's perception and fiction from top to bottom. Also, that silent bit at the end with Truman banging on the wall is beautiful... like the plane crash at the end of Fearless (with Gorecki blaring) and the subsequent strawberry choking or one of the more brilliant Chaplin moments in his later career. The metastory and simultaneous spoon-feeding and information withholding build contradiction, paradox, and (possibly false) dichotomies. The greatness is in the relative differences between reality, Christof's World, Truman's World, and the usual TV/Movie world. It is epic. It is a story about stories and possibly about stories about stories about stories. I think it rides in the top 30 or so of the decade for me. That's a pretty good list and includes a few Coen flicks and at least one other Weir film. > On the other hand, I just saw "Dr. Strangelove" for the first time last > night (and on a big screen, to boot!), which probably worsens my feelings > towards "Truman." Man, what an amazing film! Now I can say that I have truly > lived. Well, that'll do it. Dr. Strangelove is pretty damned good, too. Dr. Strangelove is one of those, though, that I think was best appreciated in its day. See FailSafe and then Dr. Strangelove again. Je. ________________________________________________________ J A Brelin Capuchin ________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 18:12:46 -0500 From: nicastr@idt.net (Ben) Subject: Re: coupla thoughts on this year's shows/Rams Head >On Tue, 23 Jun 1998, Capitalism Blows wrote: > >> 1. the performances have been incredible, and the setlists wondrous. >> but he seems to be clocking in pretty consistently at right around 75 >> minutes. how long did he play at the ram's head? > >a very lengthy 1:45! he said, "they told me i should just play a long >while, so if there 's anything you want to hear, just say so, or if you've >had enough i can just go off. But anything that's not in the setlist is >there because I didn't want to play it." I never thought I'd get to see a >robyn show where he not only took requests, but made up songs. (instead >of playing the requests.) it was epic. and close to the longest robyn >show on record, i think i have seen 110 minute gigs on lists? Yeah, that was one of the longest shows I've seen by any solo performer. And what was the deal with that guy taking Robyn's setlist after he left the stage, then giving it back when he came back for the encore, then taking it again?!?! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 08:17:16 -0500 From: "Bret" Subject: Re: And if your hands were metal, that would mean something Subject: And if your hands were metal, that would mean something Quite possible the best line from the 'movie' you've made me smile already today, (and I needed it) - --bret ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 19:12:36 -0500 From: nicastr@idt.net (Ben) Subject: Re: Neat Neat Neat >Well, sure, that's a concern for almost anyone. Including me. But the big >question the record industry wants to know is, will you spend any less >money on retail CDs than you do now if you can easily download music from >the Net, or are you just going to record the same percentage of music off >the Net that you used to record from your friends' collections? That's a good question. Let's say that in the future you will be able to download a 40-minute album in the blink of an eye, and then transfer it to CD just as fast, with no loss of quality. Let's even say that it may be possible to print out exact copies of CD booklets, it's not all that far-fetched That could be a real problem for the record industry, and I would imagine some strict laws would be passed concerning the posting of commercially available music on the net. But the internet is a difficult medium to govern... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 16:14:03 -0700 From: Ethyl Ketone Subject: Re: Ditchcock and Hemme At 14.28 -0700 6/23/98, MARKEEFE@aol.com wrote: > Yeah, right, man! Like, redundancy is the problem I have is redundancy >or something. Yeah, right, man! Sounds like you're a good candidate for a job in the Department of Redundancy Department Michael! - - carrie "Questions are a burden for others. Answers are a prison for oneself." **************************************************************************** M.E.Ketone/C.Galbraith meketone@ix.netcom.com cgalbraith@psygnosis.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 98 16:06:00 -0800 From: Russ Reynolds Subject: fwd: Contest!!! ======== Original Message ======== an autographed 8 X 10 glossy of eb to the feg with the lowest number on their WHITE ALBUM cd! whattya say, eb? c'mon! you know you want to! tell you what, i'll even throw in my earl campbell rookie card as the runnerup prize, but ONLY if eb agrees to donate the autographed pic. and if someone want to organize a side-wager for who will be the winner of the big first prize, i'm putting my money on gene gene the dancin' machine hopstetter. ok. mine is #053662. beat THAT you fuckin' pipsqueaks! ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ======== Fwd by: Russ Reynolds ======== #048592. That puts you in the running for your own Earl Campbell rookie card (not worth nearly as much as the Eb-foto I'm sure) - -russ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 17:50:22 -0600 From: hal brandt Subject: Viva Sea-Tac lyrics Capitalism Blows wrote: > i've never been too confident about the third line of Viva Sea-Tac: > > People flocked like cattle to Seattle > After Kurt Cobain > And the falling rain > > i kept thinking it sounded more like, "And to fall in the rain" but > that doesn't really make sense. > but listening to the early bottom line show last night, i'm almost > certain i heard, "And The Four In The Rain" now, i have no idea who The > Four In The Rain are, but at least it sounds right, and makes some > sense. although, you'd think that if people were flocking like cattle > here for them, i'd at least have heard of them. Maybe it's "and before in the rain". "After" and then "before". That's my guess anyway. /hal ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 20:45:43 -0400 (EDT) From: Chris Subject: a cavalcade of stars!...plus .05% Robyn content >While I almost entirely agree with Susan and am a big supporter of >keeping the topics on this list diverse, I think that it's also not altogether >inappropriate to expect a list about Robyn Hitchcock to be about Robyn >Hitchcock. It is entirely appropriate to think the list would be about Robyn. I have to admit, when I first joined the list over a year ago, I thought to myself, "what the hell????? Don't they ever talk about Robyn?!" But I hung in there because every once in awhile there was some interesting Robyn content. And I must say, that at this point, I enjoy the off topic conversations just as much as the postings about Robyn. I would be disappointed if the list turned into a strictly Robyn content list. It's like a little community, with posts by all the regulars, and usually a swipe or two at Eb to make it interesting. I spent almost the first year so lurking. While I now post once in awhile, most of my posts have contained very little Robyn content. In fact, I think they've had more Carl Palmer content than anything else. While I'm on the subject, I especially enjoy the Carl Palmer references, and would like to request that everyone who posts should refer to Carl Palmer in some way. This will make the list much more enjoyable for ME, as well as proving that Carl Palmer is stalking me. I mean, I know I asked you to mention Carl, but you wouldn't mention him unless he was really trying to crack open my brain every night, now would you. I didn't think so. >Indeed, this last bit is where it is at; things you'll never get at >your Tower-type chain. In fact, I was in a Tower records yesterday. >There was a enthralling talk of the virtues of Pink Floyd, in all its >post-high school glory. This reminds me of a really funny conversation I overheard in a main stream record store back in the late 80's. There was a high school kid looking for Spinal Tap cds. The clerk who was helping him said, "have you ever heard any of their old stuff?" The kid replied that he hadn't, and the clerk proceeded to tell him how they used to be psychedelic in the late 60's and before that were kind of a British Invasion group. The worst thing is the clerk was serious!! He truly believed that they were a real band who'd been around since the 60s! He kept going on and on in a hipper than thou fashion, acting like he was sooooo cool because he knew all about Spinal Tap. It was all I could do to stagger out of the store before bursting into hysterical laughter. Yes, just the type of clerk I want stocking my local record store. And this was years after the movie was out, so there was no excuse not to know it wasn't real. Two other funny instances - 1)when the Spinal Tap movie was first in the theatres, hearing the guy behind me say to his friend "if Spinal Tap used to be so popular, how come I've never heard of them?" 2)having someone tell me the Eddie and the Cruisers soundtrack album they owned was worth a lot of money, because it was Eddies first album, which was from the 60s. What I really like about this list is that there are a wide variety of topics, some serious, some trivial, some satirical, some tremendously stupid (and that is not a bad thing), but they're almost always worthwhile. And if they're not, I just hit the page down button, and go on looking for something that is interesting. And this concludes our special report, now back to your regularly scheduled programming... Chris ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 20:51:39 -0400 From: "mr. pointy" Subject: Re: coupla thoughts on this year's shows also sprach Capitalism Blows: >2. i've never been too confident about the third line of Viva Sea-Tac: > >People flocked like cattle to Seattle >After Kurt Cobain >And the falling rain "to perform in the rain"? +w s.p. sully -- i have too much to report ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 18:24:31 -0700 From: Eb Subject: by REQUEST: Carl Palmer!! (warning: some Sting content) Two recent missives from the fertile neurons of Denise Sharpe, courtesy of alt.music.pink-floyd.... (DB = The Division Bell, WWYH = Wish You Were Here) ============================================ > > Denise, can you please explain exactly the nature of Sting's involvement in > > your tale? > > I'm not making fun of you. I just never quite understood how Sting got > > involved in the whole thing. At the time when Carl really had me beliving in all his lies in 93 and I was taking that "heavenly ride" to delusion city, the song Fields of Gold came out. I didn't think that Sting had anything to do with Carls stalkings, but that song seemed to make everything even more strange for me. Then I remembered the first words I ever said to Carl were almost the same as the lyrics in a Police song. Then in the video for Every breath you take (the stalking song) Sting looks up at this chandelier and I started wondering. Like I met Carl under a chandelier, etc. Then Sting said that he wrote the song about 2 other people. Then I started believing in that damn song too. When the DB came out I knew right away that Sting DID have a hand in it all. The Field on the cover, the castle in between the mouths. Fields of Gold is communication (lies) between me and Carl. And the DB is communication between us, but its the truth. Hey Teacher flashing across the stage at odd times during the tour, and the tree being chopped down in Take it Back and the tree in the tour program next to Daves pic. well during a Sting video of Fields of Gold, Sting looks sadly out a window at a bare tree and then the band looks really sad while playing that song. The first thing I said to myself when I saw the Take it Back video was that the guy was coming to cut down the tree, and he did. He came to tell the truth about Fields of Gold. The guy represents Gilmour coming to tell me the truth with the DB. In that same video of Stings Fields of Gold, )Ten Summners Tales) you also see Stings home which is a castle and you also see him walking down a path and there is an arbor, these type of things can be seen in PF's High Hopes video. The guy looking across the field and releasing the balloons in the PF video represents Gilmour. He sees and knows what the guy in the castle (Sting) has done and is looking across the field (Field of Gold) the balloons with the PF logo to me represent the PF fans. - --- > You know what Denise? I have trouble believing you, but, dammit, > THERE IS EVIDENCE!!! Maybe I just don't want to believe your story, > but if it DOES turn out to be true, I'm going to laugh non-stop for > about a minute or so. That's the trouble. People have knocked me so long they don't want to admit that I was right all along. Even if Gilmour came out right now and mentioned me, this group wouldn't say much about it anyways. I was really hurt around here and I won't forget it. I was hurt when I should have received some kind of human understanding. I got laughed at after telling a story about how I suffered. I went through a horrible time in 93 and some of 94. There was no where to turn. I was in an isolated state that Carl put me in. How was I to know what he was doing? The big rock star can't be found to be asked. And surely no one that I knew could understand it. And convenient for Carl, who would believe that a rock star would go to such lengths to hurt a nobody like me? But its true. Hes obsessed about his image and anything that could hurt it, he will try to remedy. Even if its trying to screw up my mind so I'll forget what I know about him, loose my mind or commit suicide. He didn't care what I did, as long as I took his secret with me, perhaps to my grave, a mental institution or somewhere else. Who but PF could help someone in a state of mental delusion? That's what PF meant when they said something about the DB being their best since WYWH. WYWH and the DB and very similar in that they communicate their lyrics to someone and tell them to see the light, come back to reality and know the truth and forget the delusion. Something that they couldn't do for Syd, they did for me. I was brought out of a delusion that was put upon me by Carl and his friends by PF. I came back to life and all I wanted to do here and was suppose to do here is Take it Back, take back how I felt about Carl and tell the truth about how he manipulated my mind and stalked me with his and Stings wierdness. My story may sounds strange, but stranger things are happening regarding PF, if you hadn't noticed. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 22:13:49 -0400 (EDT) From: Terrence M Marks Subject: Re: This program has >(but then, this is coming from someone who finds The Trinity >Broadcasting Network as entertaining as can possibly be. for >all the wrong reasons, surely, but still...) Y'know, you never see this from the other side. I mean, a minority of unbelievers can sit around laughing at religious broadcasting, but you never hear about Christians listening to, say, John Lennon interviews and giggling "I bet he's in hell now." >i think my favorite is getting them to admit that if hitler had >become born again on his deathbed, then he's in heaven >right now; Well, this is one of the big things about Christianity. No matter how big a bastard you are, Christ can still save you. Hitler has a great deal more to answer for than most, but the principle still stands. I don't see the problem with this. (You can look up various relevant bits about Jesus hanging out with prostitutes and tax collectors because they happened to need his services, or the conversion of Saul if you like.) Just imagining the brouhaha that could be raised by posting the text of "Happy the Golden Prince" to a socially conservative list Terrence Marks normal@grove.ufl.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 22:50:33 EDT From: Viccicraig@aol.com Subject: Re: Neat Neat Neat actually you can already buy song by song of stuff on the web if you want or burn your own cd's or get bootlegs etc.....it getting more media attention doesnt really mean much, it just means that the big media companies are noticing that they can make a buck here......god knows they are pushing it extremely and they will continue, the demographics alone that they could get from this sort of thing is amazing and will sharpen their already razor like advertising methods......as for the thrill of a CD burner...well its already been mentioned....bootlegs, unreleased CD's, albums its also a nice format....i make CD's for friends now instead of tapes, no worries about them dragging, getting warped, lost etc.....its nice i think.....i doubt highly it would replace an entire CD type recording though, truth is i think its for reasons of them thinking cause it isnt glossy shiny happy thing from a store that it isnt as good as the store copy and things like that keep some people awake at night...... - -vicci (listening to Storefront from Terry on CD) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 23:08:25 EDT From: Viccicraig@aol.com Subject: Re: Neat Neat Neat In a message dated 98-06-23 19:13:05 EDT, nicastr@idt.net writes: >That's a good question. Let's say that in the future you will be able to >download a 40-minute album in the blink of an eye, and then transfer it to >CD just as fast, with no loss of quality. Let's even say that it may be >possible to print out exact copies of CD booklets, it's not all that >far-fetched > >That could be a real problem for the record industry, and I would imagine >some strict laws would be passed concerning the posting of commercially >available music on the net. But the internet is a difficult medium to >govern... really, the truth is the that this has been happening for a long time, i know people who pirate songs (this is all they do) and you can get them all via FTP.....heck of alot of people without the CD-RW's also without the computers to support the CD-RW...i seem to think that whatever media blurb Eb has been reading these things at are just some marketing ploy to get people to buy CD- RW's and music and stuff in general....there isnt any threat unless all of a sudden people start buying the recorders which can set you back quite a few dollars........which i am sure quite a few of you know.....i honestly believe this is one of those things where you didnt notice you had a need for it til you heard about it...... ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jun 98 00:07:09 -0400 From: The Great Quail Subject: Re: folk music again Amadain writes: >I will admit tho, that I am not familiar with anything Robyn has done which >could fairly be called a jig. Hmmm . . . "Muriel's Hoof/Route of the Clones" is the closest, I suppose. . . and oh yeah, that special 100 copy limited edition of "Robyn Sings Songs of the Bothy Band," available only in South Wales on Green Vinyl. . . you all have *that* I assume. . . . - --Quail - ---------------------------------+-------------------------------- The Great Quail, K.S.C. | Literature Site - The Libyrinth: TheQuail@cthulhu.microserve.com | www.rpg.net/quail/libyrinth www.rpg.net/quail | Vampire Site - New York by Night: riverrun Discordian Society | www.rpg.net/quail/NYBN 73 De Chirico Street | Arkham, Orbis Tertius 2112-42 | ** What is FEGMANIA? ** "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." -- H.P. Lovecraft ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 16:08:57 +1200 From: james.dignan@stonebow.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: CD buying on the net >>I dunno...the Net certainly could take a *bite* out of the >>record industry, yes, but I think there's just too much of a fetish of >>"ownership" to make record stores/labels entirely obsolete. this is a fetish I feel much happier to see talked about on Fegmaniax! ;) >There's nothing like going to the local record store, sure, but there's >also nothing like getting what you want. A good 90% of the times I visit >record stores I don't get what I'm looking for.... ah, but what of the thrill of the chase, the lure of the hunt? That sudden adrenalin rush when you see, after five years of searching, that mysterious CD that you didn't think had ever been pressed, or certainly not outside Japan? Not being a 'analogue vs digital' audiophile (with my stereo system, I would be unable to tell the difference, and even if I had a better system, my ears ain't perfect), I am slowly working through the scratchier part of my LP collection (largely old stuff I only keep for sentimental reasons), a collection (am I adding too many subclauses to this sentence, I ask myself) which now numbers a mere 300 vinyl discs, and I am similarly working my way through my 'home recorded' cassettes of legit albums, a collection which numbers about 250. (pauses for breath) I am sure the denizens of Slow Boat (Cuba Mall, Wellington, and a great shop it is too) were awoken by the cry of "Yes!!!" (with apologies to Chris Knox) that recently ensued when my eyes spied "Atlast" by the Mick Abrahams Band (a fitting title) and "Night Rains" by Janis Ian (no doubt a piece of disco era shite, but lovingly cherished disco era shite for all that). Can internet CD shopping give you that satisfaction? In the words of the great Alexei Sayle: "Can it? Bollocks!" What I CAN see happening in the near future is CD stores with CD burners in the back. You want a compilation of your favourite Robyn songs? Just dial him up on the touchscreen, point out the tracks you want, and you can have the customised CD of your choice. Or make your own 'party mix' CDs from the store's collection. Or go for an artist's own recommended 'best of' selection. Only $10 for the blank disc plus 10c per minute downloaded and burned onto it. Coming soon to a CD store near you. I realise there is little difference between this and the net technology you speak of, but even now as we wind down to the big numbers turning over in 18 months time, there are people in western society (not to mention in the 'third world') without television, telephone, etc... How long will it be before they get a modem and CD burner technology? "Gurgling" John Hedges did add: >And at most places, if the stuff is in stock it usually takes only 2-3 days >even by regular mail (but presumably Eb used "two weeks" just as a figure of >speech) most places *in the US* is not most places! Eight days to two weeks would be about right. > We just have a little problem with redundancies, that's all. >> > > Yeah, right, man! Like, redundancy is the problem I have is redundancy >or something. Yeah, right, man! As far as problems we have go, redundancy is a problem that we definitely see to have. James PS - welcome to the list to the new folks! We DO talk about Robyn sometimes, honest! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 23:49:52 -0500 (CDT) From: donald andrew snyder Subject: Re: This program has On Tue, 23 Jun 1998, Terrence M Marks wrote: > Well, this is one of the big things about Christianity. No matter how big > a bastard you are, Christ can still save you. Hitler has a great deal > more to answer for than most, but the principle still stands. I don't see > the problem with this. (You can look up various relevant bits about Jesus > hanging out with prostitutes and tax collectors because they happened to > need his services, or the conversion of Saul if you like.) The healthy have no need for a doctor is the way Jesus puts it. Unfortunately, from my experience, it seems that this aspect of Christianity is downplayed. I preach about it quite a bit, though. - -Andy ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 23:09:50 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Re: CD buying on the net James wrote: >What I CAN see happening in the near future is CD stores with CD burners in >the back. You want a compilation of your favourite Robyn songs? Just dial >him up on the touchscreen, point out the tracks you want, and you can have >the customised CD of your choice. Or make your own 'party mix' CDs from the >store's collection. Or go for an artist's own recommended 'best of' >selection. Only $10 for the blank disc plus 10c per minute downloaded and >burned onto it. Coming soon to a CD store near you. I realise there is >little difference between this and the net technology you speak of, but >even now as we wind down to the big numbers turning over in 18 months time, >there are people in western society (not to mention in the 'third world') >without television, telephone, etc... How long will it be before they get a >modem and CD burner technology? It's worth noting (esp. to a NZer like you, James) that a recent CASSETTE operation like this pretty much failed here, wherein there was a machine (it looked a lot like a video game) in a corner of the record store and you could program your own mix tapes drawing from an installed database of songs. Didn't seem to catch on at all. I forget the name of the company now...anyone remember more details? Just finally saw The Full Monty. Ehhh, not what I was hoping for. Eb ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 10:59:55 +0100 From: Gary Sedgwick Subject: Re: Neat Neat Neat If anyone's interested, there was a lengthy article about the decline of the music industry in last week's (I think - it might have been the week before) NME. I don't usually get the NME, but this was a really interesting and well written article, one section of which was by Alan McGee. And the thing is, I did come away from reading it feeling that he's right. The article outlines a very global picture - it's not just record sales that are suffering, there's also ticket sales for gigs and even some of the established festivals (like Phoenix which was cancelled - - due to poor ticket sales - shortly after the article came out). It also looks at a wide range of possible causes, from the "there's no more rebellion in rock and roll" argument to the current state of the Asian financial markets. Eb wrote: > I keep reading this hype about downloading music and burning your own CDs, > and how the Internet is killing the record industry and the record store as > we know them. I dunno...the Net certainly could take a *bite* out of the > record industry, yes, but I think there's just too much of a fetish of > "ownership" to make record stores/labels entirely obsolete. Folks like > having their neat little record collection, reading their neat little CD > booklets, filing their neat little CDs and showing their neat little > collections to their neat little friends. You just don't get that physical > sense of "it's mine!" from storing a file on your computer, or having a > generic home-burned CD with a downloaded computer-printout cover. This is true, but the Internet does open up a lot more possibilities than just the music and a booklet. It won't be too long before we're seeing all-in-one interactive packages that include music, video, graphics, tons more written information than you can fit in a CD booklet, "mix your own versions" of songs where you can select what bits of the mix you want to listen to, different vocal takes in different languages with lyrics that can be translated at the press of a button, an accompanying website... the possibilities are virtually endless. (I ought to copyright some of those!) And because it's all only data that goes down a wire, the record company distributing it doesn't have to worry about manufacturing costs, stock storage costs, etc., etc. So imagine you could get all that - and make physical copies with your CD burner and high-quality colour printer, which are bound to be the norm in a few years - for much less than you have to pay for the CD in the shop. And as an artist myself, the thought of having all of that freedom - and control - over the end product, and being able to distribute and promote it myself (don't forget the other big plus of the internet - you can get hits worldwide from the start), really appeals. I agree that it's going to take time for big record companies to change when they can shift countless Spice Girls CDs to the masses. But small labels, and bands themselves, are going to go web based, and once they get established and downloadable album packages become more and more popular - and also when digital television and fast home internet access are the norm - record companies are going to have a hard time flogging mass manufactured CDs, especially at inflated prices like at the moment. One other beauty of the idea - people have mentioned whether CDs will be replaced by MiniDisc etc. But for a record company that downloads straight to the customer who then burns their own CD or writes onto a MiniDisc or DAT - why whould they care? Basically, there are so many bonuses for small labels or bands to go web-based - no hassle about record deals, manufacturing costs, even promotion is almost automatic - that a lot of them are going to go that way. I'm looking into doing right now. Blimey, that was a mammoth post after months of lurking! Gary PS I'm abolutely sure the 3rd line of Viva Sea-Tac is "And before in the rain", which leads into / is part of the next verse. There, it's now got some Robyn content to keep certain people happy... ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V7 #236 *******************************