Re: [ARSCLIST] "All hail the analogue revolution..."

[Mwcpc6@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 9/24/2006 5:55:24 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
olh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Tom Fine wrote:
>Your complaints about lack of context/sequencing and lack of artwork/liner 
>notes are 100% shared by 
>me.

I think there is a greater contextual problem which is the overwhelming 
decline in the amount of live music that people encounter today and the tendency 
for what little there is to be overamplified and overprocessed.
**********************

There is a big difference between the mass market and the music market.  

Even as a teenager I appreciated the notes on the classical LPs I borrowed 
from the library and even researched composers and orchestras.

However also as a teenager I taped the "Top 40" off the air and played the 
songs in the order they accumulated on the reel of my home tape recorder, 
without any interest in the context. 

78 and 45 singles were sold off the shelves in plain generic sleeves. These 
were played on cheap portable players that make me cringe at the thought of 
using on any of my records now. Radio was an "All American 5" with a 6" 1/2 ounce 
speaker, or, a little later, a "transistor" with a 2-1/2" speaker. 

Even most 78 albums had minimal printed information. The need for a more 
substantial package for LPs made the addition of artwork and information an added 
attraction to compete for impulse purchases in a store. It took a decade or 
so, and a change in the nature of pop music, for people to get interested in 
high quality graphics and reading material. The added cost may have hurt the mass 
market.

Now we are going back to a mass market for popular sounds (hardly music) 
distributed cheaply, just for listening. Fans can go on the Internet, as they 
could buy fan magazines in the 40s & 50s. 

Perhaps it is a return to the "good old days."

Perhaps the music market will be served from downloadable high quality files 
sold with extensive graphics on the media producer's and fan's web sites, as 
well as DVDs or other media ordered online, if there is a market for it. 

Mike Csontos