"The truth is, when the choice was between more of what I loved versus a little bit of what I liked, I chose love. All the way."
Amen to that. For me -- and this is different from what you're writing, I realise -- I have to have a heart connection with music for it to have meaning for me. And I'll take that heart connection over transitory appreciation anyday.
At the risk of devolving your lovely piece into yet another "streaming vs vinyl" discussion, which is not my intention, as much as I appreciate and avail myself of the pleasures of instant gratification and musical tourism with the ability to listen to everything ever recorded instantly, I miss the days when I ached... ached in the same way one might ache for an absent lover... for music that I could not listen to until I saved money for the album. I remember laying in bed awake at night fantasizing about the album I was longing for. And on the day when I was able to go and buy it, feeling like I was rushing to meet my beloved. Those albums.... those albums still have magic for me in a way that things I stream don't have. And I would give a lot for just one more of those experiences. The idea that that are things out there by the artists I'm in love with that I haven't heard is precious to me. (Part of why I still haven't listend to Now and Then.) Sometimes the ache for what we don't have and can't hear is as sweet as the satisfaction of hearing it.
Yeah, I agree. I am not sure it’s something we can get back though. I feel like that longing and excitement is a product of both a time in our lives and a time in history. I still get excited if a band I’ve loved for decades puts out a new album, and long to hear it, but it’s not the same when it gets diluted by everything else I listen or “can” listen to. Also, other media formats like podcasts and YouTube play a role in this as well. It all makes me grateful to have grown up in an era when saving my pennies for a new album and anticipating going to the record store to get it so that I can listen to it was a regular feeling.
I'm definitely grateful to have grown up when we did, but I do think that spark of excitement and/or longing for a record is still possible. Streaming has made it the exception not the rule, but it's still there.
Same here. I re-create it as best I can by not listening to a new release that I ordered on vinyl until I have the record in my hands, even if it's out on streaming. But it's for sure not the same as knowing that I *can't* listen to it without the record.
And related to that is the way that experience used to be a connecting thing -- because if a friend had that album, that was a reason to go and listen together.
I'm also very selective in what I listen to. That helps clear the clutter.
Andres, are those photos of all the Mariah records your personal collection? I assume yes (and great di”splay” of them on the white background!). You are a true superfan. Even with my favorite bands, I don’t think I have more than two versions of any record. Even when space wasn’t a concern I was always a bit of a penny pincher. I am at a point where I don’t buy much physical media anymore (for reasons financial and spacial), but going through my collection, which covers 45 years of my life and probably 85 of musical life, I can access that original excitement from when I bought each record just by looking at it.
Thanks, Steve! All the record photos are taken by yours truly, and the Mariah records you see are about 60% of all my Mariah records 😂 I have a ton of singles (in vinyl and CD) but there was no way I could fit them all, so I chose the studio albums only. I have more Mariah stuff in Argentina though, that I've been meaning to take to London, but then again my mum told me she listens to some of my Mariah records every now and then to feel closer to me, which is probably one of the sweetest things anyone has ever said to me.
I see what you mean 100%. It's amazing how each record has a story which gets reignited as soon as you come across it, regardless of how distant the memory was initially.
Agreed, especially that the most important aspect is how music makes you feel. Emotions and changes of state are what music is all about.
That said, the music industry are milking fans for everything they have. Perhaps not surprising in these times, but they’re still pushing it rather too much for me.
Thank you, Ian! Absolutely: music is first and foremost about feelings/emotions, and changes of state, as you rightly point out.
As for the second part of your comment, I'm not sure I agree 100%. Sure, there are marketing/sales tactics at play, but regulating how products should be sold and advertised (or even whether they should be made available for purchase in the first place) would cause more harm than good, in my opinion.
I don’t think there can be any regulation, I agree. But there’s no need for regulation, just for the industry to be aware of the possibility of asking too much of fans. I know the argument is no one has to buy everything, but there’s some fans and collectors who do want everything.
In my opinion, releasing an album and then putting another edition out a couple of months later with a bonus track or two is greedy.
Yes, if it’s all streaming it doesn’t matter in terms of being able to listen, but the record companies do this (and other variations - coloured vinyl etc) because they know some fans will feel they *need* the product.
Oh absolutely, yes. Especially with all these coloured variants. The greed element is inescapable at this point, but I think, as collectors/music fans, we should be able to choose which version(s) we want (or whether we simply want to pass on them all) without feeling pressure.
Life is better when you find that thing; artist, team that you absolutely love for some mysterious reason. Indulge in the fandom and enjoy it. It is one of the special things in life.
Thank you! Yes, you are right: in most cases it's a collective decision made between the artist and certain departments within the label. But for some reason, and perhaps unlike previous generations, I feel young fans nowadays are more likely to accuse or blame the artist straightaway, rather than the label, as soon as they disagree with something.
Very well said. Now being only slightly older than you, okay a lot older than you, if you look back prior to your idols, every generation suffers from artists moving on too soon. The Day the Music died in Mason City, Iowa is a great example of musical talent being taken away too soon. Sometimes it's personalities that end the era of your favorite band.
Enjoy what you like for as long as you can, you never know when it will end.
Thank you, Bob! You know, as I was writing this post, the thought occurred to me that decades prior to the 90s were as bad or worse (70s come to mind).
Absolutely: life is a bitch, and fleetingly short, so we need to make sure we enjoy before it's too late!
"The truth is, when the choice was between more of what I loved versus a little bit of what I liked, I chose love. All the way."
All of this. It's easy to look at all the variants/pressings/RSD releases with a cynical eye, but if someone wants a 4th version of a record, who are we to judge?
Thank you! Exactly: a bit like going back to your favourite resort whilst on holiday. It’s good to visit new places, and support other businesses, and countless etceteras, but… some places (and records) just pull you more than others!
Golly, Andy.....I sense you're being held captive by your Mariah product! I call for "The Emancipation of Andy"!! Just teasing, Boobie.....nicely said, and your Carey obsession is as impressive as it is understandable!
Having enjoyed a fully-international upbringing (and record-collecting experience), I've always wanted to ask you (especially regarding your Mimi product): How urgent has your obtaining U.S. editions of any of her LPs, CDs, etc? And, how successful have you been? Are you a Mariah completist to THAT extent, where obtaining releases from other countries (particularly U.S.) is essential for you?
The first thing that struck me after reading (and hearing!) your article is the career-building angle that seems to be missing from 21st century artists (and their labels, however indy or corporately-massive). I think it ties into how we should view our heroes and to what extent we merge our fandom with our income!
My POV: Early '70s (I was in high school, Houston, TX): The record companies were only about one thing: plotting out a solid career path for each and every artist on their roster. Obviously, $ was a concern, but lately, we've come to guess/assume/see evidence of, labels grasping at every dollar they possibly can, and doing so in a very short-term, exploitative way of short-changing artists (streaming dollars, unfair publishing deals, etc) while jilting fans by creating a never-ending assembly line of pretty people with the same 8 songwriters churning out the same facile pap. "Career? What's that?" they might as well be saying!
Case in point: Warner Bros. Records, early '70s: James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Tull, Alice, Sabbath, Neil Young, and many more. Granted, hugely talented artists, all (and, some may have succeeded with a lousy label), but careful strategies went into every one of these artists (and more) to all but guarantee a long, multi-year career. If the label failed, it wasn't for lack of trying, nor was it for ineffectiveness of a multi-pronged plan for each!
Were there misses? Sure. Earth, Wind & Fire's first two albums (both 1971) were on Warner Bros., but they didn't find the right formula, and the right label to fully take advantage of their entire package until they signed with Columbia Records! A slow build-up to the mid-'70s finally brought them mega-hits and world-wide success! They were with CBS for decades!
Other early-'70s misses for Warners (some were on their Reprise subsidiary, or were distributed by WB, like Chrysalis)? Yep. Roger Saunders, Tir Na Nog, Beaver & Krause, Savage Grace (they aren't even on Wiki's Warner OR Reprise all-time roster page...but, they're in my head! Look 'em up on Discogs!).
These are an example of the promos I got to listen to in high school (that Dad brought home), along with the now-famous artists I mentioned at the top! These less-fortunate artists languished for a variety of reasons....lack of promotion at the radio level, radio simply deciding not to play them (album tracks at FM, singles at AM), and a variety of reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with talent level! Warners, in this example, did their usual full-scale job in promoting and positioning them for every possible success.
The more adventurous of your readers, Andy, can come close to replicating my "growing-up-with-records" early-'70s by seeing if any of the above lesser-known artists can be found on the 'net, and checking 'em out! Some new faves might be lurking! And, like me, you may wonder how some just never caught on, and got as famous as others!
Not sure if my essay was on topic, Professor Andy, but 'twas in my noggin! You, however, did a bang-up job!😁👍
Thank you so much, Brad. You always bring such well-rounded (holistic, even) viewpoints, and it's always fascinating and educational for me to hear what you have to say.
"The Emancipation of Andy" 🤣 you crack me up. I think all hope was lost when I used to force my family to watch Mariah's concerts on TV! 😅
To answer your questions: the US editions of her records have always been my number one priority: "first pressing" (or as close to first pressing as one could get) when it comes to vinyl; and in terms of CDs, US editions are printed with much better quality (image resolution/thickness of the booklet etc.). What I don't know, though, is whether this is a Mariah thing, a 90s thing, or something more general with US editions of CDs.
I am a little bit of a completist but I don't need to have absolutely everything for the sake of completing the collection. When I add a certain edition (of a record I already have) to my collection, it's typically because I'm interested in the sound/mastering of that particular edition, and/or because there will be something "different" (slightly different artwork, a bonus track, etc.).
When I first got into Mariah's music, one of the things that excited me the most was the fact that she had a back catalogue. She started in 1990, when I was 2 years old, so I discovered her a couple of years later. Most of the artists I was exposed to back then as a kid were "fresh", right out of the oven, whereas she already had a discography and some trajectory under her belt. So my enthusiasm for her music made me want to buy records and start building a collection. This is perhaps one of the many reasons why she was so "formative", so to speak, in my life.
Your analysis and comparison between decades is eye-opening. Thank you for sharing your invaluable experience and wisdom in this humble space!
Thank you, Andy, for making me feel so welcome to expand and expound! Your Mariah following mirrors, a bit, mine with Bowie....heard a few things, but really fell in aural love with "Ziggy," and buying it in a store in '72! I went back, to a degree, and slowly gathered his back catalogue! Same with Genesis, as I was turned onto them with "Foxtrot." Only a couple albums came before, so that was an easier trail to follow.
We've had this chat before, re: vinyl....here in the U.S. (in the '70s), we coveted the UK pressings, convinced they were the purer form! Fascinating to hear you expound on the CD format, and its quality differences (real or imagined) in both their pressings, but I suppose, more so, in their printed inserts! I guess there are really no differences, to speak of, in how polycarbonate plastic discs are pressed from one country to another!
BTW, I remembered one more after I closed the box on my previous comment: For those interested in the beginnings of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, they began with two albums on Reprise/Warner Bros in the U.S. then known as Brave Belt. "Brave Belt I" came out in '71, and "Brave Belt II" in '72. When Reprise turned their corporate noses up at "Brave Belt III," they took the tapes to Mercury, and scored there! With a few edits and a couple of new songs, "Brave Belt III" became the BTO debut album for Mercury Records in 1973! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_Belt
From the BTO Wiki page: "After Reprise Records dropped Brave Belt from their label, Randy Bachman emptied his own bank account to finance another set of recordings with the Brave Belt II line-up, and began to shop around the next album.
"Said Randy in 1974, 'I went to A&M, Epic, Atlantic, Columbia, Asylum – you name it. A week later, I'd get letters saying 'Dear Randy, We pass.' We're thinking of calling our greatest hits album 'We Pass' and printing all those refusals on the jacket. I've got all 22 of them!"
Thanks again! I'm recording a new album: "The Appreciation of Andy"!🎶😉👍
Thank YOU for bringing all this depth and wealth of knowledge to this space!
Yes, UK vinyl pressings (especially from the 70s) are generally regarded as the best (or among the best). Some of my Stevie Wonder LPs are UK pressings from the early 70s and they sound spectacular.
Thanks for expanding on the previous comment. Impressive how you manage to remember all this information, with this level of detail!
Thanks for these exchanges and, as always, for the appreciation! 😊🎶
I couldn't agree with your post more! There are SO many artists I loved in their heyday who have faded from, especially younger, public consciousness. I still embrace a lot of what those artists release today. There are always gems to be found in new releases. I wonder how long it will take for Taylor Swift to fade. It happens to all pop artists.
Thank you, Dan! I agree: some artists, especially those who had their heyday, are still producing extremely high-quality work (which we may sometimes prefer to their biggest hits). A combination of maturity and less label pressure, perhaps.
The flaw in your argument is this: the records by big stars will literally always be around: if you're a fan of the music, there will never be a day in the foreseeable future when you cannot find a Beatles album, or a Mariah album, or whatever.
The smaller, newer artists working today are far less fortunate. They are harder to find (bc the industry doesn't care about them much at all) and their music, if not bought or listened to, might well vanish under the tide of imposed Nostalgia and AI sonic wallpaper "to Study and Relax To" that the industry prefers to push through its many media pipelines.
Buying multiple copies of the same 40-year-old music does nothing for your idols who made it; their fortunes and places in history are already assured. It also does nothing for the music culture they worked in and won in; all it does is allow corporations (who now own many big artists' catalogs as an asset) to continue to profit from old product and crowd out new artists (who are vital to sustaining the culture) from getting a chance to make their own further history.
I don't think your three heroes would want that, were they still alive today. With their work and talent, they were about opening doors, not closing them.
I’m not encouraging people to buy multiple copies of records released 40 years ago. I am talking about records being released today, and why pop fans should be more lenient with their idols (labels/management is a different story).
The main focus of this post was to discuss how today’s pop fans whose idols are the big hot names of the hour might be spending more time and energy focusing on values (from marketing tactics to climate concerns) than enjoying the music.
I appreciate what you say about new artists but this is not the responsibility of music fans. If someone wants to buy and/or spin a thousand copies of the same Taylor Swift record rather than buying one indie band’s record, what are you going to do? Force them? Music is subjective by its very nature. We like what we like. It is sad that someone gets to press 10 copies of the same album whereas others struggle to get one pressed, but it’s also sad that some people have more than one car and others none, or houses, or sources of income, or children… I mean, where do you stop?
This has never been that simple; and even less so these days.
What we "like" is a combination of multiple different factors; which have as much to do with when we hear it as what it may be, as well as "received wisdom" over a thing's subjective quality, accreted over time.
Nobody likes to hear what I'm saying on this; and I'd rather not be saying it. But there's been for too long a weird hostility towards new music, + non-industry "produced" music; and that hostility has trickled down so far that even the average consumer with no "fandom interests" has adopted it. And that threatens the growth and progression of music culture itself.
It's gotten that bad; because the industry has been doing the "forcing", not me.
Of course it's not simple, and there are a lot of different elements at play (on a conscious and subconscious level). That doesn't mean that those who choose to listen to mainstream stuff do so because it has been pushed down their throat. Where do you see the hostility towards new music? Do you think that discovering new artists or new music is more difficult now than it was, say, 40 years ago? Nowadays you can self-produce, self-release, self-market, self-upload your material to streaming platforms, self-distribute, and use social media to capitalise on your reach. I know people who have done this, and they have been able to enjoy success without being signed to any label. Not saying it's easy (I know first-hand the hurdles they have to go through), but my point is I don't think this was possible 40 years ago. Without a label, you were absolutely nothing, and there was no chance, realistically, of getting your music out there.
It was massively possible 35 years ago. So much so, that in less than a decade the big industry had to go on a buying and merger spree to quash it. '85-'96, the era of "Indies". But whatever.
Fact is, the industry has pushed both their mainstream products and their owned "legacy products" down the public's throats pretty hard this century; and also used those to seize and enclose music's pop-cultural space away from everyone else.
Every time there's some reissue, remaster, or just rehash coming off the shipping docks of the pressing plants; that's someone's first issue record not getting made, either yet or at all. And thus not getting heard, or bought, or loved by its own fandom.
With a lot less reach. Don't forget I grew up in Argentina -- do you think those indie bands could reach Latin America as easily as they can now? The internet, (particularly social media) has allowed many artists and bands to widen their reach and expand their fanbase exponentially. Sites like Bandcamp, for example, or MySpace back in the day, and many others allowed bands to reach audiences worldwide in ways that were unheard of back then.
Consider the following: we can all agree that streaming platforms are far from having the best interests of artists at heart, right? Well, yes, but at the same time, you and I can record something and stream it to the entire world simultaneously. This level of immediate reach whilst not being signed to any label was not possible, and would not be possible, without streaming platforms, purely because neither you nor I would have had the means or even the chance to deal with distribution at a global scale in the way streaming allows us to.
While it has become easier for non-mainstream artists to grow and expand, there is, at the same time, a lot more competition nowadays: not just with the mainstream (as has always been the case) but between these lesser-known bands and artists, who are all, understandably, trying to get their share.
Of course the demand for reissues has an impact on how many new records can be pressed, but it is not the only factor: lockdowns had a huge impact on supply chains (which are still all over the place), the availability of labour (which has still not recovered from pre-pandemic levels) and overall costs (which keep piling up).
All this to say that, while it is sad that not everyone has a chance to get their record pressed the way they want to, or within the time-frame they would like, or at the costs that they would be able to stomach, you cannot argue that the level of demand for indie and mainstream would be the same were it not for some dark motive on the part of labels. I get it: labels have their business motives, yes, but to imply that, were it not for labels and their "agenda", the demand there is for Beatles or Mariah or any other best-selling artist/band would simply turn towards every single indie band or artist out there is preposterous. There is a reason why these two have more number 1 singles than anybody else: apart from their tremendous talent, hard work, and many more etceteras, they consistently touched fibres in the general public to the extent that their songs (and their persona) managed to capture the zeitgeist of their generations.
While I wholeheartedly agree that it should be easier and/or there should be ways for more indie/new/unknown artists to make it, a sad but true reality of life is that not everyone has the same talent, not everyone is ready or able to achieve fame and know how to navigate it, not everyone is ready to make the same career and personal sacrifices, and not everyone has the same potential for popularity and longevity.
"The truth is, when the choice was between more of what I loved versus a little bit of what I liked, I chose love. All the way."
Amen to that. For me -- and this is different from what you're writing, I realise -- I have to have a heart connection with music for it to have meaning for me. And I'll take that heart connection over transitory appreciation anyday.
At the risk of devolving your lovely piece into yet another "streaming vs vinyl" discussion, which is not my intention, as much as I appreciate and avail myself of the pleasures of instant gratification and musical tourism with the ability to listen to everything ever recorded instantly, I miss the days when I ached... ached in the same way one might ache for an absent lover... for music that I could not listen to until I saved money for the album. I remember laying in bed awake at night fantasizing about the album I was longing for. And on the day when I was able to go and buy it, feeling like I was rushing to meet my beloved. Those albums.... those albums still have magic for me in a way that things I stream don't have. And I would give a lot for just one more of those experiences. The idea that that are things out there by the artists I'm in love with that I haven't heard is precious to me. (Part of why I still haven't listend to Now and Then.) Sometimes the ache for what we don't have and can't hear is as sweet as the satisfaction of hearing it.
We've lost the sweetness of longing.
Yeah, I agree. I am not sure it’s something we can get back though. I feel like that longing and excitement is a product of both a time in our lives and a time in history. I still get excited if a band I’ve loved for decades puts out a new album, and long to hear it, but it’s not the same when it gets diluted by everything else I listen or “can” listen to. Also, other media formats like podcasts and YouTube play a role in this as well. It all makes me grateful to have grown up in an era when saving my pennies for a new album and anticipating going to the record store to get it so that I can listen to it was a regular feeling.
+1
I'm definitely grateful to have grown up when we did, but I do think that spark of excitement and/or longing for a record is still possible. Streaming has made it the exception not the rule, but it's still there.
Same here. I re-create it as best I can by not listening to a new release that I ordered on vinyl until I have the record in my hands, even if it's out on streaming. But it's for sure not the same as knowing that I *can't* listen to it without the record.
And related to that is the way that experience used to be a connecting thing -- because if a friend had that album, that was a reason to go and listen together.
I'm also very selective in what I listen to. That helps clear the clutter.
Thank you so much for this, Faith. A tremendously important statement, and beautifully put, on top of that.
"We've lost the sweetness of longing". So right. Thanks again.
Andres, are those photos of all the Mariah records your personal collection? I assume yes (and great di”splay” of them on the white background!). You are a true superfan. Even with my favorite bands, I don’t think I have more than two versions of any record. Even when space wasn’t a concern I was always a bit of a penny pincher. I am at a point where I don’t buy much physical media anymore (for reasons financial and spacial), but going through my collection, which covers 45 years of my life and probably 85 of musical life, I can access that original excitement from when I bought each record just by looking at it.
Thanks, Steve! All the record photos are taken by yours truly, and the Mariah records you see are about 60% of all my Mariah records 😂 I have a ton of singles (in vinyl and CD) but there was no way I could fit them all, so I chose the studio albums only. I have more Mariah stuff in Argentina though, that I've been meaning to take to London, but then again my mum told me she listens to some of my Mariah records every now and then to feel closer to me, which is probably one of the sweetest things anyone has ever said to me.
I see what you mean 100%. It's amazing how each record has a story which gets reignited as soon as you come across it, regardless of how distant the memory was initially.
Agreed, especially that the most important aspect is how music makes you feel. Emotions and changes of state are what music is all about.
That said, the music industry are milking fans for everything they have. Perhaps not surprising in these times, but they’re still pushing it rather too much for me.
Thank you, Ian! Absolutely: music is first and foremost about feelings/emotions, and changes of state, as you rightly point out.
As for the second part of your comment, I'm not sure I agree 100%. Sure, there are marketing/sales tactics at play, but regulating how products should be sold and advertised (or even whether they should be made available for purchase in the first place) would cause more harm than good, in my opinion.
I don’t think there can be any regulation, I agree. But there’s no need for regulation, just for the industry to be aware of the possibility of asking too much of fans. I know the argument is no one has to buy everything, but there’s some fans and collectors who do want everything.
In my opinion, releasing an album and then putting another edition out a couple of months later with a bonus track or two is greedy.
Yes, if it’s all streaming it doesn’t matter in terms of being able to listen, but the record companies do this (and other variations - coloured vinyl etc) because they know some fans will feel they *need* the product.
Oh absolutely, yes. Especially with all these coloured variants. The greed element is inescapable at this point, but I think, as collectors/music fans, we should be able to choose which version(s) we want (or whether we simply want to pass on them all) without feeling pressure.
Life is better when you find that thing; artist, team that you absolutely love for some mysterious reason. Indulge in the fandom and enjoy it. It is one of the special things in life.
Absolutely!! 👏🏻
I love this.
Thank you, Michelle! I appreciate your comment a lot.
Agree, my dear friend!! I also feel that is not really the artist but a strategy created by the record companies, right?
Thank you! Yes, you are right: in most cases it's a collective decision made between the artist and certain departments within the label. But for some reason, and perhaps unlike previous generations, I feel young fans nowadays are more likely to accuse or blame the artist straightaway, rather than the label, as soon as they disagree with something.
Very well said. Now being only slightly older than you, okay a lot older than you, if you look back prior to your idols, every generation suffers from artists moving on too soon. The Day the Music died in Mason City, Iowa is a great example of musical talent being taken away too soon. Sometimes it's personalities that end the era of your favorite band.
Enjoy what you like for as long as you can, you never know when it will end.
Thank you, Bob! You know, as I was writing this post, the thought occurred to me that decades prior to the 90s were as bad or worse (70s come to mind).
Absolutely: life is a bitch, and fleetingly short, so we need to make sure we enjoy before it's too late!
"The truth is, when the choice was between more of what I loved versus a little bit of what I liked, I chose love. All the way."
All of this. It's easy to look at all the variants/pressings/RSD releases with a cynical eye, but if someone wants a 4th version of a record, who are we to judge?
Thank you! Exactly: a bit like going back to your favourite resort whilst on holiday. It’s good to visit new places, and support other businesses, and countless etceteras, but… some places (and records) just pull you more than others!
Golly, Andy.....I sense you're being held captive by your Mariah product! I call for "The Emancipation of Andy"!! Just teasing, Boobie.....nicely said, and your Carey obsession is as impressive as it is understandable!
Having enjoyed a fully-international upbringing (and record-collecting experience), I've always wanted to ask you (especially regarding your Mimi product): How urgent has your obtaining U.S. editions of any of her LPs, CDs, etc? And, how successful have you been? Are you a Mariah completist to THAT extent, where obtaining releases from other countries (particularly U.S.) is essential for you?
The first thing that struck me after reading (and hearing!) your article is the career-building angle that seems to be missing from 21st century artists (and their labels, however indy or corporately-massive). I think it ties into how we should view our heroes and to what extent we merge our fandom with our income!
My POV: Early '70s (I was in high school, Houston, TX): The record companies were only about one thing: plotting out a solid career path for each and every artist on their roster. Obviously, $ was a concern, but lately, we've come to guess/assume/see evidence of, labels grasping at every dollar they possibly can, and doing so in a very short-term, exploitative way of short-changing artists (streaming dollars, unfair publishing deals, etc) while jilting fans by creating a never-ending assembly line of pretty people with the same 8 songwriters churning out the same facile pap. "Career? What's that?" they might as well be saying!
Case in point: Warner Bros. Records, early '70s: James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Tull, Alice, Sabbath, Neil Young, and many more. Granted, hugely talented artists, all (and, some may have succeeded with a lousy label), but careful strategies went into every one of these artists (and more) to all but guarantee a long, multi-year career. If the label failed, it wasn't for lack of trying, nor was it for ineffectiveness of a multi-pronged plan for each!
Were there misses? Sure. Earth, Wind & Fire's first two albums (both 1971) were on Warner Bros., but they didn't find the right formula, and the right label to fully take advantage of their entire package until they signed with Columbia Records! A slow build-up to the mid-'70s finally brought them mega-hits and world-wide success! They were with CBS for decades!
Other early-'70s misses for Warners (some were on their Reprise subsidiary, or were distributed by WB, like Chrysalis)? Yep. Roger Saunders, Tir Na Nog, Beaver & Krause, Savage Grace (they aren't even on Wiki's Warner OR Reprise all-time roster page...but, they're in my head! Look 'em up on Discogs!).
These are an example of the promos I got to listen to in high school (that Dad brought home), along with the now-famous artists I mentioned at the top! These less-fortunate artists languished for a variety of reasons....lack of promotion at the radio level, radio simply deciding not to play them (album tracks at FM, singles at AM), and a variety of reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with talent level! Warners, in this example, did their usual full-scale job in promoting and positioning them for every possible success.
The more adventurous of your readers, Andy, can come close to replicating my "growing-up-with-records" early-'70s by seeing if any of the above lesser-known artists can be found on the 'net, and checking 'em out! Some new faves might be lurking! And, like me, you may wonder how some just never caught on, and got as famous as others!
Not sure if my essay was on topic, Professor Andy, but 'twas in my noggin! You, however, did a bang-up job!😁👍
Thank you so much, Brad. You always bring such well-rounded (holistic, even) viewpoints, and it's always fascinating and educational for me to hear what you have to say.
"The Emancipation of Andy" 🤣 you crack me up. I think all hope was lost when I used to force my family to watch Mariah's concerts on TV! 😅
To answer your questions: the US editions of her records have always been my number one priority: "first pressing" (or as close to first pressing as one could get) when it comes to vinyl; and in terms of CDs, US editions are printed with much better quality (image resolution/thickness of the booklet etc.). What I don't know, though, is whether this is a Mariah thing, a 90s thing, or something more general with US editions of CDs.
I am a little bit of a completist but I don't need to have absolutely everything for the sake of completing the collection. When I add a certain edition (of a record I already have) to my collection, it's typically because I'm interested in the sound/mastering of that particular edition, and/or because there will be something "different" (slightly different artwork, a bonus track, etc.).
When I first got into Mariah's music, one of the things that excited me the most was the fact that she had a back catalogue. She started in 1990, when I was 2 years old, so I discovered her a couple of years later. Most of the artists I was exposed to back then as a kid were "fresh", right out of the oven, whereas she already had a discography and some trajectory under her belt. So my enthusiasm for her music made me want to buy records and start building a collection. This is perhaps one of the many reasons why she was so "formative", so to speak, in my life.
Your analysis and comparison between decades is eye-opening. Thank you for sharing your invaluable experience and wisdom in this humble space!
Thank you, Andy, for making me feel so welcome to expand and expound! Your Mariah following mirrors, a bit, mine with Bowie....heard a few things, but really fell in aural love with "Ziggy," and buying it in a store in '72! I went back, to a degree, and slowly gathered his back catalogue! Same with Genesis, as I was turned onto them with "Foxtrot." Only a couple albums came before, so that was an easier trail to follow.
We've had this chat before, re: vinyl....here in the U.S. (in the '70s), we coveted the UK pressings, convinced they were the purer form! Fascinating to hear you expound on the CD format, and its quality differences (real or imagined) in both their pressings, but I suppose, more so, in their printed inserts! I guess there are really no differences, to speak of, in how polycarbonate plastic discs are pressed from one country to another!
BTW, I remembered one more after I closed the box on my previous comment: For those interested in the beginnings of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, they began with two albums on Reprise/Warner Bros in the U.S. then known as Brave Belt. "Brave Belt I" came out in '71, and "Brave Belt II" in '72. When Reprise turned their corporate noses up at "Brave Belt III," they took the tapes to Mercury, and scored there! With a few edits and a couple of new songs, "Brave Belt III" became the BTO debut album for Mercury Records in 1973! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_Belt
From the BTO Wiki page: "After Reprise Records dropped Brave Belt from their label, Randy Bachman emptied his own bank account to finance another set of recordings with the Brave Belt II line-up, and began to shop around the next album.
"Said Randy in 1974, 'I went to A&M, Epic, Atlantic, Columbia, Asylum – you name it. A week later, I'd get letters saying 'Dear Randy, We pass.' We're thinking of calling our greatest hits album 'We Pass' and printing all those refusals on the jacket. I've got all 22 of them!"
Thanks again! I'm recording a new album: "The Appreciation of Andy"!🎶😉👍
Thank YOU for bringing all this depth and wealth of knowledge to this space!
Yes, UK vinyl pressings (especially from the 70s) are generally regarded as the best (or among the best). Some of my Stevie Wonder LPs are UK pressings from the early 70s and they sound spectacular.
Thanks for expanding on the previous comment. Impressive how you manage to remember all this information, with this level of detail!
Thanks for these exchanges and, as always, for the appreciation! 😊🎶
I couldn't agree with your post more! There are SO many artists I loved in their heyday who have faded from, especially younger, public consciousness. I still embrace a lot of what those artists release today. There are always gems to be found in new releases. I wonder how long it will take for Taylor Swift to fade. It happens to all pop artists.
Thank you, Dan! I agree: some artists, especially those who had their heyday, are still producing extremely high-quality work (which we may sometimes prefer to their biggest hits). A combination of maturity and less label pressure, perhaps.
The flaw in your argument is this: the records by big stars will literally always be around: if you're a fan of the music, there will never be a day in the foreseeable future when you cannot find a Beatles album, or a Mariah album, or whatever.
The smaller, newer artists working today are far less fortunate. They are harder to find (bc the industry doesn't care about them much at all) and their music, if not bought or listened to, might well vanish under the tide of imposed Nostalgia and AI sonic wallpaper "to Study and Relax To" that the industry prefers to push through its many media pipelines.
Buying multiple copies of the same 40-year-old music does nothing for your idols who made it; their fortunes and places in history are already assured. It also does nothing for the music culture they worked in and won in; all it does is allow corporations (who now own many big artists' catalogs as an asset) to continue to profit from old product and crowd out new artists (who are vital to sustaining the culture) from getting a chance to make their own further history.
I don't think your three heroes would want that, were they still alive today. With their work and talent, they were about opening doors, not closing them.
I’m not encouraging people to buy multiple copies of records released 40 years ago. I am talking about records being released today, and why pop fans should be more lenient with their idols (labels/management is a different story).
The main focus of this post was to discuss how today’s pop fans whose idols are the big hot names of the hour might be spending more time and energy focusing on values (from marketing tactics to climate concerns) than enjoying the music.
I appreciate what you say about new artists but this is not the responsibility of music fans. If someone wants to buy and/or spin a thousand copies of the same Taylor Swift record rather than buying one indie band’s record, what are you going to do? Force them? Music is subjective by its very nature. We like what we like. It is sad that someone gets to press 10 copies of the same album whereas others struggle to get one pressed, but it’s also sad that some people have more than one car and others none, or houses, or sources of income, or children… I mean, where do you stop?
"We like what we like".
This has never been that simple; and even less so these days.
What we "like" is a combination of multiple different factors; which have as much to do with when we hear it as what it may be, as well as "received wisdom" over a thing's subjective quality, accreted over time.
Nobody likes to hear what I'm saying on this; and I'd rather not be saying it. But there's been for too long a weird hostility towards new music, + non-industry "produced" music; and that hostility has trickled down so far that even the average consumer with no "fandom interests" has adopted it. And that threatens the growth and progression of music culture itself.
It's gotten that bad; because the industry has been doing the "forcing", not me.
Of course it's not simple, and there are a lot of different elements at play (on a conscious and subconscious level). That doesn't mean that those who choose to listen to mainstream stuff do so because it has been pushed down their throat. Where do you see the hostility towards new music? Do you think that discovering new artists or new music is more difficult now than it was, say, 40 years ago? Nowadays you can self-produce, self-release, self-market, self-upload your material to streaming platforms, self-distribute, and use social media to capitalise on your reach. I know people who have done this, and they have been able to enjoy success without being signed to any label. Not saying it's easy (I know first-hand the hurdles they have to go through), but my point is I don't think this was possible 40 years ago. Without a label, you were absolutely nothing, and there was no chance, realistically, of getting your music out there.
It was massively possible 35 years ago. So much so, that in less than a decade the big industry had to go on a buying and merger spree to quash it. '85-'96, the era of "Indies". But whatever.
Fact is, the industry has pushed both their mainstream products and their owned "legacy products" down the public's throats pretty hard this century; and also used those to seize and enclose music's pop-cultural space away from everyone else.
Every time there's some reissue, remaster, or just rehash coming off the shipping docks of the pressing plants; that's someone's first issue record not getting made, either yet or at all. And thus not getting heard, or bought, or loved by its own fandom.
With a lot less reach. Don't forget I grew up in Argentina -- do you think those indie bands could reach Latin America as easily as they can now? The internet, (particularly social media) has allowed many artists and bands to widen their reach and expand their fanbase exponentially. Sites like Bandcamp, for example, or MySpace back in the day, and many others allowed bands to reach audiences worldwide in ways that were unheard of back then.
Consider the following: we can all agree that streaming platforms are far from having the best interests of artists at heart, right? Well, yes, but at the same time, you and I can record something and stream it to the entire world simultaneously. This level of immediate reach whilst not being signed to any label was not possible, and would not be possible, without streaming platforms, purely because neither you nor I would have had the means or even the chance to deal with distribution at a global scale in the way streaming allows us to.
While it has become easier for non-mainstream artists to grow and expand, there is, at the same time, a lot more competition nowadays: not just with the mainstream (as has always been the case) but between these lesser-known bands and artists, who are all, understandably, trying to get their share.
Of course the demand for reissues has an impact on how many new records can be pressed, but it is not the only factor: lockdowns had a huge impact on supply chains (which are still all over the place), the availability of labour (which has still not recovered from pre-pandemic levels) and overall costs (which keep piling up).
All this to say that, while it is sad that not everyone has a chance to get their record pressed the way they want to, or within the time-frame they would like, or at the costs that they would be able to stomach, you cannot argue that the level of demand for indie and mainstream would be the same were it not for some dark motive on the part of labels. I get it: labels have their business motives, yes, but to imply that, were it not for labels and their "agenda", the demand there is for Beatles or Mariah or any other best-selling artist/band would simply turn towards every single indie band or artist out there is preposterous. There is a reason why these two have more number 1 singles than anybody else: apart from their tremendous talent, hard work, and many more etceteras, they consistently touched fibres in the general public to the extent that their songs (and their persona) managed to capture the zeitgeist of their generations.
While I wholeheartedly agree that it should be easier and/or there should be ways for more indie/new/unknown artists to make it, a sad but true reality of life is that not everyone has the same talent, not everyone is ready or able to achieve fame and know how to navigate it, not everyone is ready to make the same career and personal sacrifices, and not everyone has the same potential for popularity and longevity.