Previous months' list of new pages at www.scaruffi.com
See the current month's new pages.
April 2007:
- Reissue of the month (and of the decade), although still only on vinyl: Tim Buckley's Lorca by 4 Men With Beards.
Also Caravan's first two albums on Eclectic Disc.
- Rediscoveries of the month: Deus Ex Machina by Paul Schutze, a one-hour piece that i did not fully appreciate at the time (those who think i am incompetent are mostly right), and all the albums by Azalia Snail, notably the first one (i swear that my original copy did not have the 23-minute closing track)
- Band to watch: Shit & Shine. Obviously i missed one of the top albums of 2005 and two of the top albums of 2006.
- I have been traveling a lot, so i am way behind with CD reviews. The first batch is here. As usual, famous musicians will be reviewed last.
- Best albums of 2007 so far
January 2007:
- I will be traveling in India in february and march. I won't be able to publish updates until the end of that trip.
- This month i am publishing two new books: A History of Pop Music before Rock Music (that includes blues, country, soul, Latin, etc) and A History of Jazz Music. You can browse the index and most of the text of each one.
- I revised the lists of best jazz albums by decade: The 1960's , The 1970's , The 1980's , The 1990's , The 2000's .
- For what it's worth, the nominations for "best of 2006" are here. I still want to listen to a few more CDs before finalizing the winners.
- Ditto for the best albums of 2006. I still want to listen to a few more CDs before finalizing the list.
- Needless to say, i have had precious little time to listen to rock albums. New reviews: Boxhead Example, Brightblack, Thomas Buckner, Ghost, Pauline Oliveros, Claudio Parodi, Alasdair Roberts, Sigur Ros (from last year).
- Notable albums that i revisited:
Fiery Furnaces' Rehearsing My Choir, one of the toughest albums of the last few years,
Six Organs of Admittance' For Octavio Paz,
TV On The Radio's Desperate Youth Blood Thirsty Babes,
the Doves' first two albums,
System Of A Down's albums,
and
Fantomas' Delerium Cordia.
December 2006:
- Extremely busy finishing the History of Jazz Music. Anybody who wants to proof-read chapters is very welcome. They are basically all done. The book will come out sometimes in january/february.
- To further complicate matters, i will be traveling in november (so probably no updates to the website till december)
- New York Times interview
- New rock reviews: Paper Chase, Primal Scream, Red Crayola, Serena-Maneesh, Paul Simon, Sonic Youth, Sparklehorse, Thermals, Scott Walker, M. Ward,
- Reissues: Irrlicht (Ohr, 1972 - Revisited, 2006) by Klaus Schulze, Don Cherry's & Jon Appleton's Human Music
September 2006:
- The recording dates provided by readers are here: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 1900s. The full alphabetical list is at this page. We still miss a lot of albums. (As written last month: If anyone is interested, i need volunteers to help with a little project. I would like to date all rock albums with their recording date, not with their release date, exactly like we do with jazz albums. To start with, i'd like to do this for all albums that i rated 7/10 or higher, these ones: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s. Album by album, one has to find out in which MONTH and YEAR it was recorded. If it was recorded in more than one session, the last session is the one)
- New rock reviews: Barry Adamson, Beirut, Frank Black, Richard Bone, Boris, Carla Bozulich, Camera Obscura, Christina Carter, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, Comets On Fire, Cursive, Current 93, Bob Dylan, Erase Errata, Alejandro Escovedo, Fiel Garvie, Lisa Germano, Grizzly Bear, Guillemots, Tim Hecker, Matthew Herbert, Home, Intelligent Shanghai Mono University, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Junior Boys, Knife, Lambchop, Mars Volta, Mujician, Naing Naing, Necks, Oneida, Benoit Pioulard, Matt Rogalsky, 718, DJ Shadow, Supersystem, TV On The Radio, Uzeda, We Are Wolves, Yo La Tengo
- Significantly revised bios: Fiona Apple, Luigi Archetti
- New significant bios: Intelligent Shanghai Mono University, 718, Jean-Claude Vannier
- Reissues of the month: Graham Collier's Workpoints, the piece that pioneered British jazz-rock,
Klause Schulze's Cyborg,
Robbie Basho's Venus In Cancer (Tompkins Square),
Black Tape For A Blue Girl's
Remnants Of A Deeper Purity.
- Rocco Stilo has been working on an epic endeavor: dating all the jazz albums of my history of jazz music with the month/year of their recording session.
July 2006:
- Syd Barrett is dead
- Sorry, nothing about rock music this month. I've been too busy on other fronts. See below.
- I added many bios to the database of jazz musicians (marked with "new") and started working on a new chapter, New Traditionalists, of my History of Jazz Music
- I completed (sort of completed) the History of popular music by assembling all the chapters in a more or less chronological sequence. If anyone is interested in proof-reading them, let me know.
- Rediscovery of the month: Azonic Halo (Strata, 1994) by Andy Hawkins (Blind Idiot God)
- If anyone is interested, i need volunteers to help with a little project. I would like to date all rock albums with their recording date, not with their release date, exactly like we do with jazz albums. To start with, i'd like to do this for all albums that i rated 7/10 or higher, these ones: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s. Album by album, one has to find out in which MONTH and YEAR it was recorded. If it was recorded in more than one session, the last session is the one. (Why i want to do this? The older i get, the more fed up i am that we are so influenced by what the bureaucrats of record labels did: a work of art should be dated with the date when the artist finished it, not the date when someone else started selling it!)
- The dates provided by readers are here:
1960s,
1970s,
1980s,
1990s,
2000s
June 2006:
- I added the European section to the chapter on Free jazz of my History of Jazz Music
- The full bios of jazz musicians are in the page of jazz musicians (new additions are marked with an arrow)
- Let me know if you find bios that do not have the birth year of the artist.
- New rock reviews: Ahleuchatistas, Jessica Bailiff, Black Heart Procession, Charalambides, Iz, Loscil, Nimby, Slow Learner
- The Orchard will digitally distribute the early work of Daniel Johnston: Continued Story/Hi How Are You (1985), Don't Be Scared (1982), Frankenstein Love (1992), Live at SXSW (1990), The Lost Recordings (1983), The Lost Recordings II (1983), More Songs of Pain (1982), Respect (1985), Retired Boxer (1984), Songs of Pain (1981), The What of Whom (1982), Yip/Jump Music (1983).
May 2006:
- I added Euro-fusion to the chapter on Fusion of my History of Jazz Music
- In the page of jazz musicians i have added a chronology by instrument (right column)
- New rock reviews: Eef Barzalay, Belle And Sebastian, Built To Spill, Calexico, Neko Case, Cat Power, Cathedral, Destroyer, East River Pipe, Final, Flaming Lips, His Name Is Alive, Mark Lanegan, Liars, Loose Fur, Stephen Merritt, Minus 5, Mogwai, Mudhoney.
- Rock reissues of the month: VanDyke Parks' Song Cycle (Warner Brothers), Sonic Youth's first EP (Geffen), all Os Mutantes' albums (Polydor)
April 2006:
- I keep working on my History of Jazz Music , mainly the chapter on jazz-rock.
- I added several musicians to the database, and new entries are now marked with a blinking arrow.
- New reviews: Bird Show, K-Space, Puppetina, Robert Rich, Keith Fullerton Whitman
- I have revised several bios of rock music:
This Heat (rewritten reviews),
Tom Waits (rewritten one review),
David Bowie (English reviews of the main albums),
Brian Eno (i changed the reviews of some mid-period albums),
Matmos (rewritten one review),
Gram Parsons (change ratings and rewritten reviews),
Michael Hurley (added one review),
Today Is The Day (mea culpa: Sadness was an excellent album),
Soft Machine (rewritten three reviews, added Spaced),
Robert Wyatt (i completely changed the ratings of his last albums),
Hugh Hopper,
Nucleus,
Elton Dean,
Keith Tippett
March 2006:
- I continue to write my History of Jazz Music . I finished the chapter on creative music, added several musicians to the chapter on free jazz, Paul Bley and Dollar Brand to the chapter on post-bop, and started writing the chapter on jazz-rock (alas, another long one).
- Volunteers to proof edit what i write are welcome.
- I have revised several bios of rock music:
Books,
Arcade Fire,
Go Team,
Black Dice,
Rickie Lee Jones,
Oneida,
Robin Holcomb
Azita,
Xiu Xiu,
Piano Magic,
Bel Canto,
British Sea Power,
Liars,
Lali Puna,
Tarentel,
rewrote the review of Unrest's Malcom X Park after finding a negative review in a major magazine,
and, finally, after 35 years from the fact, i created a decent page on the Hampton Grease Band.
- If you own my book, doublecheck the list of Additions and Errata: over the last few months, there have been changes.
February 2006:
- New reviews: Rick Cox, Fear Falls Burning, Khanate, Khanate, Kingsbury Manx, Lightning Bolt, Pinetop Seven, Portastatic, Saint Etienne, Silver Jews, Smoke & Mirrors, Strokes, Sunn O))), Tristeza, Chad VanGaalen, Laura Veirs (Archive of all 2005 reviews: click here)
- Major addition to my book "A History of Rock Music": Laddio Bolocko (chapter on Post-rock).
- I have continued to write my History of Jazz Music . I finished the chapter on free jazz and i am now beginning the following chapter.
- All the profiles of jazz musicians are listed in the Database of jazz musicians .
- Reissues of the month: The Complete Studio Recordings (Important, 2005) by Mars (it compiles all 32 minutes that they recorded; also H To He Who Am The Only One (Virgin) and Pawn Hearts (Virgin / EMI, 2005) by the Van Der Graaf Generator.
January 2006:
December 2005:
- I started uploading the chapters of my new history of jazz music. So far i reached the 1950s. Next month i will continue to free jazz.
- Sorry, but i have been extremely busy with the history of jazz music that i am writing. Therefore i have done nothing about rock music. I will spend the holidays reviewing CDs, though, so you should start seeing new reviews as of next week. I have about 200 CDs to go through in two weeks. Some i already listened to but haven't had the time to write the review.
- Link Wray, the inventor of the fuzztone and of the power chord, died at 76.
- Reissues of the months: Barbed Wire Maggots (1983) by Borbetomagus; and God by Rip Rig & Panic (Progressive Line).
November 2005:
- I added other chapters to my history of avantgarde music:
Computer music in the age of the laptop,
Collage music in the age of the sampler,
Post-jazz music (this one took forever and will be split into four or five chapters),
Post-chamber music.
- I also revised these chapters of my History of Rock Music: The Ambient Avantgarde in the digital age, and Glitch Music and Digital Minimalism (they were only one chapter in the 2003 book).
- Robert Moog died. Few things have changed the world as much as his invention did.
- Reviews: Jello Biafra & Melvins, Christopher Bissonnette, Boduf Songs, Richard Bone, Claudia Quintet, Lichens, Brian McBride, Necks, , Safety Scissors, Dawn Smithson, Smog, Son Volt, System Of A Down, Teenage Fanclub, Thuja, Tosca, Vocokesh, White Stripes, Windy & Carl, Xiu Xiu.
- An interview with Orthelm
- An interview with Larry Thrasher of the Thessalonians
- Reissues of the month: Blue Cheer's New Improved.
September 2005:
- I am working on a history of avantgarde music. Drafts of the following chapters are ready:
The birth of the soundscape aesthetics,
The Avantgarde,
Post-modernism,
Event Music,
Christian Revival,
Minimalism,
Droning minimalism,
Live Electronic Music,
Computer Music,
Event Music in the electronic age,
The second generation of Minimalists,
The voice,
Collage and field recordings in the electronic age.
- Reviews: Ryan Adams, Alkaline Trio, Akron/Family, Kevin Blechdom, Caribou, Coldplay, Julian Cope, Dirty Projectors, Dream Theater, Electrelane, Brian Eno, Foo Fighters, Four Tet, Headphones, Stephen Malkmus, Bob Mould, Nile, Oasis, Oneida, Orthrelm, and I totally revised the Eels review.
See also the list of best albums of the year.
- New bios: Art Of Fighting
- Reissues of the month: Moondog's Moondog and His Friends (1953), reissued by Honest Jon's; the first two albums by Stooges, reissued by Rhino; the three albums by Neu, reissued by Gronland.
July 2005:
- I am working on a history of the avantgarde. Drafts of the first five chapters are ready. I am sure they will change many times in the next few months.
- I have expanded the chapters on the avantgarde that appeared in my History of Rock Music: Minimalism, The second generation of Minimalists, and especially New Age Music, Ambient Music.
- Writing this history of the avantgarde is very time consuming, so I have had little time to publish new CD reviews. There are also several in the avantgarde section: John Hudak, William Basinski, David Toop, Larry Kucharz, Z'ev, David Behrman, Ellen Band, Robert Rich, Alvin Curran, Tom Heasley.
- Also revised some bios, notably: Badawi, Bill Horist, Thessalonians, Luke Vibert, Porcupine Tree, Paolo Angeli, M83, Lorna.
- Reissues of the month: the first two albums by the Third Ear Band (Gottdiscs); Virgin Fugs by the Fugs.
June 2005:
- CD reviews: many
- Check also the year's favorites. They have changed (of course).
- Reissue of the month: David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name
- As I was researching my various histories (Country, Soul, Blues, Pop), my Chronology of Rock Music became too big to fit into just one page. This month I have split it into decades. I also started adding important dates for jazz, blues and soul music.
- The History of Pop Music also became too big so it has been split in three pages: European beginnings , USA till World War II, Post-war USA .
- The History of Blues Music also became too big so it has been split in three pages: Early Blues, Soul, Rhythm and Blues.
- Newly revised bios of the early 1960s: Paul Simon,
- Newly revised bios of the 1960s: Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro,
Harry Nilsson,
Randy Newman,
Robbie Robertson
- Newly revised bios of the 1970s: Tom Waits, Rickie Lee Jones,
Jackson Browne,
Warren Zevon
May 2005:
- I have revised my history of Country music. It should be fairly stable now.
- I have revised my history of Soul music. It should be fairly stable now.
- I have revised my history of Blues music. It should be fairly stable now.
- I have revised the early chapters of my history of Rock adding more details.
- Next month I will work on a short history of jazz music.
- CD reviews: very few (i will publish a lot next month)
- New revised bios of the 1950s: several blues and soul artists
- New revised bios of the 1970s: Robert Wyatt, Ya Ho Wha 13
- New revised bios of the 1990s/USA: Azusa Plane, Badawi, Bardo Pond, Black Tape For A Blue Girl, Built To Spill, Calla (*), Ani DiFranco (*), Ben Harper, Human Drama, Korn, DJ Logic, Electric Company, Mark Eitzel, Jim O'Rourke (*), Pelt, Sleep, Uncle Tupelo , Wilco,
- New revised bios of the 1990s/non-USA: Amp, Autechre, Boards Of Canada, Buffalo Daughter, Disco Inferno, Christian Fennesz, Fila Brazillia, High Llamas, Mogwai, Mouse On Mars, Neotropic, Radiohead, Raison D'Etre, Talvin Singh, Solex, Nobukazu Takemura, Tied & Tickled Trio, Amon Tobin,
- New revised bios of the 2000s: Fiery Furnaces, Supersilent (*), P'taah ,
- The (*) means the rating of the artist has been increased.
April 2005:
- I have revised my history of Country music. It should be fairly stable now.
- I have revised my history of Soul music. It should be fairly stable now.
- I have revised my history of Blues music. It should be fairly stable now.
- I have revised the early chapters of my history of Rock adding more details.
- Next month I will work on a short history of jazz music.
- CD reviews: very few (i will publish a lot next month)
- New revised bios of the 1950s: several blues and soul artists
- New revised bios of the 1970s: Robert Wyatt, Ya Ho Wha 13
- New revised bios of the 1990s/USA: Azusa Plane, Badawi, Bardo Pond, Black Tape For A Blue Girl, Built To Spill, Calla (*), Ani DiFranco (*), Ben Harper, Human Drama, Korn, DJ Logic, Electric Company, Mark Eitzel, Jim O'Rourke (*), Pelt, Sleep, Uncle Tupelo , Wilco,
- New revised bios of the 1990s/non-USA: Amp, Autechre, Boards Of Canada, Buffalo Daughter, Disco Inferno, Christian Fennesz, Fila Brazillia, High Llamas, Mogwai, Mouse On Mars, Neotropic, Radiohead, Raison D'Etre, Talvin Singh, Solex, Nobukazu Takemura, Tied & Tickled Trio, Amon Tobin,
- New revised bios of the 2000s: Fiery Furnaces, Supersilent (*), P'taah ,
- The (*) means the rating of the artist has been increased.
March 2005:
- My pages on the history of popular music are fairly stable now. I also added chapters on black music. Next month I will work on soul music.
- As a by-product, I have produced dozens of profiles of black musicians
- Eugenio Trafficante has compiled a list of the highest scoring artists in my history of rock music
- See also the list of highest-rated albums
- Rediscovery and reissue of the month: Our Bed Is Green by the Charalambides. I had it on cassette, but now that the CD version is out, I had a chance to better appreciate it.
- CD reviews: Chris Brown, By The End Of Tonight, Colleen, Forever Einstein, Jasun Martz, Out Hud, Pamela Z
February 2005:
- I continued working on a history of popular music, which is now in four parts (and will eventually be in six or seven parts).
I have added the paragraphs on
country music and
film music.
Next month I will work on black popular music, from the spirituals to soul music.
- Click here for new album reviews: Bird Show, Harris Newman, Subarachnoid Space, Jello Biafra and the Melvins, Muffins, Yang, Acoustic Daughters, Far Corner, Cul De Sac & Suzuki, Dead Meadow, Greg Davis, Richard Lee Johnson Trio, Jade Vincent, etc.
- All 2004 reviews so far.
- Rediscovery of the month: Le Stelle di Mario Schifano (Italian psychedelic rock of 1967)
- The list of best rock albums of 2004 is still very tentative: I have at least 400 CDs released in 2004 that I still have to go through.
- I have also updated the list of best jazz albums of 2004.
- Important reissue: Ya Ho Wha 13: Penetration
January 2005:
- I have vastly (vastly) improved both chapters of the history of Hip-hop music.
- I have also revised the list of best hip-hop albums of all times.
- Click here for new album reviews: American Music Club, Joseph Arthur, Devendra Banhart, Bjork, Blood Brothers, Richard Buckner, Camper Van Beethoven, Castanets, Nick Cave, Les Claypool, Coastal, Elvis Costello, Adrian Crowley, Delgados, Donnas, Faceditch, Growing, Lightwave, A.C.Newman, Tara Jane O'Neill, P.G. Six, Janek Schaefer, Silkworm, Triosk.
December 2004:
- I have vastly (vastly) improved both chapters of the history of Hip-hop music.
- I have also revised the list of best hip-hop albums of all times.
- Click here for new album reviews: American Music Club, Joseph Arthur, Devendra Banhart, Bjork, Blood Brothers, Richard Buckner, Camper Van Beethoven, Castanets, Nick Cave, Les Claypool, Coastal, Elvis Costello, Adrian Crowley, Delgados, Donnas, Faceditch, Growing, Lightwave, A.C.Newman, Tara Jane O'Neill, P.G. Six, Janek Schaefer, Silkworm, Triosk.
- Important reissues:
- Contortions: Buy The Contortions (Ze)
- Brian Eno: Ambient 1: Music For Airports (Virgin)
- Comus: First Utterance (Breathless)
- International Submarine Band: Safe At Home (Sundazed)
- Ya Ho Wha: Penetration (Swordfish)
July 2004:
- I have revised all the bios of French musicians from the 1960s to the 2000s, and assembled a history of French rock.
- I have revised all the bios of German musicians from the 1960s to the 2000s, and assembled a history of German rock.
- I have revised all the bios of Japanese musicians from the 1960s to the 2000s, and assembled a history of Japanese rock
- I have revised all the bios of Scandinavian musicians from the 1960s to the 2000s, and assembled a history of Scandinavian rock.
- I have added a history of Latin music.
- I have added a history of modern Indian music.
- I have added a history of modern African music.
- Next month i will get to reggae.
- In my chronology of rock music i have added dates for samba, salsa, and other Latin genres.
- New reviews: Yes, I know, I haven't published new reviews in a while. Well, time is limited. It took a long time to listen to all those African, French, etc albums.
- Rediscovery of the month: Algarnas Tradgard, Swedish psychedelia
June 2004:
- New reviews:
Boxhead Ensemble, Tom Carter, Noah Creshevsky, Fireclan, Fucking AM, David Grubbs, Icarus, Glenn Jones, Simon Joyner, Mandible Chatter, Manishevitz, Mission of Burma, Paik, Pan American, Dan Plonsey, Roger Reynolds, Roitan, Seachange, Secret Chiefs 3, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Univers Zero, Brian Woodbury, Yeah No, etc
- Reissue of the month: the one and only masterpiece of the United States Of America (on Sundazed)
- New or significantly revised bios (most of them very brief):
(Australia's) Terminals,
Big Swifty,
Ballboy,
Bang On A Can All-Starrs,
Devendra Banhart,
Bent,
Beyond Dawn,
Boy Sets Fire
- But, mainly, new band profiles for all Italian musicians: look for "Italy" at rock of the 1970s, rock of the 1980s, rock of the 1990s outside the USA and the 2000s. The other European countries will follow in the next months.
- I revised the various paragraphs on Italy in the following chapters of my History of Rock Music:
Again, the other countries will follow shortly.
- For those who purchased the book "A History of Rock Music 1951-2000", you can print an addition that contains everything about Italian rock music. This also contains a recommended discography.
March 2004:
- Rediscovery of the month: M'lumbo, a New York ensemble that straddles the border between avantgarde, jazz and dance music. I reviewed only this month their 1999 album.
- New reviews: Cannanes, Claudia Quintet, Gerald Collier , Electrelane , Ghost, Guapo , Iron & Wine , Mountain Goats , Necks, Joanna Newsom , Okkervil River , P:ano , Preston School Of Industry , Robert Rich, Vocokesh , etc. Finally at least one album that is worth its price (Ghost).
- Mauro Bondoni revised my lists of the 1990s (click on the various years 1990...1999)
- New bios:
- One of the phenomena which are dramatically changing the landscape of music
making is the proliferation of home-based musicians.
Technology is helping the swelling of this new social class: recording at home
is getting easier and cheaper, and manufacturing CDs is getting even cheaper.
Billboard estimates that more than 30,000 albums were released in the USA alone
in 2002. The data for 2003 are likely to show a further increase. Compare with
cinema: the USA produced 318 films in the same year.
Needless to say, this is causing massive problems for music critics, who are
submerged by recordings but can hardly listen to them carefully. This is a case
of information overload that results in knowledge underload. No wonder that
no two critics list the same albums as the best albums of the year: no critic
can possibly listen to all 30,000 new releases, so inevitably each critic
compiles a list based on the subset of releases that s/he managed to review.
The most hyped albums appear in all lists not because they are particularly
good but simply because they are the only ones that almost every critic
reviewed.
Quantity and quality are seldom directly proportional, and the music industry
is no exception. As the number of new releases increases exponentially, the
average quality decreases dramatically. We are flooded with recordings that
are, at best, mediocre, and, more often than not, utterly ridiculous: the
vast majority of albums could have easily been EPs or double-sided singles;
the vast majority of ideas are recycled over several albums without any
appreciable innovation; remixes, rarities and live albums complement "major"
releases which are already deficient; etc.
The problem is widespread across all sectors of the industry, from mainstream
pop (where albums are made of one decent song and 12 fillers) to indie rock
(where albums are made of one song and 12 repetitions of it) to the avantgarde
(where simple ideas are stretched over 30/40-minute long tracks) to the
classics (reissued with live/rarities material that deserved to remain
unreleased).
The problem originates from a simply economic factor: printing CDs has become
so cheap that the business risk is minimal. To be more precise, there is a
three-pronged trend that drives quality down:
low manufacturing costs, high sale prices, and incompetent/corrupt critics.
When a CD can be sold for 15 times the amount it costs to manufacture it,
the deterrent against printing a CD is much lower. When the Internet multiplies
the number of critics (from a few dozen magazines to a few thousand websites),
the chances that at least one critic praises a recording are very high,
and the deterrent against printing a CD is further reduced.
There is no recording that is criticized by all critics. There are, on the
other hand, numerous recordings that are praised by virtually all critics.
In fact, the vast majority of recordings only receive positive reviews.
The reason is a mixture of incompetence (most critics know so little about
music that they can't decide what is innovative and what is derivative)
and corruption (critics depend on musicians, labels and distributors sending
them free promo CDs, thus critics have a vested interest in promoting whatever
musicians, labels and distributors send them).
Take any recording and check what the international "press" said: inevitably,
the majority of reviews are positive. If one trusts the pop/rock press, we
are living in an age of Beethovens, who basically never produce any bad music.
(Years later, the same critic will tear to shreds the very same albums that
s/he originally described as masterpieces, but that will be when people
have already purchased them. The new album is always better than the previous
one, and the previous one is always a misstep when the new one comes out. Each
album is a masterpiece until the same artist makes a new album: then the old
album becomes a misstep and the new one is a major improvement).
The combination of high sale price, low manufacturing cost and
free positive publicity makes for the ideal business plan: your CD is
almost guaranteed to sell at least 500 copies, enough to break even.
Any CD (regardless of its artistic merits) is likely to break even for
the simple fact that the profit margin is very high and publicity is free.
There is no other industry that benefits from such a golden combination.
No surprise, then, that some musicians release literally anything that they
ever recorded. Why not? The record store has become not a store but a "storage"
of music.
Needless to say, as the average quality of albums decreases, new musicians are
even less motivated to deliver quality: the reference standard keeps lowering.
Majors also are less motivated to invest in the production/arrangement of
an album: why bother, when the average quality is so low anyway?
What would be the solution? Inevitably, the masses are ultimately responsible.
This is a democracy, and noone is forced to trust the critics or listen to
crap: ultimately, you are responsible if the quality of the music is low.
My sense is that only the audience can change the landscape. The audience
needs to oppose the high price of CDs. Based on manufacturing costs,
CDs should cost 3 or 4 dollars, not 15 or 20. The audience needs to ignore
critics who promote more than 10% of the albums they review.
If the profit margit collapses and the free publicity disappears, musicians
will be forced to be more selective in the music they release.
The audience would benefit. The music industry would not, of course. And that
is the problem. THe audience cannot expect that reform comes from the source
of the problem.
Napster was, in many ways, the only help that the audience received in a long
time. Napster signalled two things. Firstly, that CD prices are so high that
even highly-paid professionals would waste hours of their time to search for
and download music. Secondly, that the quality of official releases is so poor
that the demand for custom-made CDs is enormous. Instead of an album that
has one good song and a lot of crap, Napster users were able to produce
an album made only of good songs. The music industry is forcing us to buy
albums that (let's be honest) nobody wants to listen to. We are only
interested in a few songs, and, typically, in a mix of several artists.
The music industry, on the other hand, makes money by forcing the audience
to buy one hour of music of the same artist.
Ultimately, Napster's success was not about saving money, but about the
demand for quality that the music industry has always ignored.
Using Napster was simply a way for the audience to speak up.
Now the audience has only one way to speak up: stop buying CDs.
- In 2003, CD sales decreased 2%, from 649.5 million units in 2002 to 635.8 million units in 2003. That's actually better than 2002, when CD sales decreased 9%. The top-selling album was a black rap album. Best-selling albums of 2003:
- Get Get Rich or Die Tryin', 50 Cent, 6.5 million copies
- Come Away with Me, Norah Jones, 5.1 million
- Meteora, Linkin Park, 3.5 million
- Fallen, Evanescence, 3.4 million
- Speakerboxx/The Love Below, OutKast, 3.1 million
- Dangerously in Love, Beyonc‚, 2.5 million
- Chocolate Factory, R. Kelly, 2.4 million
- Metamorphosis, Hilary Duff, 2.4 million
- Shock'n Y'All, Toby Keith, 2.3 million
- Rush of Blood to the Head, Coldplay, 2.2 million
For a detailed report, see Nielsen Soundscan.
- For those who already purchased my book, "A History of Rock Music 1951-2000", I collect all the additions (and a few errors) at this page.
January 2004:
- For those who already purchased my book, "A History of Rock Music 1951-2000", I keep updating this page with corrections (not as many as I feared!) and additions
- For what it's worth, this is my list of best of 2003 (the first ten can be interchanged). I still have about 50 CDs to listen to, and 20-30 from abroad have not arrived yet.
- Reissue of the month: Bruce Palmer's one and only album, The Cycle Is Complete, originally issued in 1971, a masterpiece of psychedelia
- Rediscovery of the month: Toby Dammit (I only listened now to his 2001 album)
- New reviews: All Night Radio, Crack Pipes, Elected, Enon, Fiel Garvey, Lutz Glandien, Movietone, Harris Newman, Science Group, Sons & Daughters, Van Morrison, Quasi, Thuja,
- New bios:
December 2003:
- My book, "A History of Rock Music 1951-2000", is now available also from Amazon.com (I can purchase a few discounted copies from the publisher this month, december 2003, inquire within).
- For those who already purchased it, I have created this page that will contain the corrections and additions to the text.
- In the alphabetical index, I have added direct links to the names.
- 2003 reviews: I have updated the list of albums that i listened to in 2003. What a pathetic year, so far. The vast majority of CDs that I receive would not even deserve to be reviewed. As it gets cheaper and easier to make CDs, the quality is clearly suffering greatly. Avantgarde musicians stretch the silliest idea for 40 minutes, and pop musicians surround the one good song with a dozen leftovers in order to fill an album.
- Best of 2003: For what it's worth, this is the current list of favorites. I still have about 100 CDs to listen to. The first ten can be interchanged.
- So far this year I have listened to about 400 albums, but only 22 deserved 7/10 or higher: it is the lowest percentage of all times. Maybe I'm getting old, or maybe the low cost of CD manufacturing is dramatically lowering the quality of music.
- Reissues of the month: for those of you who belong to my generation, Pandit Pran Nath is the Indian vocalist who was influential on early minimalists Lamonte Young and Terry Riley. "Midnight" is a recording of two legendary performances. Also, Kevin Ayers' first four albums have been reissued on EMI (the masterpiece Shooting At The Moon is highly recommended).
- New bios:
- All avantgarde/electronic : musicians whose name starts with "C" through "G"
- Musicians of the late 1960s: Nihilist Spasm Band
- US Musicians of the 1990s: Chasse, Hat Trio, Bil Ding, Scissor Girls,
- Non-US Musicians of the 1990s: Brinkman, Takemura, Aube,
- Musicians of the 2000s: Manitoba, Ladytron, As One, Gossip, Hecker, Hrvatski, Fridge, Lightning Bolt, Kills, Fly Pan Am, Out Hud, Edison Woods, Erase Errata, Azrure Ray, Aesop Rock, Black Dice, Broken Social, Animal Company, Comets on Fire (all of them still in progress)
November 2003:
- My new book, "A History of Rock Music 1951-2000", came out.
If you live in the USA, buy it from the publisher (same price, but i get higher royalties).
It will be available within a month from major e-retailers such as
Amazon.com (just search for "Scaruffi History Rock").
If you live outside the USA, I think amazon is your best choice.
I've been mainly busy with this project, so there are few news below.
I can purchase a few discounted copies from the publisher this month, december 2003, inquire within).
- The alphabetical index is available online.
- Warren Zevon has died of lung cancer
- New reviews: Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, Brother JT, Charalambides, Clear Horizon, Cul De Sac, Alistair Galbraith, Primordial Undermind, Dean Roberts, Shins, Thinking Plague, Robert Wyatt,
- New bios: All avantgarde/electronic musicians whose name starts with "A" and "B"
- Reissue of the month: Television's two albums, reissued by Rhino.
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