re-recordings, explained
19Apr07
The re-recording fad explained by the New York Times in yet another sign of how screwed up the record industry is. Also in the Times, the so-called “Justin Timberlake Effect” that has nothing to do with Justin Timberlake.
Another interesting example of re-recording is Gang of Four’s “Return the Gift” (which I need to check out sometime).
Regarding the Duncan Watts NYT Magazine article, the “Justin Timberlake effect” has interesting implications for eMusic and its users. Most notably, if musical popularity is in large part a matter of random chance, that implies that there must be a lot of high-quality music that just didn’t happen to hit the lottery. This is in large part the premise behind eMusic. (There are some other implications I can think of, but I may save them for a Swindleeeee!!!!! post.)