Disturbing
The passionate devouring of liner notes is an time-honored tradition for the music fan. Hoping to glean every last bit of information from the album, they pore over any credits or notes they can find. While some include the bare minimum of information (or forego the process entirely beyond what might be legally required), others write veritable volumes (sometimes more interesting than the music itself). Some even fight for these precious glimpses of insight - witness those clamoring for an electronic copy of the liner notes for The Roots’ latest album (which, by the way, tell some great stories).
What folks choose to include in the liner notes may say as much about the band as the album does, if I may offer a theory. What would you assume about a band that included the full path of their recording process (other than they had some endorsements to satisfy, perhaps)? Would it be the same assumption as a band who just tossed off song titles and publishing information? Does it matter if a band thanks four full pages of people and organizations, or just a few select entities.
Enough. The whole point of this was that I saw somebody intently focus on the liner notes for a Clay Aiken CD and found it disturbing. INTENSELY disturbing. This person also managed to offend my geek nature by still using a portable CD player, which may have amplified the horror a bit. My mind is not able to comprehend wanting to put that kind of effort into . . . that.
May 21st, 2008 at 2:07 pm
So what is in Clay Aiken’s liner notes? Inquiring minds want to know.
May 21st, 2008 at 2:09 pm
I merely saw the album cover, shuddered, and moved on. Who wants to contemplate such horror?
May 21st, 2008 at 2:39 pm
The legal thing and liner notes is something that’s been on my mind for a while. Say you’re a hip-hop artist who uses a lot of samples you’ve legally cleared. You have an obligation to include information about those samples in the liner notes, don’t you? So, where does downloading the album from a service like Amazon, who offer no notes AFAIK, fall into place? Ditto for plugging endorsements.
May 21st, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I would think so, although there might be some legal wrangling as to what exactly might be the published copy in this case and where the liner notes should reside. It’s obviously something that needs to be addressed. I’ve always preferred attaching this material as metadata to the song files, although it certainly breaks up the “album” experience.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:29 pm
………………they make portable CD players now? I’m going to have to check that out…………………….