Although I suspect most readers of this blog weren't around when 8-track cassette was a common format, I thought you all might get a kick out of this. According to Boingboing, rockers Cheap Trick have given a tip of the hat to the decade that spawned them by making their new album, The Latest, available on the long-obsolete 8-track format.
It's easy to kind of snicker at this, but I bet they do pretty well with them. Hardcore music fans love different formats, and Cheap Trick has a big enough fan base even now that will probably love the sly in-joke. I think this sort of thing represents one of the possible futures for the music industry - not 8-track, smart-ass, but doing smaller runs of specialized releases that cost more than the standard release for the die-hard fans. Making more from less, so to speak.
Up next, the complete works of Frank Sinatra on 78 RPM wax cylinder.
Nice. One of my first rock albums was "The Dream Police" from them. Even though my musical tastes run in a different direction, I've always had a soft spot for Cheap Trick.
ReplyDeleteSaw them a few years ago and they still have a mean live show (even though they looked like they were about 70).
8 Tracks.. hehe. I remember some albums would change right in the middle of a song. Annoying as hell