First we had people playing music live. Then they recorded themselves. So we had vinyl records. 78s, 45s, 33 1/3rds. I remember ‘em all, though the 78s only because my grand ol’ dad had ‘em. Red vinyl, if I recall. 45s and 33 1/3rds I owned myself.
Then we had tapes, 8-track and cassette. Hated ‘em. Couldn’t skip lousy tracks. Or, at least, it was harder to than picking up the needle and setting it down again. Then we had, and still have (vinyl, too, I know), CDs. And now, killing all of that (sadly), iPods and such where one never, by choice I guess, never truly discovers the treasures of a full album.
Anyway, CDs brought us to the point where, because our vinyl records were scratched, we had to re-buy them on CD.
Then came the remastered versions of those same CDs.
Then came the re-re-mastered versions of those same CDs with bonus tracks and original artwork.
Then came digi-packs (you know, the cardboard kinda things, like they used to sell vinyl records in, only with vinyl, the packaging by necessity was bigger and you could actually read read the liner notes. That said, as I’ve gotten older, I care less and less about the liner notes because it’s all about the music, right?)
But we digress. Again. So you have the digi-packs, which because of their cardboard construction can be jammed together tighter, like old LP covers (that’s vinyl album covers for those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about) so you can fit more in your CD rack than you can with a jewel case, which tend to also break their teeth which causes you to have to go to the CD store to keep buying replacement jewel cases.
Where were we? Right. They have us re-buying everything we already own. Like anniversary editions of our favourite albums. For instance, the expanded 25th anniversary of REM’s Murmur just came out. Not that I’m a huge REM fan, I like ‘em enough but the point is -- one, egad, 25 years already since Murmur -- that here’s yet another “gotta have it” anniversary edition (sorry, no, don't even have the original) with an extra disc and a few, probably, extra guitar licks you’ll listen to once like on all those Hendrix remasters you’ve already been sucked into buying and you’re done with it.
Music is not the only culprit. In the movie world, movies come out. They are reviewed by critics. They do well, or they tank. Then they come out, sooner (most likely) or later on DVD. They get reviewed AGAIN by the same critics and are criticized if they don’t have enough “extras” which everyone might, might, watch once because (usually) they’re five times longer than the actual original flick and who has the time?
Yet people buy them. Again and again. I know this because I see the full racks in the used CD/DVD stores. Hey, I’ve been guilty, usually in the CD realm, once or twice.
So the point of all this? Not sure there’s much point, except that what got me going on all this is I saw an ad in the paper the other day for the remake movie of When The Earth Stood Still, which is getting lousy reviews by the way but that’s not the point. The point is, within those ads you see this: A promo for “the only place you’ll see the world premiere of the trailer for (THE TRAILER! MY EMPHASIS) X-Men Wolverine”.
So, they’re using one crapola movie to sell the TRAILER of another movie in an endless series based on a comic book (because Hollywood is bereft of ideas). Not sure if this is the first time a full-length movie has been used as a selling point for a TRAILER of another, but first I’ve noticed (I’m not all that much of a movie buff).
CA-RAZY.
So now we have: reissues of reisssues of reissues of CDs . . . all remastered in 20-bit, then 24-bit, then who-knows-how-many-bit, whatever that means, of course. And we have movie critics re-reviewing movies on DVD movies everyone has already seen. And we have movies serving as loss-leaders for the sale of other movies’ TRAILERS.
Ah, how humanity has progressed.