I write this article to say one thing: Don’t buy greatest hits collections.
Upon saying this, I’m sure many of you are wondering why I would make such an outrageous statement. People are always buying greatest hits CDs or simply downloading a couple of songs from their favorite artists.
“Why should I want the extra filler thrown in on the album?” you say, or, “It costs too much money to buy all the albums with all of the songs I want!”
To answer both these accusations requires a person to have a serious change in their line of thinking in regards to what music is and how one listens to it. It will require a “paradigm shift” (thank you, rhetoric!) that will lead to a deeper appreciation of music as an art form, because that is, after all, what most music is.
This article is obviously not geared towards everybody, because some people are content listening to music merely to have fun or to dance along with. This is not an insult to those people, for music can certainly serve either of those purposes, but it can also serve other purposes, as well. In movies, you have your comedies and you have your dramas, and they each serve their own purpose. Why would music be any different?
An album from a good artist should not be merely a series of songs but a statement of some sort, be it lyrically or musically. Each song should add to the common whole, creating a piece that is better than the sum of its parts.
One folly of a greatest hits CD is that it is generally comprised of singles. Singles released on the radio are generally released as such because of their supposed widespread appeal.
This means that many of them have to fit a certain formula, which generally boils down to a quick hook or two, a memorable chorus, recycled lyrics and a simple rhythm, in order to be successful.
Because of this, singles are good for a quick injection of a certain mood but are not usually good for much else. Singles are like candy, and one cannot always indulge on candy alone.
Because the other songs on an album do not have to fit the single mold, they are obviously free to be more creative, more expressive and just plain better.
Because the single is generally what comprises a greatest hits collection, there will almost certainly be songs you like from an artist that are not included on his or her greatest hits CD, leaving you feeling disappointed at the very least.
When you buy a greatest hits CD, there are two possibilities: either you will like the music or you won’t. You may think the music is OK, but that is pretty much the same as not liking it. Most of the time, a person tends to listen to – gasp – music they like and not simply music they can tolerate.
If you like it, you’ll obviously want more music from the band or artist, leading you to spend even more money buying other CDs, which will feature a lot of the songs already included on your now worthless greatest hits CD.
If, on the other hand you dislike the music, any serious fan of that artist is not going to take your criticism seriously. Why is this? Because buying a greatest hits CD shows your lack of respect for that particular artist.
It’s exactly the same as only watching the action scenes of a movie and using that to declare you don’t like the whole film.
If you instead buy the album that is considered the artist’s best CD, you can safely say that, if this is the artist’s “best,” you don’t like it. Better yet, you can say it legitimately.
Chris Simpson is a Blank Blank Major. He can be reached at [email protected].
