beck on the future of the album
The September issue of Wired magazine sports a groovy cover, a shot of Beck and the grand title ‘The Rebirth of Music.’ Everyone is supremely aware that the idea of a twelve song CD is fast receding into history, and if we consider rock and electronic musicians to be creators who are more on the culture tip than their pop music friends we would expect them to quickly embrace new ways of reaching their audience. And yet it’s been a foot-dragging long haul up to now. Beck of course has long been admired as a multi-media artist who soaks up his surroundings like a sponge and with the release of his last album Guero it was available in numerous formats: Online as an unfinished mix, as an official release, as a deluxe CD/DVD edition, as fan mashups on the ‘net and finally as Guerilto the remix album. Collect the set or take your pick, personally I grabbed the CD/DVD edition. According to the Wired interview Beck now wants to start releasing his music as cheap, home made videos available through online sites such as YouTube, forsaking the confining tradition of the album format altogether. Let’s hope that everyone else quickly follows suit then we can finally put the shiny little disc to bed.