Wednesday, November 19, 2008

More Chinese Democracy

Awesome review from Chuck Klosterman.

Chinese Democracy

Man I am pumped...

9 comments:

texplush said...

Holy Christ on a bike am I excited....As mentioned previously, I have heard the leaks and they are pretty great...can't wait to hear the whole thing! The Klosterman review is an awesome read...and I think he's right - this may be the last CD I ever buy....vinyl, sure - i'll buy that in the future. but will there ever be another new CD that will be effectively marketed as an album? I'm afraid I've made the complete leap to digital like everyone else...

Quinapalus said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Eric said...

It will be up to Drischord and I alone to hold up the entire CD industry...

texplush said...

I will leave it up to Drischord to explain why having a physical CD is vastly different from a digital copy.
And though Klosterman's prediction is a bold one, Q - I think you should probably check out the profit margins for all the albums you mention before you predict whether the industry will will remain viable. Here's a hint - they are a lot smaller than you realize, hence the proliferation of 360 deals made by Live Nation with such artists as, well, Jay-Z and Guns N' Roses.

Quinapalus said...

As I said, I do in fact "realize" that the record industry is on a downward slope, and that the profit margins aren't what they used to be. But Klosterman made a "bold" prediction for the sake of being bold, and nothing else...I easily named two upcoming albums that will indeed be marketed as albums, and will sell copies. Chinese Democracy simply won't be the last of it's kind, and as you yourself point out, the decline of the record industry affects Guns N' Roses as much as anybody else. I see no reason why Chinese Democracy "matters" and can be used to demarcate the death of the album any more than the upcoming Kanye West album, except that people like you and Chuck Klosterman have a particular nostalgic attachment to Guns N' Roses, have been waiting for Chinese Democracy for 15 years, and just dort of want it to mean something special.

Quinapalus said...

And i meant to say "sort of". I wasn't calling you and Klosterman "dorts".

Quinapalus said...

And i meant to say "sort of". I wasn't calling you and Klosterman "dorts".

texplush said...

The fact of the matter is, when the history of recorded music is written, the end of the our current era will be remembered by the last huge release which is actually press-worthy. The story behind Chinese Democracy is irresistible and will be remembered. I think that is Klosterman's point.
Kanye and Wayne may be footnoted for College Dropout and Carter 3, but no one has been waiting 15 years for their followups. Their sales may be big relative to other releases, but even those sales will be dwarfed by the illegal downloads of both.
Just as Use Your Illusion is remembered as the last hurrah of the 80's rock era, GN'R once again trumpet the very excess that destroys exactly what they do.

Quinapalus said...

Despite your perspective, and your own excitement for its release, I personally think that Chinese Democracy is more likely to be seen as the footnote in a music era defined by artists like Kanye and Lil' Wayne...or even, for all I know, Fall Out Boy. But either way, I don't really want to get into an argument about how "history will see it". The only other prediction I'll make is that as a pop-cultural force that defines this past year in music, Tha Carter 3 will dwarf Chinese Democracy. We're already old men, Tex. The GN'R ship has sailed.