Will there come a time when compact discs have the same exotic, retro/nostalgic
appeal as cassettes have enjoyed in recent years? Will they become a
niche 'thing' on Bandcamp?
It's hard to imagine. The knackered old mp3
players in my drawer full of tech shite look and feel older, somehow,
and are easier to imagine becoming interesting to future peeps than
anything CD-related.
If there is anything like an aesthetic
waiting to emerge, or a, erm, 'feel', then I reckon, like cassettes, the
best place to look for it is in yer DIY world of mixes, demos and blank
media.
Note that while the move from vinyl to CD saw a
reduction in canvas size for professional designers, for the DIY
enthusist the move from tape to CD expanded the available space.
So
yeah, an excuse to post pics of some of the mixes I've been sent or sent out over the years (one or two fellow FO posters might recognise their
own work here...)
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| Nice edges on these placcy sleeves |
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| Note use of marker on plastic cover for mild 3D effect. And that classic, the broken hinge. |
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| Shonky Photoshop |
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| Hand printed cardboard |
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| Coloured jewel cases! |
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| 2 and 3 are easy |
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| Pocket format = room for extras |
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| Even more space on rear of jewel case, and nicely sandwiched like a clip frame |
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| Clear plastic and felt tip pen go really well together, enhanced here by cracks |
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| Cracks again. I can see this being a future 'thing' |
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| Foam bread... |
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| ...and hand painted salad! |
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| Fat black marker is definitely a thing. Note layers here. |
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| Juicy black marker over logo |
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| Certain labels ended up killing the disc |
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| Minimal approach. I reckon that works. |
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| I bloody love those coloured jewel cases! They're even flimsier though. |
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| Plain white approach. |
Obviously CDs haven't gone away yet - I still buy 'em - but does anybody still do CD comps?
PS:
earlier post on cassette comps
PPS:
The Quietus get in on the act: In Defence of the CD
Genius post!
ReplyDeletemy favorite is the 'guess the Davidss' one
i can't remember any excitingly hand designed CD-Rs i got sent though
there must have been a few
mostly though it would be hastily scrawled tracklists
sometimes not even the tracklist, just the artist scribbled on the disc itself
there was a time before yousendit etc when music-nuts would trade CD-Rs - in person or through the mail - so i have a lot of really unattractive (and probably now corrupted) discs that are hard to sift through cos they're either in very narrow transparent plastic cases or in even narrower paper sleeves.
they became a victim of the speed at which you could them i think - fast-burning meant that being "generous" was no problem - you could burn off a dozen albums just like that, and even making compilations was vastly quicker than the days of cassettes.
but the result was a/ who is going to sit there and personalise 12 CDs?
b/ the generosity became a weird burden on the recipient. you can fast burn CD-Rs but you can't fast listen - 12 hours is a big commitment. so it could feel like a imposition on one's time to get such a huge chunk of sound through the post.
Thanks, Simon! So the issue of over abundance predated downloads and mp3s. (Or did it? What's the timeline for CD burning tech in the home? It's all a bit hazy in my mind now... I think I got my first CD writer about... 1998? But I don't think it was common then at all. My one fell off the back of a friend's lorry...)
ReplyDeleteI still make up CD "mix tapes" from time to time for my selected music loving friends. I used to swap tons of tapes and then CD's with Jim in Basingstoke but he sadly passed away recently. His obscure C&W, Blues, Rock selections will be greatly missed.
ReplyDeleteI've got three of yours, Michael, that blue cat one up there is one of them! From 2008/9, the heyday of Flickr.
Deletei got my stand alone CD-player-burner in... 2001 i think. there was a definitely a little window of 2 or 3 years where you would be trading CD-Rs with music fiends, not yet trading the files via yousendit. but most people would be burning the discs at very high speed on their computer - so as well as not being nice to look at (all those cracked CD cases and dog eared paper sleeves) the sound was often pretty poor. whereas my stand alone CD player/burner could only go 4 X as its max speed and the results sounded pretty good (also could burn from analogue input, so vinyl, tapes etc).
ReplyDeleteThey don't make the CD burner-player model anymore, no demand as i assume - a great pity as i need to replace the current one. you can get them used for an arm and leg but what's the point. actually i'm not sure you can easily get writable discs that work in a standalone as opposed to a computer.
I always wondered about the speed, never knowing for sure if it actually affected the quality but always going with the lower speeds anyway just in case. Interesting that yr experience sez it did. I remember vaguely superstitious notions popping into my head as well, like not hoovering near by while burning, and protecting from vibrations..
DeleteYe gods, it's alarming to see some of my old mix CDs popping up in your post Bollops. Long lost relics from a different world, for sure. I think these actually date from the days before I was able to convert my CDs to mp3s en masse, when I used to actually have to sit at my ancient, steam-belching PC with a pile of source CDs and burn a mix track-by-track, mix-tape style, calculating the timing as I went along. It still seemed like a blissful convenience compared to the bad old tape days though.
ReplyDeleteCan't even bear to look at the track-listings... I dread to think.
Re: "certain labels ended up killing the disc" -- it's funny you should mention that... I think my copy of the Les Waters CD went insane when I tried to rip mp3s from it circa 2006, and never recovered.
Meanwhile, I've felt a certain nostalgia for CDs and CD-Rs slowly building for a few years -- I think the tipping point was when, lacking the finances & patience for vinyl, a band I play in decided to go the tape option for releasing our music, and my cry of "can't we just do a CD for gods sake??" fell on deaf ears.
I note there was a thing in defence of CDs on The Quietus a few weeks ago (http://thequietus.com/articles/24710-cd-revival-vinyl-revival-cheap-cds-compact-discs), so I guess it must be official now - CD revival is go!
Ha, a mercy killing in the case of the Les W cd! I never did send you a replacement. I keep meaning to put it online but, eh, I couldn't resist tinkering.
DeleteInterestingly, I've also just returned from another visit to Japan, where CDs have never really gone away.
ReplyDeleteNew releases on CD still retail for the same price as their vinyl equivalents, and, amazingly, there are still shops there (bland, shiny Blockbuster-type chain shops too, not just weird, dusty back alley places) from which you can actually RENT CDs - pay the equivalent of about a quid, and bring them back a week later. Imagine that!
And, this service still seems to attract enough punters for branches to remain open in cities and smaller towns across the country. Incredible!
Curiously, I think this survival of - cough - "physical media" (same deal with DVDs, and even VHS, which remains on the shelves alongside them) results from the fact that, although smart phones are as ubiquitous in Japan as they are on this side of the world, a lot of people effectively "skipped" the home computer stage.
Many people I've met there - music fans etc for the most part - don't own a laptop or desktop PC (or rarely use one for leisure purposes if they do), and, distrusting phone-based streaming as much as the next sane person, they still achieve music playback largely via the means of inserting physical objects into actual stereo equipment of one kind or another.
CDs and CD-Rs are still present and correct on merch tables at gigs I've attended, and my queries re: download codes and bandcamp pages have been met with scorn.
It's all a bit like returning to the golden days of... I dunno... 2005?
Wow, interesting! I read a bit on Nintendo recently that said something similar; that although we think of Japan as being way ahead when it comes to high tech, computers haven't infiltrated every aspect of life as they have here.
Delete(Oh, actually I just noticed you already linked to the Quietus article - apologies for repetition.)
ReplyDelete