Academy of Pop: exam season

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Paper A: General Paper

14th August 2006

Candidates have all day to answer the following question.

1. 'It's better to burn out than to fade away'. Discuss.

Comments

A smartarse writes...

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

There is no question after the instruction "answer the following question". 0/10. See Me.

Most people so far are equating "fade away" with "go shit", which is at least arguable. It also assumes the judgement of shitness is a universally shared one which, as we have seen already with the example of Madonna, is not the case. In fact in most cases, it is only the people who thought [x] was any good in the first place who are likely to hold an opinion on the relative merits of [x]'s subsequent career. Since this is unlikely to constitute a representative sample of the world's population, said opinion must by definition also be unrepresentative and therefore unreliable.

Most people are also interpreting "better" as meaning "better for me, the listener". Again, this relies on a subjective assessment and is therefore unreliable. Moreover, some - e.g. economists - would also (or instead) look at it from the perspective of the artist, composer or record company. The determining factor would be commercial viability. If the records still sell, then logically it is better for these persons that the artist does not burn out but rather keeps on producing. One should also not discount "brand loyalty": people who'll buy and pretend to like any old crap under a given brand name (hello Belle and Sebastian fans).

Then again, if the "burn out" is spectacular enough that a death (or mental illness, cf. Syd) is involved, it might be possible that the romantic sensibilities of the consumer might be aroused. This can of course be exploited through appropriate marketing. One needn't even go this far. Simply withdrawing a product (or source of production) can - if withheld for a sufficiently long period of time - generate myths and rumours about its worth/desirability that could easily outstrip how it would have been valued if always available. Examples: (non-musical) the director's cut of "The Magnificent Ambersons; (musical) the follow-up to Loveless.

In short, life sucks.