poptimists | (no subject) (Reply)

A couple of interesting NY times blog posts I stumbled across, by Suzanne Vega. They're nominally about her "two-hit wonder" status, and why those two particular songs out of her extensive back catalogue caught the public imagination, and they touch on a lot of interesting wider issues too. This one deals with 'Luka', and the arguments she had with her manager over its suitability for release and hit potential; it's especially interesting that Vega argues that 'Luka' wasn't a social song but a personal portrait, and that she hated songs about social issues, but that it eventually became a social song. This one covers 'Tom's Diner' and its ensuing DNA remix, the copyright issues which arose from that, and a very interesting discussion on how Karl-Heinz Brandenburg used the original acappella track to create the mp3 as we know it.