Whirligirl, I think you got it! Just a couple short years ago, people here were ready to storm the gates of Warner itself for a taste of the Final Four CDS. Turntables were being purchased, hookups to PCs were performed, vinyl was being meticulously cleaned in prep for recording...the music was just not otherwise available! Did anyone care if these releases charted? It didn't matter. Even if they sold a million copies, I don't think they would have "charted"...it just wouldn't have been 'kewl' to the media in 2002 to have GL on Billboard or Rolling Stone!
The Charts...the charts are all marketing fabrication and have been for a long time now. Do they really reflect sales? To a large degree, I doubt it! How do "Artists" become "Artists" these days? It's all PR, money, contracts, corporate pressure, corporate alliances, wardrobe malfunctions and payoffs. Talent in 2004? What's that? Wont find much on TV or Radio, but William Dong is a star now!
The tail truly is waging the dog...it used to be that the public would decide, by economic votes, who would get airtime, what records they would buy and who would be on TV, by popular demand. Now, TV and the rest of the media tell us who is a "star". An image is created, sold...hell, it becomes part of the 'World News at 6:00'....and then some type of 'sound' is created to sell the image. It's mostly "aural junk food" and just gets repackaged as needed.
So charts...wouldn't it be nice...but it's not the same game that some of us knew in the 60s and 70s. Today, we're just lucky to be aware that something worth buying is available, which leads to a question. I haven't seen "Harmony" at Best Buy or Circuit City...is it only available online?
And I'm just glad it's available...
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