SHite laments the mighty box set

A huge portion of threads here seem to be concerned with reissues and recently, we've approached the 50th Anniversary of many landmark popular albums, which have mostly had some kind of re-release to celebrate the occasion.



But the music industry was a different world back in the late 1960s. Up to 1967, most artists were expected to supply at least one, if not two new LPs each year and around three non album singles (in the UK). 1968 was the first year that many of the major artists from the British Invasion era either didn't release a new album at all (The Who, The Hollies) or only released just the one for the first time. The music industry was a fast and furious machine, if you didn't keep up, you were yesterday's news. A huge change was happening, and for the first time, the Beatles weren't giving everyone else any answers. The eclectic varied collage that emerged as 'the White Album' at the end of the year, with no artwork to speak of and two discs of barely related material sure didn't give other artists any hint of what direction to take now they'd been taken in by the psychedelic wave and washed up on the other side. It seems to me that 1968 was the pivotal year that artists began to stand out on their own merit, unable to be simply constrained to mere "pop music", turning out higher quality albums than ever. So the 50th Anniversary brigade have got their work cut out...



In contrast, 50 years on, it's completely the norm for the top tier artists to take two, three and even four years between releasing a new album. They tour the album for all its worth for a couple of years, then seemingly disappear off the face of the earth for a year before emerging with a new album, being thankful that the fickle record buying public even remember who they are. There seems to be a polite way of pushing new material - something along the lines of "okay, well Adele is putting out her new album this month, so there's no point going up against it". Perhaps this is why modern music is becoming more and more filtered down. Strategic releases to maximise effect and sales have taken the quality out of the competition. It's not like it was where the Beatles would put out something like 'Rubber Soul' and within six months you'd have an equal or better response to it from other artists. That friendly competition just makes the 1960s so special to me.



But where does this leave 50th Anniversary issues? The answer is either rushed or forgotten about. As we progress into the late 1960s now for these reissues, I've noticed that record labels are starting to miss the anniversary dates or for new releases to pale in comparison to the previous 50th anniversary release. Or even worse - miss the 50th anniversary altogether. So much great music came out in 1966-1969. It's actually difficult to fairly evaluate it all because of the sheer quantity of stunning music that all arrived at once. Forced to work at the pace that was set in the 1960s, the modern PR machine seems to have jammed up.



We're barely two months away from the 50th Anniversary of the Beatles' seminal 'Abbey Road', and there's not been so much as an official hint at the contents prepped for the release. The Kinks have just announced a 50th anniversary set of 'Arthur', which pales in comparison to what they laid out for the 'Village Green Preservation Society' boxset last year, which we know was a few years in the making. The Beach Boys started such a strong annual rarity summary release with 'Sunshine Tomorrow: the 1967 sessions" two years ago, but it all kind of fell apart last year when it was announced that these would no longer be released in physical forms. And the Byrds seemingly forgot all about the 50th Anniversary of arguably their best album 'The Notorious Byrd Brothers', and haven't prepped a special edition of their best-selling 'Sweetheart Of The Rodeo' LP, which actually turns 50 today (though admittedly the current incarnation of the band are touring a 50th anniversary special show of the album). It seems so strange that in todays instant society, the music industry seemingly can keep up with the pace set in the 1960s.



Is it just me who feels like this? What are your thoughts...