Context-Based Music Compilations

Usually when we’ve been record shopping, I’d always skipped right over the boxed-sets of LPs and compilation disks. I’ve always written them off as worthless, pre-packaged and regurgitated stuff that could be bought elsewhere. They’ve been shilled on TV and in the backs of magazines, which led me to discredit them even more. Sets like this were also produced in such numbers that they’re less rare, and it would be unlikely to find anything particularly innovative recorded on them. So, why my change of heart?

First, I’m not talking about famous-artist box sets — these are usually made by the musician or group’s producer and label and reissued with the highest quality. I’m sure some fell short, but these are generally seen as premiere presentation of an artist’s greatest work. These, generally, do appeal to a collector. I’m also not talking about those discount-rack “best of” albums, CDs, and tapes produced by somebody other than an artist’s regular label (K-Tel is an example anyone over 25 should remember). With these disks, some independent producer paid for reproduction rights and produced an album as cheaply as possible, most likely by skimping on the reproduction quality and recording media. These, generally, do not appeal to a collector, unless somehow a rare cut happened to end up on the disk.

The compilations I’ve overlooked are what I consider contextual compilations. Rather than a collection of a single artist’s works, or a sampler of a particular label or genre, these sets were pulled together with a topic or subject in mind. For example, simple compilations like Billboard Top Hits of every year in history give a content of the music inside, relating it to its peers. You might not realize that The Devil Went Down To Georgia and Heart Of Glass shared the airwaves, so listening to these tunes within a yearly context adds some understanding to the music.

Time Life are probably one of the highest-profile producers of compilations and box-sets that I’d formerly overlooked — however, Rhino also does a good job, and a number of other companies have put extra work into these compilations, making them worthwhile. Rhino’s New Wave Hits Of The ’80s is an excellent example of a set whose values is more than the sum of its parts. Rhino put a lot of effort into both the music featured on the discs and the additional info found in the liner notes, to give the listener a greater perspective on the genre as a whole.

The Cruisin’ The Fifties and Sixties series are an excellent example of context outside of the music itself. Like the Billboard compilations, the focus of the Cruisin’ series is a particular year at a time. However, the producers of Cruisin’ wanted to present the music in the context of the history of rock-and-roll radio by recruiting actual DJs from large radio markets of the time, some retired, and getting them to perform their show in the studio. While this reduces or affects the songs running time, as it would if you were to record a song right off the radio, the actual value is in the presentation of the music.

On a different track, there are also multimedia compilations designed for individuals and educational institutions to learn history through books, audio, and sometimes video. If you’re a fan of library sales, you’ve probably brushed right past these without a thought. Like Cruisin’, these assemble period music within an explanation of their purpose at the time. Queue’s Apple Pie Music is a multimedia CD designed for educators, and Time Life’s The Life History of the United States is a 12-book-and-album set, are two examples I own — the latter were purchased just yesterday, but just the albums. These 12 records are meant to compliment the information found in the books, but from a music collector standpoint have the benefit of historical context for a variety of music, from pre-colonization to the 1950s. One site of each album is called “documents”, a half-hour breakless track in the style of a radio program, combining an voice-over explaining each segment, with a variety of dramatic performances of letters, speeches, and literary works, interspersed in later albums with actual period recordings. On the reverse are several musical works from the period, many of them being secular music rather than classical works. Putting together popular tunes with historical works gives a greater dimension, such as realizing that the early blues and Teddy Roosevelt were contemporaries, for example.

The next time I’m thumbing through the record bin and come across an inch-thick box of LPs, I won’t write them off as yet another set of Bizet — I might find something a bit more, something with context along with the content, something to learn from and experience. To enjoy music is to understand it, and taking more from it than a tune and some lyrics adds to my experience. Those same songs might exist on a hundred other records, but the become something different when assembled with a purpose.