I just love music and my preferred vector for adding it to that magical little box is to buy the CD, rip it and set it aside. If I need to take a road trip with someone who has a CD player, I'm covered. If the iPod or laptop crash and erase the collection, I'm covered.
When discussions arise over the music industry and people who want to buy CDs over digital-only media for the cover art and lyrics and such, I'm one of those people. Not Hugh Fidelity level snobbery, but I enjoy an obscure inside joke in the liner notes as much as anyone else. I also like the security involved with a hard copy that can be ripped over and again.One thing I've noticed however is the level of security as it relates to genre (that's the sugar-coated euphemism). Let me rephrase that - one thing I've noticed is that music (or video games) with a predominantly black audience has security strips inside, while music (or video games) with a predominantly white audience do not. I've had enough of this.
This isn't a conspiracy theory, I can show you the strips embedded in Kanye West jewel cases and the lack of any security on a Lyle Lovett CD. Almost all have come from Best Buy, so it shouldn't be a retailer preference. If it's a label decision - ie. Roc-a-fella and Def Jam made these decisions to secure their products, I don't know what to make of it. Something tells me that's not the case though.
Same thing in the gaming world. A $50 PC game, City of Heroes had no strip, but Def Jam: Fight For New York did. Same for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It's just not adding up as anywhere logical, but is adding up as offensive.
I'm betting there are shoplifters in Hog's Holler, Ark., who are nicking Tim McGraw and Hank Williams CDs, so maybe there are strips on country and rock down there while the rap and R&B are left untouched, but I doubt it.
George Bush may not care about black people, but the record industry seems to be pretty interested.
2 comments:
This reminds me of the old Metra train policies. Up until last year, you needed a ticket to get through the gate and onto the train on the Illinois Central line that goes through the South Side of Chicago and the south suburbs. Growing up in Glenwood and Homewood, I thought this was standard operating procedure throughout the Chicago area. Later, however, when I moved out to Libertyville, I found out that not only were there no gates in the north suburban and West Loop train stations, but you could get on the train without buying a ticket beforehand and instead get one from the conductor. It's the same thing for train lines that go to Naperville and the west suburbs. Obviously, Metra didn't think much of the residents of the South Side.
Remember, Metra enacted these policies as a publicly-funded government agency, not as just another corporation looking out for the bottom line. Enough people squawked about the blatant prejudicial policies that Metra finally removed the gates from the South Side stations last year.
Add to that the bathroom cars (which are but a fairy tale to me, having only taken trains from the south side) that were non-existent and I assume still are.
I remember jumping turnstiles to catch trains and then paid on the car, but also remember special 'fines' associated with those that are probably less than legal.
Post a Comment