A-T-6 014 Big Star Vital Vinyl
Oil and gas prices have been destabilised by the illegal US-Israeli war on Iran. Oil price shocks were immediately seen at the petrol pump, but the fear is struggling households and small businesses will be made to shoulder the burden caused by this unnecessary act of aggression for a long time to come. It already has a name, ‘trumpflation’
The poorest households will be hit hardest while a few US-based companies are going it to make obscene amounts of money, win or lose. Sound familiar?
From where I'm sat - which thankfully isn't anywhere near the dropping bombs, as Phil Collins once asked us, just think about it….- this US-Israeli warmongering looks a lot like a reissue of earlier failed US-led conflicts in the region
The Bangles - September Gurls The Bangles cover of Big Star's "September Gurls" from their 1986 album Different Light
Vinyl records are almost 50% oil or gas. They aren’t vital to our survival like food and shelter but they can remind us that we are alive, and not merely surviving. They are also a sign of security, collecting records isn't something you do when your situation is precarious. The unforeseen knock-on effect on vinyl record production and record shops is an example, admittedly not a good one, of how the ill-conceived US-Israeli invasion will make our so-called lives a bit more beige, impoverished
Big Star - Thirteen Big Star became widely known after the 1986 reissues of #1 Record and Radio City
Vinyl records have taken the lion's share of the physical format market for at least a decade
The latest stats for the vinyl revival were published last week and the headlines read: sales of vinyl records grew 14% in the UK last year, with 42% of purchases being bought over the counter. This is great news for record shops, I hope it's not just the big chains that are seeing an increase in custom
More people not only want recorded music in a format they can hold in their hands, but they want to buy it off a human being. There's a social aspect to buying records, people talk to each other when browsing records. Young people are more financially reliant on their parents today, and a record, especially if it's a reissue of a "classic" is something different generations can bond over. Lets hope this stupid war doesn't screw things up
Big Star - Back Of A Car from Radio City, reissued in 1986
The Replacements - Swinging Party a big record on college rock radio in 1986. Big Star were a major influence on The Replacements. They pay tribute to Big Star, specifically Alex Chilton, on the track "Alex Chilton" from their 1987 album Pleased to Meet Me
The vast majority of new records being pressed are reissues, with the remaining minority tending to have some kind of nostalgia for the past
Are the people driving the vinyl revival buying records in the manner of middle-aged men?
Another question is why have reissues on vinyl become more desirable as investment in developing new artists fizzles out?
Q magazine was launched in 1986 as a "serious" music publication aimed at middle-aged men. "According to Alexis Petridis of The Guardian, it was originally set up after the success of "rock’s old stagers" at Live Aid, which co-founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth had co-presented, to focus on long-established acts that appealed to an older music market, such as Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Paul Simon, Elton John, Genesis, and Eric Clapton." - thank you wikipedia!
In the early-1990s Q gained a sister-publication Mojo, which in addition to covering what was now called "classic rock" featured emerging acts that could be referenced in relation to them, fitting the canon. Neither magazine appealed to me. I got the impression Q and Mojo confined themselves to covering an exclusive group of "elite" acts that were protected like Disney properties. These acts were treated as beyond criticism. Being featured in the magazine was evidence enough of the greatness of these artists
I began this blog partly in response to seeing a list made by a radio station of albums turning 40 that year. It was limited to the same safe set of artists that get all the limelight. I believe it only included one non-white artist, no women, and there was nothing on the list from outside the UK or Trump's evil empire. It was so dull and predictable, an ai could have compiled it. Another reason was to explore the innovations and rapid changes that were happening 40 years ago, as I wonder why advances in popular music has stagnated
Big Star - Back Of A Car from Radio City, reissued in 1986
In a complete 180 to the current vinyl revival, music buyers of the 1990s were replacing their vinyl records with CDs
The 1990s saw massive mergers of major record labels. With fewer competitors the corporate approach of the "Big Six" favoured immediate return on investment over artist development. Reissuing record label's back catalogue on CD was like free money
Up to this point artists had not been pressured by labels to have commercial hits with their first few albums. As you can imagine this gave the artist a degree of freedom. Big Star's debut album was a flop when it was released. In retrospect the blame for Big Star failing to take off has been put down to mistakes made by their label. There's some truth to that, labels not knowing what to do with an artist is common. Stax/Ardent continued to support Big Star in a way that would be unlikely to happen today. They would never have been given a chance to record a second album, let alone a third after Radio City repeated the poor performance to the first. Big Star are an established act now, rarely out of print. After years of acquisitions, mergers, and consolidations it's UMG who are making money off these albums
The Feelies - Slipping (Into Something) from the Good Earth
Independent music production had grown significantly during the 1980s and into the 90s. Indie labels were able to fill spaces missed by the majors. Major labels tended to prioritise established pop stars and manufactured acts, emphasising image and marketing over artist development. Discovering new artists, cultivating and promoting them was costly. Major labels saw they could reduce their budget for developing niche or "unproven" talent by buying up independent labels and their ready-made roster of artists. That's what they did
Mojo began in 1993, a rival publication Uncut launched in 1997
Beat Happening - What's Important from their eponymous debut album released in the US, late 1985. Rough Trade issued the album in the UK in 1986 with the addition of two extra tracks from their first single. "What's Important" is one of the bonus tracks. It's no frills but it's also power pop. Beat Happening's recordings from this era would be compiled and reissued in 1990
In the early-2000s we mourned as the "Big Six" consolidated into the "Big Four," then the "Big Three." This is when artist development budgets effectively end. Record labels now act like investment banks for artists who have already built a brand
Investors stopped taking risks after the 2008 financial crisis, they do not back anything that does not guarantee a return
Iran's most effective defence against Israel's lackeys, the US, has been troubling financial markets, they are creating anxiety, and damaging the future of investments made by Arabic countries
Companies are averse to uncertainty, they don't like surprises, their CEOs go to Coldplay concerts and get placed on leave at a hint of a scandal
Record corporations are no different. The music industry has no appetite to take chances on something that doesn't guarantee a return on investment
Growing up in the 1980 and 90s artists who had been around for over 20-years were considered "dinosaurs." They were talked about as if they'd came from a bygone era, and in many ways they did. Above I mentioned the "rock’s old stagers" at Live Aid in 1985, at the time the careers of these veteran acts had been a lot shorter than Taylor Swift, Coldplay, or Beyoncé
Best-selling artists have a lot longer sell-by date today because record companies funnel all their resources into producing the next blockbuster in the franchise
The corporate approach has killed innovation in popular music
Music is judged by units sold and streams. Competitiveness in terms of creativity or artistic leaps forward has vanished. We've veered a long way from The Beach Boys and The Beatles in 1966. It's a yanky way to appraise things, that if something makes more money it must be better. Mike Love initially hated "Good Vibrations" famously telling him "Don't fuck with the formula"
This is why new music is all a bit samey nowadays, generic to a particular genre and deeply nostalgic
Tried and tested reissues take a majority share of the music market, so pushing music that sounds similar to a legacy artist has a logic to it. You see it explicit in music advertising - You like Kate Bush well then you'll love this artist that will remind you of Kate Bush! When labels don't value new artists the drive to foster new ideas disappears
AI or LLM generated music fits very neatly into this model. Take all the music made up to this point and impersonate it
Big Star - Nightime from 3rd which was repackaged and reissued as Big Star's Third: Sister Lover in 1985
The Big Star albums #1 Record and Radio City were originally released in 1972 and 1974 respectively. They didn't achieve the success of contemporaries like Badfinger, Todd Rundgren, and Raspberries, remaining pretty much unknown until the mid-1980s. 40 years on Big Star are probably the most acclaimed of all 1970s power pop bands
Here's how they got from obscurity to where they are now
Fantasy Records had purchased the Stax Record Company's masters out of bankruptcy in 1977. Big Star recordings were owned by Stax subsidiary Ardent Records, these were also sold as part of the deal
Big Star's 3rd was put together shortly after the sale. Licences to issue the unreleased 1974 recordings were sold to PVC Records in the US and Aura in the UK. This is why these versions have slightly different track listings and very different sleeve artwork
The late 1970s is considered by traditionalists as the golden era of power pop, but 3rd failed to make an impression when it finally saw the light in 1978
The timing seems perfect. The unreleased recordings made by Big Star contemporaries, The Modern Lovers, had sold well enough to chart in the UK. This is probably why in 1978 Big Star's first two albums, #1 Record and Radio City, were re-released as a double pack in the UK
Despite not achieving mass appeal, bootlegs of a few Big Star songs began to circulate between musicians from seminal indie rock and jangle pops bands
In 1984 Indie-supergroup This Mortal Coil follow-up their hit single "Song To The Siren" with a cover of Big Star's "Kanga Roo." This is joined by another Big Star cover "H********" on their 1984 debut album It'll End In Tears. Paisley Underground supergroup Rainy Day, who included members of The Bangles, also cover "H********" on their eponymous album, released by Rough Trade in the UK. Indie artists are beginning to cite Big Star as influences in the pages of NME, Melody Maker, and Sounds
In 1985 Big Star's 3rd is repackaged and reissued in the US as Big Star's 3rd: Sister Lovers. The following year The Bangles cover Big Star's "September Gurls" on their hit album Different Light, once again capturing the band's power pop roots
What became recognised as the indie guitar sound began to come into its own during the mid-80s. Power pop is in the sound's DNA, it traverses jangle, garage, mod, psychedelic, ethereal, shoegaze, whatever
Ace Records, through its sub Big Beat Records, acquire the licence to reissue #1 Record and Radio City in the Europe, while Line Records have the rights for distribution in Germany, in 1986. In a vinyl revival trend that has become banal today, the Line versions are pressed on white vinyl. Fantasy do a separate deal with Castle Communications to reissue #1 Record on CD for the first time. Castle and Line reissue Big Star's 3rd: Sister Lovers for the European market in 1987, and the 1978 double pack is reissued on CD by ACE and Line
This was the ragtag world of licensing agreements before record labels realised they could make a lot of money reissuing their own back catalogue
Few people had heard of, let alone listened to, Big Star before these mid-80s reissues. It's why the influence of Big Star is associated with music from the 1990s and beyond. Their influence on popular bands like Teenage Fanclub kickstarts the broad popularity they enjoy today. This once unknown band is now talked about with reverence, and the albums are never not out-of-print
My partner has a Qobuz subscription. The sound quality of HiRes digital media is brilliant. The streaming platform gives the albums #1 Record and Radio City the distinction of "Qobuz Essential Discography" according to them it's essential listening for all members. They're good albums filled with nice songs, but only a handful are "vital." Alex Chilton said it himself: “A few songs are good,” he told Martin Aston in 1992, “but many are real clunkers… People say Big Star made some of the best rock’n’roll albums ever. And I say they’re wrong.”
I'm writing "H********" as "H********" because Tumblr's glitchy AI flags this post up as "Mature" if I link to the track or type out the title. It's a shame as it's one of Big Star's best. Why is AI software being rolled out before it works? It's unusual, if a product gets found to be faulty it gets recalled! Not AI though, do you think they use it to test itself?
R.E.M. - These Days from their 1986 album Lifes Rich Pageant. R.E.M recorded the initial tracks for Green at Ardent, the Memphis studio Big Star had used to record #1 Record, Radio City, and the sessions for 3rd. R.E.M. co-founder Mike Mills is also a member of the group Big Star's Third. Big Star and power pop are a huge influence on their sound
Up until some point in the 1990s reissues were, more often than not, mid-price or budget items. There is no additional outlay needed to make the album only the cost of manufacturing the records. During the 1990s we begin seeing more boutique style reissues, but they really take off with the new millennium. Fetishisation of facsimile packaging, vinyl colour, vinyl weight, liner notes, and remastering, are all things that contribute towards the vinyl reissue being marketed as a premium product
P2P file sharing shook up the music industry at the turn of the century. Up until then the music you heard was limited to the radio, clubs, your own and your friends collections. Napster changed that, all those records you'd read or heard rumours about were instantly discoverable. Searches for a genre, label, or artist you liked, returned masses of ripped files. After Napster was shut down the first attempt to formalise the distribution of digital music was made by Apple with its iTunes Store. A few years later Spotify introduced the streaming/subscription model
Immediate access to massive music catalogues has changed the way we consume music. The strict tribes I grew up with are a thing of the past, limitations forced us to get behind one artist or genre over another. You can seemingly try anything anytime now, and why not? I can imagine this is very difficult for financial markets to keep track of and control
People are rightfully suspicious of the streaming/subscription model. You don't own the music you listen too but through data tracking and algorithms companies like Spotify own a bit of you. On top of this CEOs who own these platforms come across as sociopaths, not paying artists fairly, and taking your money to invest in military tech
So I can see the appeal of owning physical media in 2026
The Windbreakers - Ghost Town power pop band that didn't get the same recognition as, say, The Posies. This is track from their 1986 follow-up to Terminal, which the consensus consider their finest album
Have you noticed they're a hierarchy of artists reflected in where you buy your records. Supermarkets stock the stuff CEOs listen to. Only the best selling albums by the most established artists, Coldplay, Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac...
Highstreet chains, here in the UK we have Waterstones bookshops and John Lewis department stores, they have a slightly broader range of reissues, like albums by R.E.M. and Miles Davis. The John Lewis in Liverpool has two boxes of middlebrow records curated by Rough Trade
HMV is a toy shop now, isn't it? They stock records again, the selection isn't too dissimilar to Waterstones, just more. The Rough Trade shop hasn't been open in Liverpool long, it's more like HMV than the Rough Trade shop. They stock a large selection and have a little more variety, but nothing too obscure - not much in the way of small runs or independently released singles like it built its brand on
Then there are the independent record stores, usually established in the last century. They have weathered the storms of the record market and proudly stock all kinds of weird crap, like Piccadilly Records in Manchester
Husker Dü - Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely from the major label debut that splits audiences. I just wanted to share some Husker Dü. I'd argue this track has power pop in its makeup
