When Re-Issues or Compilations have an IDENTIFIABLE affect on contemporary music

See No-Neck Blues Band "Sticks and Stones" or any Jackie-O Motherfucker or Campfire Songs or the Holy Mountain catalog or Charalambides or The Boggs or...

Also see Back To The Cradle by Eric Clapton where he goes back to his "roots". Three months after its release there were 10,000 new middle-aged suburban white guy blues bands.

You might not like it, but you got to admit I'm right. :)

Well in the latter case, I'm inclined to believe they were already there...lurking...forever...like barnacles...

Wipeout XL Soundtrack: Sony's Playstation I ad campaign helped usher in the electronica goldrush of 1997.

I'm gonna guess that, as you imply, the ease of swapping mp3 files will allow for more channels of personally-curated influence. But to really tap into forgotten music, someone is still going to have to have an original disc to record onto the computer or rip--I think we're still a LONG way from everything being available as bits on a network (a pleasant dream, though).

YES. Especially now that winamp fades tracks into eachother.

and in the '90s, varese sarabande's "bubblegum classics" series definitely struck a chord. that, plus radio disney, which i believe started broadcasting around the same time, served as a kind of anthology of american sugar, at least in my little world.

fantastic question with so few replies. so revive time.

i'd say the spate of 80s 12"s compilation cds and general 80's extended mixes/remix comps must be having some kind of effect and must be partly the reason for the old skool drum machine sounds on new records int charts. don't have much evidence for this mind.

Didn't the electro thing start with Madonna/Mirwais plus the Electroclash thing? That was way before those compilations.

I have no fucking idea what you're talking about and I listen to records all day. So I'm sure someone like Puffy and Kanye, who spend all day being totally rich and awesome aren't hanging around the Virgin Megastore picking up these alleged comps.

The swears make that sound snarkier than I meant it to be. Sorry.

the UB&B is the most intersting one imo -- my guess is they were documenting what was popular in new york before they came out (1986-) but obvs got picked up in other places like london and tokyo where the records hadn't been known at all. but for second-wave NY producers, maybe for them too.

maybe these comps: follow insider fashion, but: set fashion for the others. and it's not like that's an insignificant thing.

i like the 80s/12" comps but those records are mostly well-known already, so it's a different thing. the UB&B tracks, at least in the UK, were not well-known.

There was a noticable, but short-lived rise in Blues popularity when the Robert Johnson box set became an inexplicable best seller

But wasn't there a way more noticeable effect, though, in the mid '60s, when his songs were reissued on 2 LPs?

I agree this is a great question, by the way.

The New Wave comp that came out in '77 on Phonogram - stuff like the Saints, Patti, Talking Heads, Hell would have been previously unheard outside the Peel show..... i bet a hundred suburban punk/ post- punk bands could trace their formation to that record with the spitting bloke on the cover

reissues of vashti bunyan, anne briggs.

Did "The Harder They Come" possibly have an effect on reggae's popularity?

Probably.....a little. Though not much more than a little, at least in the States, where reggae never got especially popular for another decade or two (if then.) (Also, how much of The Harder They Come would actually qualify as "reissued"? I know some of the tracks dated to the late '60s, but not that many, right?) I wouldn't doubt, though, that the soundtrack influenced certain UK punk bands (like, say, the Clash, who redid "Pressure Drop").

Mentioning a soundtrack, though, makes me think of American Graffiti and Dazed And Confused, which probably had some effect, at least indirectly, on some chart music (Sha Na Na? Monster Magnet?), though I'm not sure what. And then there's reissued songs on soundtracks that actually return as big hits themselves, like say "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King in 1986. (You could even toss in Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" from The Sting in 1974, but that was actually the Marvin Hammlisch version. There must be better examples. Not sure if any had a long-range effect, though.)

Wanna Buy a Bridge

i think the reissue of big star's third in the early '90s had an influence that could be felt in the likes of elliot smith, sparklehorse, and other home-recorded pop weirdos. not exactly a major cultural impact, but it definitely infected a certain scene.

When was Wanna Buy A Bridge reissued?

xp (Actually, Sha Na Na's first couple LPs preceded American Graffiti, so I guess not them. But there were definitely echoes of '50s rock'n'roll floating through lots of '70s rock -- especially but not only glam -- and it would be surprising if AG didn't play at least a minor role in that.) (Hell, it may well have inspired Springsteen some. Or at least Meat Loaf.)

not a reissue or a compilation but how about a sample: i'd argue that kanye's sampling of daft punk is having a noticeable affect on pop music well beyond kanye right now. maybe that's a different question, though.

When was Wanna Buy A Bridge reissued?

I'm counting it as a compilation of at-the-time-largely-unknown tunes.

(I get it...I didn't notice "compilations" in the thread heading. I guess that explains The Harder They Come and the '77 punk compilation somebody mentioned that I'd never heard of, too.) (If we're including comps, No New York probably counts, too; certainly that's had long-range side effects.)

(Though then again, if compilations count, it probably makes even more sense to include The Bodyguard or Saturday Night Fever.)

Also, I'm pretty sure there were a bunch of albums called something like Oldies But Goodies that charted in the early '60s; possibly an inspiration on the early '60s doo-wop revival (mainly among Italian American kids) I've seen mentioned now and then, not to mention Teddy Boys and other such types. (Rock'n'roll oldies were apparently big in 1962 -- American Graffiti was centered around a radio station's "oldies weekend," which means the songs were already sorta being revived then.)

Not a reissue, but a major shout out: Henry Rollins did an essay in Spin around 1986 where he declared Funhouse his favorite record, and within the year, tons of hardcore bands had become trippy, grinding Stooges tributes.

And while jangly college rock was well underway in 1984, the Velvet Undeground's return to print seemed to kick into overdrive.

I'm totally digging this reissue of Achim Reichel & Machines Die Grune Reise and hoping it kicks of a wave of Krautdrone-Thudmetal fusion.

Oldies But Goodies that charted in the early '60s;

My friends parents had those, and we'd listen to them in the 80s, focusing on the Micky Baker guitar riffs and such. You're right: the songs were only a few years old at the time of the comps, which seemed incredibly strange to me. Shows how quickly pop moved before the album era, how disposable it was.

Also maybe American Graffiti (1973) -- > Four Seasons "December 1963 (Oh What A Night)" (1975).

Reissue comps also charting between 1961 and 1963: Alan Freed's Memory Lane, Murray The K's Sing Along With The Original Golden Gassers, Murray The K's Blasts From the Past, Murray The K's Gassers For Submarine Race Watchers, etc.

I'm not sure when exactly the doo-wop revival is supposed to have kicked in, but Brooklyn's Vito and the Salutations apparently went to #66 with their version of "Unchained Melody" in October 1963, fwiw.

'60s and '70s toga-party stuff on 1978 Animal House soundtrack may well have inspired bands like the B-52s and Fleshtones, too, I just realized.

'60s and '50s toga-party stuff, I meant.

we now know what you were doing in the '70s ;)

Those RE:Search Incredibly Strange Music guides and accompanying CDs in the 90s put Exotica revival in motion, and did a lot to bring instrumental rock back into fashion.

Back From the Grave did the same for psychobilly, retro-trash, garage-noise, etc.

And while jangly college rock was well underway in 1984, the Velvet Undeground's return to print seemed to kick into overdrive.

OTM - I remember those reissues being a big event.

On a smaller scale, I'm always seeing musician-friends raving about whatever's recently come out on Soul-Jazz, A Light in the Attic or Water Music and then hearing references to it in the music they're making. I think these labels putting out both hipper stuff like tropicalia and disco/notdisco as well as reggae, latin and soul jazz records has had an interesting influence as well. Taking this question into the Internet Age has a lot of un-chartable implications, though.

Agreed. The idea of the obscuro compilation making immediate impact on underground/indie bands has really taken off over the last decade.

if compilations count, it probably makes even more sense to include The Bodyguard

The Bodyguard Original Soundtrack? Did that have an effect on popular music? (forgive me, I was young)

Or are we referring to something I'm unfamiliar with?

The idea of the obscuro compilation making immediate impact on underground/indie bands has really taken off over the last decade.

-- QuantumNoise, Sunday, March 2, 2008 1:13 AM (

Yeah, I gather that SoulJazz et al definitely try to play into that "Look what we've unearthed, stuff you can integrate into your samples/songs/etc" thing.

Oops, hadn't seen that people explosion already touched on that.

Totally.

The Bodyguard Original Soundtrack? Did that have an effect on popular music?

Well, Whitney having made melisma hugely popular even before Mariah, I'd say....yeah, probably some.

Elvis Presley's Sun Sessions, which came out and went to #76 in the U.S. in 1976, probably had some inspirational effect on the Blasters, Billy Swan, Dwight Twilley, the Stray Cats, Joe Ely, and/or some people along those lines.

A compilation that had an effect on compilations: I think the King of Comedy soundtrack was the first OST that was used to introduce a bunch of contemporary songs without many of them featuring in the movie itself, or even having much to do with the mood of the movie. I still don't understand why these sort of arrangements are effective as samplers, what the movie tie-in accomplishes. I'm always like, hmm, why is there a Sarah McLaughlin song on this soundtrack for a Steven Segal movie?

I'm sure the Blues Brothers must've had an impact

The "Rock Around The Clock" soundtrack did have an impact in Norway. Whereas "Blackboard Jungle" kicked off rock'n'roll in the US, and later the UK, here in Norway rock music didn't take off until 1958, after the "Rock Around The Clock" movie was premiered, followed by riots in Oslo. I guess it was more about the movie than the soundtrack compilation though. Although it was of course very much about the music.

Were there any major ska compilations that the Specials et. al. would have been listening to in the UK around 1980? I don't know of any, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Also, it seems like there should have been some big Flying Burrito Bros/Gram Parsons reissue that should have kicked off the alt-country movement sometime in the '80s or early '90s, but I can't think of any.

I don't think the Blues Brothers were ever either noticeably reissued or compiled. Also not so sure they really influenced anybody's music (no more than, say, George Thorogood would've), but maybe there's something obvious I'm not thinking of (like, I dunno, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones' dance moves.)

Also, blues reissues (beyond Robert Johnson) in the UK in the mid 60s? There must've been a few of those, right? But I wasn't there.

(Though maybe the UK blues kids and later UK ska kids were just major crate diggers. They probably were; just seems they might have had some help.)

Were there any major ska compilations that the Specials et. al. would have been listening to in the UK around 1980?

We know John Lydon and all the postpunk cats were listening to a lot of shit on Greensleeves, not comps per se but foreign pressings of OG Jamaican shit.

later UK ska kids were just major crate diggers. They probably were

ya exactly

i recall reading a fair bit about how ENGLAND'S DREAMING by jon savage helped kickstart the NEW WAVE OF NEW WAVE in 93/94. i wonder did any punk albums re-chart or get reissued round then?

on a book tip the effect that RIP IT UP... has had is becoming clear, posters for clubs in manchester are using the book's yello and powder pink cover colours and i've seen flyers using actual pics of the book aswell as record sleeves to indicate what music they play.

Traveling Wilburys and Michael Jackson have recently come up with the bestselling reissues ever. But there were no signs of the Wilburys having an actual effect on the contemporary music scene, and I guess "Thriller" will not either. :)

I cant believe no ones mentioned Weatheralls 9 o'clock drop yet.

it was the first of the "weird angular music that came right after punk and was made by a bunch of art school drop outs with political agendas and remained a stylistically broad church" re-appraisals.

this was later shortened to "post punk" to fit on TopMan style sheets.

Nope....Razor And Tie's "Totally Wired" was the first post-punk come to come out during the CD era. Prior to that you had Cherry Red's Seeds compilations.

http://www.discogs.com/release/925941

Pretty ahead of the curve on that particular revival.

Pillows and Prayers probably moved lots of people's attention to more obscure bands (and I guess C81) but they didn't change much that was already happening directly.

Spot on with the comment upthread about New Wave. For those of us kinda interested in The Ramones and The Damned it moved the definition of what was 'punk'. Of course there was a lot of other things happening at the time so isolating the influence isn't as easy.

The series of 'House sound of Chicago' albums also seemed to have a direct influence on mid to late 80s UK (though again, with loads of other stuff piling in). Can't find a date when the first couple came out though. Maybe the cooler kids were up to speed already,

'love can't turn around' got to #10 in summer 1986; 'jack you body' was number ONE in jan 1987 (slow month but still!). i think the HSoC came out in '86 here. can't just have been cool kids though.

Razor And Tie's "Totally Wired" was the first post-punk come to come out during the CD era.

Yeah, this sounds right, though it really didn't strike me as that big a deal at the time -- 1995; I reviwed it in Entertainment Weekly (didn't like the Shriekback and Bauhuas songs much), and still have my copy. Weird that almost as many years have passed since this came out as had passsed between Wanna Buy A Bridge and 1995. (How long did Totally Wired stay in print, though? Did actual Williamsburg or whatever Gang of Four wannabe bands actually hear the thing? I have no idea; there were lots of other post-punk-so-called reissue comps in the next few years: In The Beginning There Was Rhythm and the New York Noise ones on Soul Jazz; Rough Trade Post Punk Vol 01 on Mute; Anti NY on Gomma; Grlz on Crippled Dick Hot Wax. Did 9 o'clock drop (which I never heard of before now -- cos Britisher I assume) come out before all of those?

A couple other ideas:

Ethopiques. I've never really connected with these myself, but I definitely know that some bands have listed them as influences in press releases.

Old reissues of Cambodian pyschedelia on Sublime Frequencies or wherever. (Or maybe there were some comps that preceded that label?) --> Dengue Fever.

The widely reviewed, four-volume Perfect Beats "New York Electro Hip-Hop + Underground Dance Classics" collections came out in 1998 on Tommy Boy (a year or so before the great I-f mix CD mentioned above, which was probably harder to find even then); I'd be surprised if some of the impending early '00s electroclash hordes hadn't bought copies of those.

I've also noticed plenty of bands in the past few years (Black Lips possibly being the most well-known one) who've claimed that one of their big influences is "Killed By Death punk," so that reissue comp series (which I've never actually seen a copy of myself) probably counts too, in the tradition of Nuggets and Pebbles and Back From the Grave (though with ever-diminishing impact.)

Late '90s/early '00s reissues of stuff by Lee Hazlewood, Neu (who were never a big deal to people I knew who liked Kraut-rock, or "weird assed '70s art rock from Germany" as we called it then, in the '80s), and Arthur Russell probably inspired some musicians too, as names to drop if nothing else. (Though I wouldn't be shocked if James Murphy picked up a thing or two from those Russell reissues.)

I'm thinking that a few of these reissues didn't so much kick off a movement as confirm a movement that had already begun. Surely something like the Vashti Bunyan reissues happened because freakfolk was already happening; the reissues got the genre some press and helped legitimize it.

I'd almost argue "No New York's" direct effect on future music just because of how unavailable it was. Is it possible to become a much-referenced touchstone without many people actually having heard it?

The one specific effect of "The Bodyguard" soundtrack was that it gave Nick Lowe more money in songwriting royalties than he'd ever dreamed of, allowing him to kick back and start the "country gentleman" phase of his career.

I'd almost argue "No New York's" direct effect on future music just because of how unavailable it was. Is it possible to become a much-referenced touchstone without many people actually having heard it?

Over almost three decades? Sure. Sonic Youth certainly heard it, for one thing. And lots of bands who heard Sonic Youth (and the Swans, etc.) were in turn heard by lots and lots of people. (But yeah, that's more an indirect effect than a direct one.)

Did actual Williamsburg or whatever Gang of Four wannabe bands actually hear the thing?

Yes, and more importantly, their tastemaker slightly older dorkier friends who made them mixtapes did.

9'oclock Drop had a strange history because it came out of a UK dance context, and while it exposed some of the more forward thinking dance producers to the post-punk stuff, it wasn't as widely known by the "punks".

The Perfect Beats comps were huge in NY around the time electroclash was starting. The I-F mix was mostly traded but pressed a few times and Kim's and Other Music both stocked it. Also just preceeding electroclash, there was a new wavey/italo-y disco techno scene in NY with people like Metro Area and Danny Wang. The techno DJs were moving into more pop and retro sounding stuff while the electroclash kids were mostly just rediscovering new wave roots when hearing techno DJs play Passion by the Flirts or Klein And MBO.

Perfect Beats totally changed my life and blew my mind wide open, not just in compiling such a range of stuff, but reminding that it's ok to mix Dance to the Drummers Beat with New Order.

Surely something like the Vashti Bunyan reissues happened because freakfolk was already happenin

But it's worth noting the Vashti Bunyan record was bootlegged a few years BEFORE freakfolk was really taking off. I remember a friend lending it, and the Linda Perhacs CD, to me in 97 or so, when the only freakfolk thing was like Tower Recordings or something.

Likewise, the influence No New York had I don't think had to do with it's rarity. It wasn't that rare. My radio station had a copy, WOBC in Oberlin, and a lot of kids heard it there, but through the eBay days, you could always find it for 15 to 25 dollars. It came out on a decent sized label. Not to mention that during the mid 90s when the Scissor Girls and Couch were doing their thing, Atavistic had Teenage Jesus and Mars stuff out.

Perfect Beats totally changed my life and blew my mind wide open

^^^^^^^^^so true
i have one and three on cd and 2 and 4 on vinyl ... the only formats i could find

I got all 4 right when they came out from Rock-n-Soul Electronics in NY, the place for bootlegs and compilations. I remember walking up to DJs around then and saying "cool, you have Perfect Beats too" and the response was always the same...

I've got all this on the original vinyl at home, I swear...it's just easier to bring the comp.

"Post-rock" (in Chicago at least) followed the Can reissues on Restless Retro (1990).