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Do you buy singles? If not, why? Do they serve much of a purpose these days?

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 5 September 2002 01:35 (twenty-three years ago)

The only singles I own are Radiohead singles. For the b-sides.

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Thursday, 5 September 2002 01:38 (twenty-three years ago)

I buy them. I don't know, I guess I like going blind trying to read the titles in the teensy print on the end the skinny cases.

― lyra (lyra), Thursday, 5 September 2002 01:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Melissa, is that 'cos the A-sides are crap? ;-P

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Thursday, 5 September 2002 01:53 (twenty-three years ago)

I buy singles fairly frequently - cheaper than albums, & I'm growing increasingly less able to listen to as many full-length CDs, & I like fucked up remixes/b-sides/etc (mixtape obscurity!). & there's quite a bit of stuff you can't get elsewhere by groups (or producers!) that haven't released albums (NZ goodstuff obtained this past week : Nesian Mystik's "It's On", Rhombus' "Clav Dub") or are otherwise hard to find.

Recently I've been buying lots of NZ/Aotearoa hip-hop, dub, r&b-esque stuff, & it's been interesting in comparing mixes by all the different local producers (I got introduced to Bulletproof through his remix of Public Service Announcement), & the random freestyles by people that I thought had disappeared (like, say, I'd last seen Tha Mighty Asterix on DLT's The True School back in '96 or so until he appeared on one a Che Fu remix).

&, er, thanks to NZ$2 singles at the Warehouse I can justify purchasing Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle", Sum 41's "In Too Deep" & the like (likeable poppy-punk stuff that I like in small doses) (+ the videos! yeah!); & I tend to prefer making mixtapes out of hip-hop/r&b singles than listening to full length CDs. (however if I had access to file-sharing this last point wouldn't be so urgent . . .)

& they also allow you to take risks - I picked up Spiderbait's "Arse Huggin' Pants/Bo Bo" single a few days ago (I'm usually leery of Aussie bands) & the first track is one of the best things I've heard all year.

― Ess Kay (esskay), Thursday, 5 September 2002 02:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Singles arent sold here, unless they are by Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys , Belle and Sebastian and Marisa Monte.

So i have the "Wannabe" and "Jonathan David" singles. If they were sold her i would probably buy them all the time, i dont have nuff money for xpensive albums

― vic (vicc13), Thursday, 5 September 2002 02:12 (twenty-three years ago)

I've decided I hate them. I feel compelled to buy them for every band I like and 8 times out of ten regret doing so because the b-sides are k-rub. There's nothing special about them anymore. Grr and because I end up buying so many like a dribbling automaton it reduces my album budget.

That said, occasionally there will be a single where all 3 (or 2, or 4) songs are brilliant and it would kill me to think I'd be missing out on ace songs by not buying them...

*sigh* I give up.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 5 September 2002 04:29 (twenty-three years ago)

I like them because I'm more likely to hear a song and want to buy that song, not a load of others to go with it. I realise that they're expensive in relative terms but as I don't buy them that often it's not a problem. And yes I know that you can extend my argument to MP3s but personally I don't have the time (or fast connection) to bother with them much.

― David (David), Thursday, 5 September 2002 06:55 (twenty-three years ago)

I buy singles. Lots of them.
They'd be better if it was LAW that all singles had to have the video on at least one format (and NOT in Quicktime format) and the stupid UK chart rule that says no more than 3 tracks on a single got dropped. (This shouldn't affect me, but some record companies issue 2 CDs even in countries where you can stuff as many tracks as you like on a single just to be greedy).

― edward o (edwardo), Thursday, 5 September 2002 08:27 (twenty-three years ago)

edward o is right: I buy on average a couple of singles a week, but a few years ago, before they brought in that 3 track/20 minute chart eligibility rule, you used to regularly get singles with six or seven mixes lasting 30, 40 minutes - at times, two CDs would come out totalling over an hour, at £1.99 each when a CD album that length would probably be £11.99. Ah, the good old days... Well, except in my youth (the '70s), when a single cost a quarter the price of an album and lasted five or six minutes in total.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 5 September 2002 18:00 (twenty-three years ago)

b-b-b-ut martin, you almost got out of the nostalgia maze unscathed! that last sentence must have been the sound of you getting caught in the hall of mirrors.

― Dave M. (rotten03), Thursday, 5 September 2002 18:51 (twenty-three years ago)

My point was that the golden age for minutes-to-money value (and that's obviously what counts) was a few years ago, and that I wasn't harking back to my youth. I'm quite happy to remember those days - I have my T.Rex and Sex Pistols and early Stiff Records 7"s within arms reach as I type.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 5 September 2002 19:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Singles are a British item.

― Simon, Thursday, 5 September 2002 21:48 (twenty-three years ago)

the single's dead, isn't it?

1) CD singles take time to change. You could flip over vinyl singles and and keep doing things
2) An EP that is several versions of one song is not a single, it is an EP with several versions of one song

ergo ...The only singles that still matter are dance tunes on 12" vinyl.

― jon, Friday, 6 September 2002 08:16 (twenty-three years ago)

pah you are all mentalists: CYLINDERS made of the miracle material AMBEROL!! Edison wz robbed by that German upstart!! "Ich bin ein Berliner" = the "disc" is a weenie!!

Caruso now he had soul!!

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 6 September 2002 08:19 (twenty-three years ago)

mark is right, it's been downhill ever since.

― jon, Friday, 6 September 2002 08:56 (twenty-three years ago)

mark s = post of the year with the obv. exception of "I AM OWL MAN" on a now-forgotten long thread

― J0hn Darn1elle, Friday, 6 September 2002 10:35 (twenty-three years ago)

i bought the "weak become heroes" CD single today. That was my first in a while. 4 tracks, 19 minutes, 1 new song. Not bad, as these things go.

― zebedee, Friday, 6 September 2002 10:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Hahaha EssKaaaay that Sum 41 song is grebt - I wish I had it - I want to make a tape for when we play CRAZY TAXI!! I am fed up of Offspring/Bad Manners two songs repeating all the cockfarming time!

Would you make me a tape?

I could make you a tape too!

― Sarah (starry), Friday, 6 September 2002 10:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Ah I am assuming you are one of those NZ frenzied tape swappers here, no matter if you can't be ersed...

― Sarah (starry), Friday, 6 September 2002 10:51 (twenty-three years ago)

People who only buy albums clearly don't *love* music. Or they're American. Which amounts to the same thing,

― Jerry (Jerry), Friday, 6 September 2002 11:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Ooh, controversial!!!!!!1

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 6 September 2002 11:26 (twenty-three years ago)

I got Playgroup's "Number One" single just because it had the video. If only all singles had that...

― Siegbran Hetteson (eofor), Friday, 6 September 2002 11:27 (twenty-three years ago)

But Number One is pretty great!

I got Two Months Off by Underworld hecause I needed, NEEDED the 6 minute fix it gave me and instant reminder of how amazing seeing them last Saturday felt.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 6 September 2002 11:33 (twenty-three years ago)

OK, I also bought it for the Felix Da Housecat mix. I already had the album...

― Siegbran Hetteson (eofor), Friday, 6 September 2002 12:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Felix Da Housecat has a DJ set live on Irish radio tonight from Pacha, I'm really looking forward to it, I think their site is www.spin1038.com

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 6 September 2002 12:29 (twenty-three years ago)

I buy singles all the time. The last one I bought was Blazin' Squad. I even buy them when I'm pretty sure I'm going to be getting the album. I just like them.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 6 September 2002 14:17 (twenty-three years ago)

used to buy them but b-side are not very exceptional (and if they are tey'll get compiled anyway) so I don't buy them.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 6 September 2002 14:23 (twenty-three years ago)

i download a lot of mp3's that are singles. it's about the closest we can get anymore.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 6 September 2002 14:34 (twenty-three years ago)

i LOVE singles. especially 7 inches, but that's mainly for fetishism. but hey, fetishism is a big part of all this, isn't it?

"So i have the "Wannabe" and "Jonathan David" singles."

i do have them both :-)
the wannabe single, because is the only song i like by the spice girls, and i'm sure i wouldn't be able to listen to half the album.
jonathan david, because i love b&s and it's got three non album tracks (on this note, my vinyl fetishism makes me buy b&s' singles on 7" format, so i'm always missing one song... not on the jonathan david one, though, i got the cd-s). oh, i guess i'm ranting now...

― joan vich (joan vich), Friday, 6 September 2002 14:40 (twenty-three years ago)

starry! YES! I haven't made any tapes for any NZ twindykidz yet (tho I've got cool tapes from Hamish/Di hurrah) - I will foist POP-PUNK & HOTT POLYNESIANS on you, oh yes.
(haha sorry I am horriblee drunkz0r & have been dancing to "Get This Party Started" * "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" & am clearly insane!)

― Ess Kay (esskay), Friday, 6 September 2002 14:48 (twenty-three years ago)

best The Legend quote in eons!

― Paul (scifisoul), Friday, 6 September 2002 14:56 (twenty-three years ago)

that Sum 41 song is grebt

The only great thing about Sum41 is their trampoline. The little shits should be run over while they are skateboarding. Sorry nothing to do with living close to Ajax at all, nothing I assure you. They're a boy band, nothing more nothing less.

What the world needs (oops wrong thread) is more 40 minute cd singles by wierd woodland creatures from foriegn lands.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Friday, 6 September 2002 15:55 (twenty-three years ago)

No wait, it has to do with living near Ajax.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Friday, 6 September 2002 16:02 (twenty-three years ago)

I love singles because I get a pile of them each week to review and thus eighty per cent of good pop ends up in my collection.

I hate singles because I get a pile of them each week to review and no second-hand music store buys them anymore and thus eighty percent of crappy music ends up in towering skyscrapers in my room.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 6 September 2002 22:08 (twenty-three years ago)

I love crappy singles. I'll take em!

― edward o (edwardo), Saturday, 7 September 2002 01:40 (twenty-three years ago)

They're a boy band, nothing more nothing less.

Oh no how awful!

― Tom (Groke), Saturday, 7 September 2002 09:33 (twenty-three years ago)

why bother? any good band will eventually put out a comp called "Our Most Famous Song - The Singles" and its much quicker to spend $16 bucks and get it all at once rather than spending $5 bucks 15 times

― Sophie Bextor Elvis (Sophie Bextor Elvis), Saturday, 7 September 2002 17:23 (twenty-three years ago)

oh yeah, if you can wait for ten years until you get the lot.

― joan vich (joan vich), Sunday, 8 September 2002 15:09 (twenty-three years ago)

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