Various artists and the exploration
theory
In the olden days, we called them
samplers. This led to confusion when later in life, people were
talking about those cross stitch things. They were like needlepoint
CVs in the olden olden days. Sewn to confirm the skill of the person,
a fabric reference for future commissions. I was confused, because
they were called samplers, which to me meant something different, and
because they seemed to cause rather a lot of excitement. I didn't tap
into whatever it was that catalysed that excitement. Not a
textile-head, I suppose.
Our samplers were those various artists
albums, usually showcasing the current roster of a record label. A
low-cost introduction, hoping to inspire further purchases. Now
sampler and sampling have a new meaning. The excitement this
generates in the copyright legals is also lost on me. If someone
pinches (we used to call what is now sampling copying) a few bars, a
guitar lick, and makes it part of something new, take it as a
compliment and move on.
The good thing about samplers was that
they were populated with tracks that you otherwise would not have
listened to. Vinyl didn't have the easy ways to skip tracks, or to
extract the cream and bin the rest. That meant that what at first
made no sense, after repeated listenings often fell into place. They
forced you off your beaten track, outside the comfort zone, down new
tangents. The CBS sampler was typical. They mixed in a range of
artists.
This was a favourite. Without this, I think Miles Davis and
Soft Machine would've passed me by. Without the repeated listenings
imposed by the limitations of the vinyl 12” long playing format, I
would've skipped past them first time around and probably never
revisited them. A great way to discover new stuff.
Bi-polar syndrome...
...can it manifest to a collective?
Like a football team? As in Arsenal?
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