Buying Silence
A little modern art music comedy: Purchasing all-silent tracks from iTunes. An excerpt:
djsteve had purchased a track that cost him the "best 99 cents [he'd] ever spent." The joke, of course, was that it was the second track from The Whitey Album by Ciccone Youth, which consists of a minute and three seconds' worth of silence. To tell you the truth, while we're amused by the fact that Apple is charging 99 cents for a song full o' nothing, we're even more amused by the fact that said track contains the usual digital rights management code to prevent you from playing it on any unauthorized systems. And the most amusing thing of all, of course, is that the song has a thirty-second preview.
Well, as it turns out, the Ciccone Youth track is by no means the only all-silent untune for sale at the iTMS…we've compiled all the silent tracks we managed to scrape together…three of those tracks, the ones by Slum Village, are labeled EXPLICIT. We've listened to them, and we have to agree: combined, that's the dirtiest fifteen seconds of utter silence we've ever not heard. It's so dirty, it's like Handel's Messiah, only, you know, quiet.
….[Their list contains] nine tracks of professionally-encoded silence-- a total of six minutes and forty-four seconds of the yawning void, all yours for just $8.91.
See the link for the full list, and happy listening!
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In a similar vein, I recently read a story about a man who's been making a few dollars selling "NOTHING" on eBay. I don't have the link, but I think it was on Fark.com.
I guess if you're dumb enough to buy it (they give you a preview), they're smart enough to sell it to you.
Hey, John Cage's piano "piece" 3:33 wasn't available until years later for other instruments. So cultural fraud, er, creative postmodern irony, has been going on for a while.
Isn't there some sort of copyright violation? All these tracks sound exactly the same.
Or is it room tone?
Copyright infringement?
Has anyone notified Bezos?
btw, Ciccone Youth was a Sonic Youth side project. Ciccone is Madonna's maiden name.
As a matter of fact, Russ D, yes it is:
http://listproc.ucdavis.edu/archives/mlist/log0207/0007.html
John Lennon did the same thing on one of his more screwed up albums, but it was a 33rpm so it sounded more like static than silence.
sandy, a few thoughts:
1) 4'3"
2) if yer at all interested in music composition, regardless of what you think of cage (i'm not too fond of him) the idea behind what he did - that the environment in which you listen to music contributes and alters what you hear, and that your environment is constantly producing sound which can be heard as something other than background "noise" is still pertinent. anyone who sets up a home studio has to deal with these questions very concretely and un-ironically before they record a single note (or test tone). there was nothing ironic about it, which is something that escapes a fair bit of reason posters (if i may be a dick about things for a moment) who seem to feel as if anything vaguely artistic they're not into or don't immediately understand is either a joke or a conspiracy to tell a joke. there's plenty of stupid in those fringe categories of art, but it wouldn't hurt people to think for just a second or two before resorting to their default socio-political setting.
Silence isn't silence?
actually, depends on how the silence is recorded. you could make 10 recordings of empty rooms and each one of them would sound different depending on the mic used, the recording medium, the signal path, how isolated the room was, how quiet you were, etc.
so no, silence isn't silence.
Does anyone know if they (iTunes) has the new hit single " " by Pootie Tang?
I hear " " is totally dope.
"Don't need no words, don't even need no music."
The story is a good gag and all, but the silent tracks complete albums.
One doubts that anybody is buying the silent tracks a la carte (except as funny, ironic purchases). Instead, you buy the whole record (including the silence) and then burn it on CD, and it sounds (1) just the same as if you had walked (or driven, for you suburbanites) down to Best Buy, and (2) as the artist intended.
Lots of the silent tracks are at the very end of the albums, prior to a "hidden" track.
dhex,
With digital files, couldn't the silence be mathematically proven? I mean, if the files of "silence" were different, there would be a variation between samples (ignoring the varying lengths of each file). If each sample was nothing but zeroes, then perhaps there is ample evidence that the consumer is being ripped off. But if a few ones are thrown in here and there (room tone, etc.), then it isn't really digital silence.
Either way, I can't wait for the 5.1 SACD versions of these.
$8.91? What a ripoff.
Tell you what, for $6.00 and a SASE, I'll send you a copy of this same collection, and you can play it on a regular CD player.
snark
Hidden tracks on CD's are fun, but I've never really known of a "hidden" one. You program what you think is the last track on the CD and the time comes up as "18:34", you know there's probably something else there. Or when you put the CD in and the display "99" tracks.
I still enjoy the occasional surprise run-off groove on records.
So I would be legit if I released a ten-track album of silent-room ambience?
1. Kitchen (2:06)
2. Bathroom (1:24)
3. Master Bedroom (3:02)
4. Closet (:09)
Etc. etc. etc.
Cool! Thanks, dhex!!
5. Out of the Closet (15:00)
Russ D-
I have known of a few actually "hidden" tracks on CDs, in the "pre-gap" before the first track.
To find them, you have to play track 1, and then scan (not skip) backwards. The time counter goes down to 00:00, and then starts counting negative. As you keep holding down the scan button, you hear the hidden track in fast-reverse, until you get to the beginning of it. You release the button, and the song plays as normal.
I know Sister Machine Gun had one on a disc (~1995), and I believe that They Might Be Giants did one on a recent disc of theirs. There was also one on the "X-Files" soundtrack (the one released for the show, not for the movie).
I always thought of these as the real hidden tracks (as opposed to "unlisted"). Not that I ever found any without being tipped off.
Sorry, But I'm Stupid,
Actually, only your Mom knows if you're legit.
actually, mr. stupid, you've been beaten to that several times over by a british guy whose stuff i've "reviewed" several times...mostly 3" cds, nice packaging, warnings about playing the cds over a DC voltage system, etc. all sorts of math nerd stuff that were i math nerd, i'd be able to appreciate/decipher. obviously, by my not being able to remember his name (it was short and began with a v) i wasn't too taken by his project. it was a cute idea...once. beyond that...at least francisco lopez actually does stuff with his minimalism...eventually.
russ: even if you could prove the breaks were silence as in digitally blank (outside of having header information, formatting, meeting redbook standards, etc) ...how are you being ripped off? maybe if you're coming from a singles point of view i could see how you'd feel that way, but the layout of an album is as integral to the work of music as a whole (when you're lucky!) as the cover art is. those 30 seconds of silence or drones or odd recorded tape bits etc are all part of the intent of the piece. would you sue a painter for leaving part of the canvas blank? (i do get the feeling there are some reasoners who actually would 🙂
i'm the first to admit i'm fairly odd when it comes to music (i.e. i don't listen to singles, i don't make mixtapes, and if i listen to a cd i listen to it all the way through) and i'm sure i've provided enough salt for anyone who cares to disagree.
dhex,
Those long gaps of silence don't HAVE to be separate tracks. But you're right if you're looking at it as one whole "piece" of music, you won't be buying it track by track. (I had that Whitey Album on cassette, so I couldn't tell tracks by any visual cue anyway.)
Todd,
Thanks for the info on pre-gap. I swear the latest Los Straitjackets album has a bit of pre-gap music on it (it doesn't have to be prior to only track one) which I distinctly remember missing when I programmed the tracks on my player but played through when not programming, and it was backwards guitar at that! But I can't confirm that now because I gave the CD away when the vinyl edition came out. Yes, I'm a luddite.
Todd,
TMBG has an unlisted track on their "Severe Tire Damage" album. Lots of silence after the "last" song, followed by a truly bizarre and funny takeoff on "Planet of the Apes."
Todd and Sorry -
TMBG also has a "hidden track," on Factory Showroom. I think it is a version of "Token Back to Brooklyn," which was a Dial-A-Song track.
Unfortunately, I have a degree in composition, and yes, typo on the 4:33. I don't hate Cage as a composer, but much like Rauchenberg(sp?) he pulled one over on people with that one. The rationale was more rationalization. I've even read his account of the premiere.
Still think he was secretly laughing about that one.
Now, his prepared piano stuff--good.
for those of us who record in rooms next to refrigerator appliances, i think he inadvertently made his point. 🙂
he never struck me as whimsical, especially considering all the work put into cutting up tape, etc. though you'd probably know better than i.
I can listen to silence in the same room multiple times and each replay is different due to my changing state of mind.
But I never seem to dance well...
Anybody know if a DJ has cut together different versions of silence?
(Giving proper credit and royalties, of course)
pf: thank you! that's the guy i'm talking about. i feel much better.
Thanks for the TMBG tip, Charlie. I will search for it.
I was quite offended when I heard the 33 second preview.
Anyone could tell that the silence was sexual in nature,
that percular awkwardness one experiences
after first making love in your girl friend's living room.
I remember a review of a Francisco Lopez album that said something to the effect of if the guy in the next apartment's refrigerator is running, you won't be able to hear the record. Still, I own several of his CDs.
There's an English guy named JLIAT who's doing some interesting conceptual stuff with CDs...click this link and read the descriptions for the first two entries (the "Still Life" discs).
Isn't it ironic, then, that S & G's "Sounds of Silence" really ISN'T?