As much as I love music, I actually enjoy doing other things while listening to it. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.
Sure, there are times when I put on my headphones, crank up the volume and do nothing else. But most of the time, music is my driving companion, my daughter's bathtime playmate or the sonic backdrop that actually makes such tasks as preparing dinner or cleaning dishes enjoyable. I can shower to music, eat to music and sleep to music. I've even been known to select a particular CD or iPod playlist to set a desired mood when I sit down to read.
All of which makes me wonder, exactly who is the recent glut of music DVDs aimed at? Apparently, folks who have nothing but time on their hands to hunker down and stare at a TV set while they listen to their tunes. Which completely defeats the portable appeal at the heart of recorded music.
Convinced the public needs incentives to purchase—rather than download—their music, record labels have lately been pairing CDs with DVDs at an alarming rate. So the purchase of archival CDs—from box sets by Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel to live albums by Green Day and Queens of the Stone Age—now typically requires music fans to spring for DVDs most probably don't want and won't watch.
Not that I don't enjoy the occasional good music video (is there such a thing anymore?) or televised music event (wait, has there ever been a good one?) as much as the next guy. But can't we simply be allowed to enjoy the majority of our music exclusively with our ears, rather than being force fed it optically as well?
In the case of a live CD/DVD combo, such as Green Day's Bullet in a Bible (a 2005 tour compilation), the DVD content basically mirrors that of the CD, so fans who just want to hear it can pitch the video disc and stick with the audio. That is, if they don't mind spending around $25 for a 14-track CD.
But in the case of Springsteen's long-awaited Hammersmith '75 concert—the prime extra goodie in his Born to Run 30th Anniversary Edition set—a DVD is all we get. Which means that I either have to spend two hours in the room that houses my DVD player each time I want to hear the live show, or figure out a way to transfer the audio portion of the disc onto a CDR using my computer and some technology that I'm not familiar with and probably have to pay money to use.
Everyone I know who has the new Born to Run seems to have the same issue, which begs the question: Couldn't Columbia simply have included an audio version of the disc in the Born to Run set? Or better yet, offered two versions, one with the DVD and another—for less money—with CDs?
I actually enjoyed watching Springsteen1s Hammersmith DVD ... once. After that, I had no burning desire to see Bruce and the E Streeters handling their instruments and wandering around on a dimly lit stage. I just wanted the live versions of "Jungleland" and "Backstreets" in my car and on my iPod.
As someone who attends concerts for a living—and has viewed his fair share of DVD concert captures—I can safely say the latter never compares to the real thing. All it ever does is make me wish I was in attendance, or convince me there's no need whatsoever to see that act in a live setting.
Because historically significant as certain video footage might be, at best it's still the weak sister to its audio companion, the same way film scores hardly ever stand up as the main attraction.
Spencer Patterson is a Weekly staff writer. Reach him at
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