Never mind investment bubbles — the bubble that damaged me most was the hair metal one of the late eighties. After New Wave and the sexually ambiguous melodies of Kajagoogoo and Haircut 100, hard rock struck back with a vengeance via all kinds of pseudo-manly bands, waving their guitars like giant — guitars.

As hair metal grew in popularity, clones of clones of clones emerged — all  rock decedents of Van Halen and Bon Jovi in a cheap attempt to make a quick buck, hence inflating a head-banging bubble that could only collapse due the weight of the metal contained within.

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Even if you’re not a huge Beatles fan, I think this documentary about John Lennon’s jukebox is worth seeing for a neat history of the music of the sixites.

Basically John Lennon had a jukebox that he would take around with him on tour, filled with all of his favorite music.

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I’m guessing there are at least two readers of this blog that care about Crowded House, but MSN Music has a full concert recorded of a recent Crowded House concert from the House of Blues in Chicago — August 18, 2007. It’s over at MSN Music (USA link) and played just fine on my Mac.

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Yesterday, it was announced that John Lennon and his back catalog have been added to the iTunes Music Store (of course, in the case of Double Fantasy that means some of Yoko’s stuff too).

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Ars Technica has a nice update regarding the continuing death of the CD. But in addition to the vanishing of a physical format, it’s possible the whole concept of the “album” — a sequence of songs meant to be considered as a whole — is dying along with it.

Truth be told, it’s an idea that calls for a change in my way of thinking. I’m still a die-hard album fanatic. Even with digital downloads, I find it hard to download just one song from an artist. It feels somehow incomplete and unfair to to only cherry pick an artist’s best songs — like watching only one scene of a movie — so I find myself still buying complete albums, even through downloads.

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