When I first purchased an imported music CD, a security sticker affixed to the CD case annoyed me a lot. It was firmly stuck to the case with such ridiculously strong adhesive that a part of it didn't come off. I had never seen the bullshit until then.
In Japan, record stores didn't adopt such a security measure. Instead, only some gigantic ones, such as Tower Records and HMV, put in each CD in a hard plastic case with a sort of microchip built in to it. No stickers.
But, even with the unremovable substance, imported discs were fascinating. Because they were about 1,000 yen cheaper than their domestic counterparts.
Whenever a music CD of a foreign artist was released in Japan, it would usually come with at least one bonus track, translated lyrics, and a biography written in Japanese. To me, however, they didn't make up the 1,000 yen. That was because what I would expect from western songs was not their lyrics, but mostly, their melodies and styles. Also, most bonus tracks were shitty. They were ones which their creators had decided not to record on albums. The biography was not worth 1,000 yen either.
No comments:
Post a Comment