July 15, 2005

Selling CDs, making lists, being too big to be snarky.

Amazon has made its own "Hall of Fame" for musicians, based on who's sold the most CDs on Amazon. Though the Beatles are number 1, some of the others in this list of 25 artists seem funnily out of place. Elvis is only number 25, bested by Van Morrison, Jimmy Buffet, Enya, Eva Cassidy, Josh Groban, Santana ... ah, I can't go on. I'll just say probably all the Elvis fans built their CD collections before 1995.

They've written a short blurb for each artist and they didn't bother to write these paragraphs in a distinctive, engaging style. It's all generic blather like: "Rock's truest iconoclast, [name] follows no trends and answers no commercial call." Guess who that is. If you do, it's only by chance.

But there's one exception: Enya, who's described as "[f]illing the studios of massage therapists around the globe."

Amazon: too big to be snarky -- except about Enya.

6 comments:

jeff said...

I remember when I first heard Enya's Orinoco Flow - neat song. My roomate (I was in the Army in Hawaii at the time) decided he wanted to buy the CD of it, and went out hunting.

He came back with the CD, and a kind of incredulous look on his face as he explained that he had to look in the "New Age" section of the racks to find it... I think he figured it it were New Age, it oughta smell of incense or something.

P_J said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
P_J said...

Ann,

I didn't know Van Morrison was a Puritan! Oh wait - did they mean he's just edgy and different?

What's up with dissing Enya? I guess she's not much of an iconoclast. Why not introduce the Stones as "fueling booze-laden hook-ups across the globe"? Enya's not my favorite, but we have a couple of her CDs. And number 8 at Amazon! Who knew there were so many massage therapists?

Contributors said...

Hey, I like Enya! And Howard Keel.

uh,oh.

Rick Lee said...

I bought that Elvis compilation that came out for Christmas not too long ago... and I never listened to it all the way through. I bought it just because I thought I OUGHT to own it. I still listen to the Beatles and Stones all the time... but there's something about Elvis... his work hasn't aged well for me. I listen to Enya all the time. She works for years on each CD and when the next one is announced I will pre-order it as soon as possible. Can't get enough... and there is no substitute. People not really familiar with Enya will say that it's JUST New Age stuff... but actually there isn't anything else n the market all that similar. Believe me, I've tried. I've bought all kinds of crap that Amazon suggested for "people who like Enya" but I find most New Agey stuff just boring. I got the Lord of the Rings Soundtrack CD just for the 2 Enya songs. She has a massive and loyal fan base well beyond the massage therapy community.

Finn Alexander Kristiansen said...

Pro-Enya here too!