Wednesday, August 10, 2016

The Best of the Best Of: What? Also Why?

Greatest Hits and Best Of collections are rampant, even in the era of iTunes and streaming, where you can pick and choose the songs you want to hear.  Cynically, these collections are a way to repackage old music in new ways, usually with one or two bonus tracks to entice the long time fan.  A little more generously, they also exist to highlight some standout moments in an artist's career, hopefully leading you more into the back catalog based on what you've heard.

Some best-of collections are created artfully.  Some are haphazardly slapped together.  Some opt for a chronological tracklisting while others go for the "mixtape" approach.  The goal of The Best of the Best Of is to analyze all an artist's best-of compilations, and try to figure out what the best one is.  For a newcomer to a particular singer or band, trying to figure out where to start can be daunting.  We're here to help.

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