From: bkeeley@sdcc3.ucsd.edu (Brian Keeley)
Newsgroups: rec.music.industrial
Subject: Re: The election
Date: 9 Nov 92 03:41:11 GMT
Article-I.D.: sdcc12.40743
Organization: University of California, San Diego

In article <1992Nov5.063111.29353@adobe.com> dkletter@adobe.com (SUGAR in their vitamins?) writes:
>This just in! bkeeley@sdcc3.ucsd.edu (Brian Keeley) explains it all:
>
>>All those Wax Trax goodies (like RevCo) that have to be printed in
>>Canada b/c American pressing companies won't touch them)
>
>are you sure of this? i'm pressing my latest release in Canada because
>it's *cheaper* than in this country and i always assumed the same
>of all WaxTrax! releases knowing how bloody cheap the owner is.
>
You may be totally correct here.  My reasoning was based on some
discussions I had with some independent record company types a while
back.  Of course, they reasoned that *the reason* why its cheaper in
Canada was that American pressing companies have to insure against
and account for the fact that they will be taken to court if one of
the discs they print turns out to be considered obscene by some DA
in LA. (Remember the original defendents in the DK's _Frankenchrist_
trial: the band, the distributor and the pressing company... notably
*not* the record store who sold the disc... Jello reasons that it
was due to the fact that it was a big corporation, unlike the
others.)  So, how much does the situation add to the price of
printing discs in the States?

>>all those
>>obscure European and Japanese groups, some of whom can't tour the
>>U.S. because they have been deemed of "insufficient artistic merit",
>
>whom else besides the Legendary Pink Dots (but later were granted
>entrance) weren't allowed into the U.S.?

Somebody else mentioned the other groups that I had in mind.  Of
course, I was being a bit facetious to connect this issue to Tipper.
The reason for the tighter restrictions on artist visas is economic,
not ideological.  Its the various US entertainment unions that
pushed for the new restrictions, as they want to discourage
competition between American and foreign performers.  If a Russian
Circus has to get separate visas for all its members instead of one
for the entire company, they will be encouraged to hire more
American (union) workers when they come Stateside.  Then again,
people with ideological agendas love it when they can use other
justifications in bringing about their ends.

>
>>and let's not forget the prices of these wonderful CDs and LPs!
>
>because of NAFTA? i imagine that as the DCC format attempts to shove
>out CDs, we'll be seeing some kind of real price reduction for new
>releases. makes for good competition.
>
NAFTA's not what I had in mind.  If anything, it should indeed drive
prices down.  Of course, the reason for the prices is that foreign
labels can't get US distributors to handle their stuff. The main
reason for this is of course that this stuff isn't popular enough to
warrant the overhead that this would entail.  So, unless Clinton 
sparks a general trade war with the world (not entirely out of the
realm of the possible), perhaps this won't see much change, for
good or ill.

>>""Tipper Gore is on her way to the Whitehouse""
>
>i've been thinking about this during the entire campaign, and it's
>especially been bothering me because neither the Bush folks nor
>the Perot folks even bothered to mention Tipper's involvement with the
>PMRC. in fact, i was really suprised when during the VP debates when
>Al Gore made a comment about Phyllis Schlafley being given free
>reign over the Republican platform and Dan Quayle completely missed
>an opportunity to strike back with a quip about how Phyllis has
>been funneling TONS of dollars and time into the PRMC. it would
>have really put the Democrats back a little if they could demonstrate
>that the entire two-party system is corrupt and everyone is in
>bed with the special interest groups.
>

Again, I was playing the role of cynic and devil's advocate in my
original provactive (and "Matthew-esque" ;-) post.  If one is
totally honest about it, Tipper's not all that bad.  She's always
made it clear that she would never want to ban anything. (At least I
have never heard her suggest this.)  Instead, she makes the (not
entirely unplausible) argument that there is something fishy about
the fact that a 12-yr old boy can't legally by _Penthouse_, or some
trashy sex-novel in America, but he can walk into any record store
in the country and buy TG's _Twenty Jazz Funk Greats_ and listen
to Genesis sing about "Persuading" an underage girl into posing for
sexually explicit photographs. (And we won't even talk about
"Slug-bait"!!)  She may have a point.

Reality
Newsgroups: rec.music.industrial