This.

And another thought.

I bet that all over the country there are kids saying "Who's David Bowie?" and their grandparents are responding by buying them Bowie albums

They did not do Greatest Hits Albums in the sixties. It took me months to source The Eddie Cochran Memorial Album. A true classic.

What's not to get? Of course the herd mentality comes into play here but so do several other things. The herd will but music that is in the charts. They won't buy music that isn't. They'll buy whatever they believe other people are buying because 'you're supposed to'. Why? Because it's being suggested as the thing to do. That's why hype is so important. It works. People are very suggestible.

An artist dies, a label will try to capitalise on it. The personalities involved may or may not give a damn that the product creator has shuffled off this mortail coil but they may care that this means no more new produce to hawk... so best compile or dig out some rarities. Of course dedicated fans will buy previously unissued material whether the creator is still around, or not

A particular artist who is or has been well known in the mainstream dies and there is sudden (and occasionally prolonged) media coverage. This is exposure i.e. promotion (and it didn't even have to be paid for!) and will result in sales if there is something out there to buy. All those folks sitting on couches on 'chat shows' have a new product to hawk after all...

Will a sudden burst of promotion will come re-interest in a career and new interest. Don't assume we all listen to a mere handful of artists and have most of their catalogues. I listen to thousands. As I haven't played a Bowie album in several years and I only have a handful of his releases this media coverage serves to remind me of his work and I might even pick something up by him.


You don't think anyone ever buys a high-profile, suddenly deceased artist's works because they want to show their peers that they 'got it' / 'were there' / 'are part of the club' too? I'm more cynical than that. People love fronting. I knew a guy who was in a band that went on to become a rather successful alternative rock act (but he'd left by then and didn't get to share it :: lol) who bought the whole album catalogue of Husker Du so he could pretend to be a long-standing fan. Such people possibly aren't that rare.

(Many of these points have already been made and probably better too, but I started replying before going down the thread)

I see a similarity between those two scenarios. All those "1001 albums/movies/etc. you must see/ listen too/ cook (? ) before you die" type publications. There are a lot of people who want to absorb whatever they can from those whom they see as 'taste barometers'.


I bet it happens all the freaking time. Many of the most juvenile and clueless people I've ever encountered are adults! You've only to read the fawning over barely talented pop starz on here... Much of this is probably the work of people over 18.


It wasn't too hard to buy a record in 1976 and if you went into a shop and did so it was relatively far more expensive than now, so the likelyhood is that you really wanted it. You can get the stuff free of charge now if you want to go down that illicit route, or buy a track from an online vendor for the cost of a small chocolate bar. In '76 a single was somewhere around 70p and a fix of choccy would probably see change from a tenpence piece.


My bold. Does it? It happens when that artist is in the mainstream consciousness but what happens when an artist dies, who may be of considerable merit but is unknown to Joe Public? The general public often believe that what has achieved popularity is good, whereas what hasn't isn't or is just weird. That's what helps to render many of us blithering idiots.

Otis Clay (who? ) died the day before Bowie. I wonder if there's been any massive spike in sales after the significant lack of media coverage... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlrVFE8FYVI

Bowie dies.
The media plays his music all week on the radio.
The public buys the music.

It's the same with any artist that gets a lot of media coverage.

Bowies 90's and early 2000's albums didn't sell in high quantity because they didn't get much airplay/hype. 'The Next Day' did well because it was his comeback album after 10 years and it was a surprise release - that was the media hook. Blackstar and his Back Catalog will sell well this week because his death has brought his music back on the radio (although you still won't hear much if any of his 1990 - 2002 period).

It's not really herd mentality - it's simply the public getting to hear his music again.

I don't know about buying dead artists stuff with some of the prices on eBay I'm tempted to sell some of my stuff