Ode to the Box Set

Hey kids, here's an essay I'm working on for a package about the downside of iPod Nation. What are we losing in a world of 1's and 0's? Here, I wax on about the venerable box set...

In the clean, clutter-free wonderland of iPod Nation — where we strive to fit our entire record collection in the pocket of our Levis — there is no greater grotesquerie than the box set.

Why, the very notion of this bloated salute to excess — epic liner notes, myriad CDs, assorted propaganda stuffed into a look-at-me! container taking up more precious shelf space than a burial urn — goes against every streamlined principle of the digital age.

And I love it.

The iPod, some models no bigger than a stick of Juicy Fruit, cleanly delivers an insta-blip of your preferred flavor whenever you want it. That’s why "physical" sales are plummeting — and digital sales are booming. You do not have to stop living life to be fed by your iPod. It’s small, immediate, popular — a beloved Pez dispenser of 1's and 0's.

On the other, clunkier, what-do-we-do-with-this hand: The box set, especially when made by those music geeks at Rhino Records, brings life to a screeching halt. It demands that you get on the floor, tear it to pieces, explore its guts, dig around to get the hits you crave. The box set is bulky, complicated, a mess to clean up — a blue crab of Black Sabbath B-sides and rarities.

But much like that big girl on Grey’s Anatomy, the box set can also be beautiful, sexy, chunky-but-decidedly-funky. I own box sets that are bound in black leather corsets (The Goth Box) and are designed to look like old record players (Ray Charles Pure Genius: The Complete Atlantic Recordings). Let it be known that my four-year-old would rather play with these than her Barbies. I’ve never been more proud.

Sure, you can buy box sets in digital form, but without the packaging, without the bulk, without the ego, what’s the point?

The greatest, gaudiest perk to land on my desk last year was The Brit Box, Rhino’s four-disc, 78-song monolithic salute to U.K. indie music "of the last millennium." Rhino designed this sucker to look like the red phone booths of London, the kind you might see in Piccadilly Square. If that weren’t overt enough, The Brit Box also lights up and blinks. It is obnoxious? Sure.

And I love it.

Comments

[DG]

In the best cases (like the Ray Charles collection you have pictured), box sets--in the physical form--provide context and history on the artist(s) that comprise the set.

The box set requires a level of participation and appreciation of the listener that simply doesn't exist with a digital purchase of the same batch of songs.

[jane]

There's a lot to be said for the merit of the box set. I picked up Sufjan Stevens' Christmas box set this year, specifically for the cool stickers and notes and lyrics with guitar chords and other assorted grooviness.

I have spent many an hour uploading CDs to my iPod for portability, but there's a lot to be said for being able to put your hands on the music itself, so to speak.

[Brett]

Box sets are great. I've got a Miles Davis box set with those epic liner notes, as well as a great one by The Meters, "Funkify Your Life," which also has those fantastic liner notes.

And, my favorite box set, "Doctors, Professors, Kings and Queens: A Big Ol Box of New Orleans." No ipod could ever match the liners notes on those songs or the pictures of some of the legendary musicians that appear on the four-disc set.

iPod may have its convenience, but you lose something in the translation.

[Bassnote]

I have an i pod with nearly 10,000 songs on it, but I still love having an actual CD, and I love a good box set. I have several of them. My box sets range from The Monkees: Listen To The Band and Eric Clapton: Crossroads, to The Star Wars trilogy (original) soundtracks and Left Of The Dial (80's alternative). I love reading the extensive liner notes, and finding out back stories on some of my favorite tunes. However, I dread the day Britney puts out her box set.

[Ron]

I can't see ever giving up CD's and box sets. I like reading the liner notes & seeing who's playing with who on the album (Yes, I can't help but still call them albums.) I have my entire 1,600+ CD collection on my ipod, but I continue to buy CD's. I have yet to purchase a single digital copy of a song, and probably never will.

[Vanessa]

Great comparison of the box set to the blue crab.

I'm a sucker for a box set. My first one was Aerosmith's "Pandora's Box," which was actually on cassette.

But my favorite is "Left of the Dial," which was the best birthday present I could have asked for a couple of years back.

[specialk]

Hello Sean, just visiting from Stuck in the 80s, this sure caught my eye! I LOVE my iPod and I can honestly say that 90% of the music on it are from my personal CD collection. I love reading all the liner notes too, something I loved reading on records. The thicker the booklet the better.
I might have to look for that Rhino box set just because it looks like a red phone booth! Obnoxious is right up my alley!
I use iTunes of course, but there are lots of songs that you can't find on them. One song in particular is one by Nik Kershaw; they have a horrible sound alike but not the true song.
My kids love to get CDs and before we're home, they have them opened and are checking out the liner notes. They've been raised right! Of course as soon we get home, they're downloaded into iTunes to be added to everyone's iPods.

[Marissa]

Good morning. I want the Tom Jones box set. The container is nothing special, but the innerds are filled with hairy, sweaty, girating goodness...and DVD to swoon over in private.

Hey, Bassnote! I'm pretty sure Britney's already put out her box set, if you know what I mean...

What? Too early in the morning?

[Clark]

That's a great essay, Sean. I love the convenience of my iPod but sometimes I miss the feeling of getting a new album home, throwing it on and reading the lyrics and liner notes while listening to it the first time. Box sets are even better with all the toys and pictures and assorted whatnot.

[GlennS.]

Boxed sets are great but for most consumers they're an occasional treat only. I think it would behoove the recording industry to make CD packaging more elaborate for all releases. Give us CDs with truly better-than-mp3 sound (which doesn't mean just mastering everything louder), quality booklets with lyrics and great liner notes, bonus DVDs with videos so we can see them better than some pixilated mess on You Tube, and other extras as appropriate. In other words, make it so that the people who just downloaded the tracks feel like they're missing something if they don't buy the disc.