Posted 7:09 PM by Gene

Almost a year ago I sneered about "the supremely hermetic group that combines the two deadly traits of musical 'eclecticism' and obsessive record collecting" so inescapable in pop cultyure, and on the Web. So I must confess these last two days I've been glued to WFMU.org's blog, and if any psychobabblers wish to claim the Internet an addiction they must point their keyboards here. As a fount of show-biz trivia and obscurities seeking it is unmatched. I have just spent the last half hour scanning this astonishing essay on Hanna-Barbera Records, a small but hyperactive outfit from the mid-sixties owned by those notorious kings of limited animation; it defined eclectic long before the term could be soiled by cultists, recording everything from kiddie albums to soundtracks to surf to jazz to soul; yet despite CBS Records distribution it seems to have gone almost unnoticed at the time, and Bill and Joe did not know what they were doing, and with rare exceptions its stuff is fodder for Goldmine maniacs and YouTube phreaks.

Which underlines an inescapable fact about these pop-cultist sites, vastly pleasing though the best are (and WFMU.org is indisputably the best): they engage in industrial-strength copyright infringement. Yet it's obvious the microscopic following for most of what's infringed can't justify commercial redistribution; merely to revive such material puts it in the red. But this detritus can't remain safely stowed underground; it is part of our national heritage. Our media superiors should look upon such occasional innocent stealing as flattery. More to the matter, when it comes to control of their property, they aren't losing; they've already lost.

P. S. He does get Hoyt Curtin's name wrong, though. Does that make me a geek too?