So Blu-Ray has won out over HD-DVD in the future-of-how-we-rent-movies-for-home-viewing technology sweepstakes. Since I have no horse in this race whatsoever–I’m still behind watching all the movies I DV-R’ed from TCM’s month of Oscar-winners–I mention it only as the pretext to an Idolator poll. Not the critical kind–the kind where you, the reader, answers a broad, sweeping question that’s been nagging me for the past few, well, years: Who, precisely, watches the bonus DVDs so many current pop albums come with?
You know the kind of thing I’m talking about. Sometimes a reissue gets one of these as part of the package, like the catalog remasters Rhino/Warner Bros. did in 2005 for R.E.M. (I did in fact watch a couple of those; For Fans Only, meaning bigger ones than me, and I kind of doubt even the most fervent R.E.M. lovers were that impressed by them.) In recent cases by Queens of the Stone Age and the Go-Betweens (in what turned out, sadly, to be their last official release), the DVDs were of live performances also captured on the accompanying CDs, and while that’s nice for completists I found myself in both cases drawn more toward the audio-only portion of the package. As far as new(ly released) albums, well, what can it mean that the first recent CD to pop up when I Googled “albums bonus dvd” was the friggin’ Jethro Tull Christmas Album? Surely those of you not down in Austin getting wasted in the afternoon sun while losing 12.6 percent of your hearing to bands you won’t remember by blog-time tonight can help a brother out?
I watched the one that came with Sky Blue Sky. I didn’t feel robbed.
I think the only ones I’ve ever done this with were the Depeche reissues, given the huge documentary project feel of all of them. (And they weren’t as in-depth as I could have liked but they were still very enjoyable, and I loved all the random dug-up footage they had — the best ones, for Construction Time Again and Black Celebration, took some time to get into how certain sounds/sonics were created.)
Since there’s not a “I watch it once just to see what’s on it and/or because I feel obligated to get my money’s worth” option, I’ll just vote “No.” A bonus DVD certainly wouldn’t increase my motivation to buy a CD anyway and I usually regard them as a waste of time.
The last CD I received (but normally would not have bought) was the two-disc version of Chris Brown’s Exclusive. I’ve only played and not paid attention to the content on the disc (videos and behind-the-scenes footage of the videos) once.
I love love love the one attached to Sean Lennon’s album. Is it called Dead Meat, maybe, or Parachute? I dont know, it is named for one of the songs, & it is a great dvd for “I am having people over, and while we chat/hit the hookah we need some background noise/media.”
As a general rule, I watch them once, just to see if someone did one well. Most of the time they don’t. The only one’s I remember actively enjoying were the ones strapped to the last Linkin Park album, and the Dashboard Unplugged one.
==TJ==
The first I bought/watched was Trail of Dead’s Worlds Apart, where the bonus DVD was actually even more disappointing than the album itself. Last year I got the Knife’s Silent Shout deluxe edition, which is pretty sweet, but not the type of thing one would need to watch too often.
Funny you asked that. The last album I bought that contains both a CD and a DVD is Janet Jackson’s Discipline. Why you ask? Because as of late I sort of have an affinity towards the packaging in which said CD is placed. You know, the cardboard like, open spread, vinyl like packaging that offers a nice alternative to the easily “crackable” cases that 99.9% of discs are housed in. Have I popped the bonus disc into my DVD player yet? No. So, to make a long story short. I paid an extra two bucks for a CD not for the Bonus DVD, but because I liked the packaging.
@SneakingThroughTheAlleyWithLalley:
Is that the one with all the mini-movies starring folks like Lindsay Lohan and Bijou Phillips?
The ones for Beck, yes. I have yet to watch any others.
I usually like getting extra tracks or an EP.
@Tauwan: It is indeed.
Napalm Death’s Utopia Banished was just reissued with a DVD that used to be available separately (it’s called Napalm Death: The DVD) tossed in as a bonus, and yeah, I watched it. It contains a bunch of videos, and two complete live sets from 1989 and 1990 which kick a whole bunch of ass. That’s the only one I ever remember popping in the player, though.
I’ve bought a few deluxe reissues with bonus DVD’s, and I have always watched them once. I have never wanted to watch any of them a second time. Consequently, I am very unlikely to buy anything with a bonus DVD.
I think that in most cases, if the bonus DVD were truly worth the aluminum oxide that it occupies, it would be released on its own.
I’m with Al: I watch once, then virtually never again.
Most recently, I did watch the DVD that comes with Michael Jackson’s Thriller 25, but — this is an additional downside to these bonus DVDs — the video quality was appalling. That’s probably true of any disc containing old/archival material, especially since vintage ’80s videos were almost always made cheaply and treated/stored poorly. But still, it’s a bummer.
I feel like 2002 was when this trend took off, around the time of Eminem’s animated vignettes in the bonus edition of The Eminem Show. He wasn’t the first, but his was probably the first to sell in big quantities (I remember rabid fans selling through the DVD edition quickly), and then after that, la deluge. By late ‘02, every damn CD I bought came with some kind of disc-2 content, almost always DVD or PC-video of some kind. And I found I didn’t have time for most of it.
@Camp Tiger Claw: Me too! I really enjoyed Jeff Tweedy talking about making the album, writing the songs, and his thought process at the time. A quote from his voiceover still sticks with me:
“On Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born, I wrote these dense puzzles, made it really abstract and complex. This time in the studio, I felt like - the world is scary and complex enough right now. I just want someone to sit me down and sing me a fuckin’ song.”
That really affected my perception of the record, and it made me like Sky Blue Sky a lot more than my initial “eh, it’s OK” reaction. So in short, hooray for bonus DVDs!
The CD+DVD trend has been underway for quite some time in Japan. In fact, that is the “CD” in Japan. A single CD in Japan today is seen as a lower class thing. The deluxe version of a CD in japan is a CD+2DVDs. The extra DVD is usually the video collection attached to a number of the CD’s songs, whereas the second DVD is the watching-pop-star-pop-pimples-backstage-during-shooting-of-video-X type stuff.
r. kelly’s tp.3: reloaded, which featured the first 5 installments of trapped in the closet, was probably the first and only d.v.d. accompaniment i’ve ever actively sought out. i feel as though nothing will ever compare to that.
I’m a total sucker for the bonus DVD. If it’s got a surround-sound mix on it, my wallet is already halfway out of my back pocket.
The one that came with the last Coachwhips release was pretty fantastic, especially having missed out on a chance to see them live.
I used to watch the one that came with Fischerspooner’s #1 basically all the time. Dreams of druggy glamour.
@Tenno:
I also purchased the deluxe edition of Guero because I liked the immaculate white book format it came in. Have I watched that dvd yet? Nope. Not at all. Said purchase only went down because when I got to the register with the regular disc only version of Guero, the cashier was all “you know we have the sweet Deluxe Edition with a video for each track and a cool Limited Edition casing for only like two bucks more…” Yes, sometimes it is THAT easy with me.
I think you need a fourth category that says “Depends on the Artist”. Frankly, And I think I’ve said these in the comments before, my favorite bonuses is either an EP of remixes or Wav files for amateur DJs (a la NIN).
I don’t even like live CDs much less DVDs…I’d rather see the band. The only time I like live stuff is for a band or group that will never tour again (Nirvana, etc).
I did watch the DVD taht came with Depeche Mode’s Touring the Angel, which had some great behind the scenes stuff on recording the album and touring…but I’m a huge DM nerd…
If there’s documentary stuff I’ll watch it. If it’s just live tracks or video…I usually don’t
Whats even worse is the trend of CD singles having a song a B-side and a terrible gainy MPEG of the video for the song INSTEAD of those remixes I crave.
I bought a second copy of The Black Keys’ Rubber Factory when it came out with a Bonus DVD version - I gave the original to a friend I thought might like it. Bonus DVD mildly disappointing, as they inevitably are.
It depends. I made it through maybe 10 minutes of the DVD that came with Beck’s “The Information.” But I’ve already watched the Rocket From The Crypt “RIP” DVD more than I’ve listened to the album.
If I pirate a leaked album and like it, I usually buy the deluxe- regardless of what’s on it- out of guilt.
That said, I don’t think I ever watch the stuff. Except for the bonus on Seventh Tree- but that’s only because I like the A&E video.
I not only watch the DVD’s, but I’ve bought sets because they came with DVDs to begin with, though usually only historical stuff. The Beach Boys’s Sounds of Summer came with a DVD of live performances from the 60s, including their complete TAMI Show performance, and there was a Duke Ellington set from RCA that collected films the Ellington band made in the 30s and 40s, including one featuring a very young (and surprisingly chubby) Billie Holiday. There’s great stuff on some of those sets if you keep your eyes open. Does anybody anywhere review these things?
Beck’s ‘The Information’ bonus DVD actually made me like the album less. It was like, “We’ll just set up a camera and act goofy, and that’ll be the bonus DVD!” Insufferably self-indulgent.
The “St. Anger” DVD was/is pretty cool.
The Liars’ “Drum’s Not Dead” DVD is pretty happening, all evidence of aesthetic self-consciousness and pretensions aside… the DVDs that come with Lil’ Jon albums tend to be pretty cool also…
I tend to watch the DVD’s if I’ve paid extra money for a deluxe edition with DVD. This usually happens only in the cases of artists/albums I cherish more than most (like the “London Calling” three-disc 25th anniversary edition), and artists on whom I’m crushing (Avril Lavigne, whose DVD components were lame, and Taylor Swift, whose DVD was pretty generous).