Q Essay: Are surprise releases really that surprising?
More artists are dropping new records with little warning - and Jian's not sure it's a good thing.
In today's opening essay Jian notes that new release Tuesdays -- the long-time tradition of releasing hyped-up records on the second day of the week -- seem to be on the wane. These days, it seems artists and their labels are going for the element of surprise.
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is the latest artist to drop an album out of the blue, releasing Tomorrow's Modern Boxes through BitTorrent this past Friday. So, with artists like Beyonce, Jay-Z and U2 releasing new tunes with little warning, Jian wonders, is this the new normal? Or will surprise releases start to become stale?