blossom, you can bet that’s where it’s going to stay. Like A.J. Leibling’s statement about freedom of the press belonging to those who own one, the democracy of the tape exchange is illusory. Few people will ever hear them. Their packaging, format and distribution keeps them from the hands of most retailers, robbing such tapes of the impact on mainstream pop that radical indie labels like Stiff and SST have occasionally achieved.
As cd replaces vinyl, the visibility — and so the influence — of lps will decline too. The mere existence of African imports as specialty or mail-order items will not guarantee them meaningful life in the West. We can hope for a continuation of what Rounder, GlobeStyle and others have accomplished, yet it’s worth noting that few of THE BEAT’s African “Best ofs. . .” have been released domestically in any format.
