This time my focus is on those artists who release singles labelled as Bonus Tracks on their albums. The artist most recently doing this is Nicki Minaj, the Rap Diva turned Pop Starlet who has release 2 Bonus tracks from her album Pink Friday as Singles. Super Bass, her current and soon to be first top ten single, has become one of my favourite Minaj songs, but you can only find it on the deluxe version of her album. In an iTunes era where things like deluxe edition don't mean much, this could seem to be a problem, but it frustrates me when artists release both version of the album simultaneously, then start releasing songs in this way.
Her previous UK single, Girls Fall Like Dominoes was even more of a tricky release, with this song only appearing on the iTunes deluxe package of the album. It was a minor hit, the lack of a video proving how essential it is to have one in the current market.
This opens up an even bigger question, and the other artist I want to focus on here is Beyoncé. As I mentioned last time, B has some serious issues with things like bonus tracks and the overall order of tracks on her albums. All 4 albums have been badly constructed, Bday and Sasha Fierce having revised versions to fix this. I expect her new record 4 will have the same eventually, I've already made my own perfect album from the tracks.
Speaking of releasing bonus tracks though, the Sasha Fierce era for Beyoncé saw her release what seemed like 100 singles, 2 of which were only available on the deluxe edition of the original album. Her unorthodox way of adding 6 extra tracks to a 10 song CD being ridiculous in the first place.
All of this said, I have a lot of love for both Nicki and Beyoncé. Be glad I chose Bonus tracks as my rant of choice too. If I'd have mentioned a certain Brit school graduate currently sitting atop the album chart this article would have been about ten thousand words long!
No comments:
Post a Comment