Is the 'hidden track' the stupidest thing ever?

I have cds with the last track of 38 minutes with another song beginning after 29 minutes of silence (Oasis Heaten Chemistry, for example). Can you be more stupid?

 

No.
There's worse.

 

Yes.

 

Blur had a hidden track in the pre gap of track 1 on Think Tank. That’s pretty stupid.

 

No.

 

The "hidden track" was a bit of brilliant marketing b.s. to cover the fact that someone didn't name the last track on the album's cover. And they had to let everyone know that there was a "hidden track" because the majority of consumers were too stupid to be able to find the track on their own (it was difficult, you had to let the record keep playing until the runout-groove).

 

Artists lay it out there how they feel.

 

Yeah, in real life, probably.

On first thought, this is more like the difference between 'stupid' or 'annoying'. It's certainly the point where modern marketing started to make less sense -- why would anyone work to hear an unlisted track that they didn't know about? And why would they listen to silence for a longer amount of time than the actual song? Unless that's a hidden exercise in zen contemplation, then it's...stupid.

(OK, I'm agreeing with the OP. )

EDIT: And the last 'why' : Why would anyone be satisfied after all that work to hear the most inferior track on the CD?

 

Like in those Byrds reissues where you fall asleep at the end of the last song and after 20 minutes you wake up with Crosby and Clarke arguing in '66

 

It's darn odd! especially a pre-track!
I have a Waylon Jennings CD with a short discussion about the album involved which you
would have to fast reverse to hear it, it was something like 10 minutes..?....
Bizarre.

 

Normally those “hidden” tracks aren’t worth much.... otherwise (obviously) they’d be on the album proper..

 

Like in those Byrds reissues where the record ends but after 20 minutes you wake up with Crosby and Clarke arguing in '66

 

Why is there a prize at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box?

Why complain about being given something extra? If you don’t like it, stop playing the CD before the hidden track. Or throw the prize away.

 

I kight be wrong, but I reckon this kind of nonsense stopped in the iPod era. Who would want to waste valuable hard drive space on half an hour of silence?

And it's a real shame in the case if this album, because 'A Better Man' was actually the best thing on 'Heathen Chemistry'. Having said that, the 29 minutes of silence was the second best thing...

 

Extra?

 

Well, yeah. Not part of the album proper, not mentioned in the artwork. Extra.

 

I blame the Beatles...Her Majesty called, Paul is not coming back as Superman.

 

Hidden Cyril Davies lo fi unreleased recording on the CD.....

Knights Of The Blues Table.

I think you had to pause it at the start then rewind to find it before track 1.

 

Brickwalling, Autotune and others are way more stupid

 

Isn't one of the "X Files" soundtracks like that too? With a Nick Cave song hidden before the first track? Many buyers didn't even notice it!

 

No, I think it's fun.

 

There was one hidden track that was so good that it became unhidden on a later release of the same album.

It happened when the Japanese released Carpenters AS TIME GOES BY back in 2000. The final, listed song on the album was a long medley of tunes taken from a TV special, and it was followed by 30 seconds of silence and then it started another song from a UK TV special called "And When He Smiles". It was a song the duo had intended to record in the studio but never got around to doing, so this represents the only way to hear the song. And it's good!



In 2004, AS TIME GOES BY finally got a release in the US and the only change was that "And When He Smiles" was no longer hidden. The 30 seconds of silence was still tacked onto the end of the medley, but a track index was inserted at the start of the "bonus" song.

 

It was fun the first time.

 

See John Cale - Hobosapiens also.

 

It was definitely stupid, yes.