Unthinkable? A tax on dinosaur rock

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/14/unthinkable-tax-dinosaur-rock-editorial

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The music industry has a long history of repackaging its former glories and presenting them as new: David Quantick coined the phrase "pop will eat itself" to describe the phenomenon as long ago as 1986. The news that Led Zeppelin, a band that split 34 years ago, are releasing previously little-heard tracks is, then, but the latest example of what the music journalist Simon Reynolds has called the "rising tide of the historical past [that] is lapping at our ankles". Other contributors to that tide include innumerable Beatles releases, reunions by Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, the Beach Boys, the Stone Roses and Blur, and the annual Rolling Stones world tour. This endless pop revivalism follows its own inexorable financial logic: back in 2005 the Rolling Stones were reckoned to have made more than half a billion dollars from their world tour. But it has its costs for the culture: one of the knock-on effects of these superannuated millionaires refusing to fade away is that they suck oxygen from the new talent. Rock dinosaurs clog up the festival stages and the airwaves with their safe, old repertoire, and even new bands are often picked by conservative music executives because they sound like the old. So why not redistribute this creative capital? Take a small cut from the next never-before-released Tupac track or Sex Pistols reunion gig and use it to fund innovators who are trying to push for something genuinely new? Even Led Zeppelin's most diehard fans could surely appreciate that.