”As you’ve never heard him before!”

Jimi Hendrixin musiikin tuotteistaminen 1971–2018

Abstract

The article analyzes the posthumous productization of the music of Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) from 1971 to 2018, in which developments in music technology have played an essential role. The posthumous releasing and re-releasing of his music, both albums originally released in his lifetime and recordings not released during Hendrix’s lifetime, can be divided by two factors. First, the three respective curators of his catalogue (Michael Jeffery, the manager of Hendrix, album releases between 1971 and 1973; producer Alan Douglas, 1975 to 1995; Experience Hendrix 1997 to present). Second, developments in music technology, of which the ‘digital revolution’ with the Compact Disc of the 1980s, and the still-developing ability to edit sound, is the most dramatic. The article adopts a chronological approach in order to show how advancing music technology has both enabled and inspired re-releasing Hendrix’s music over for almost fifty years. While technology has improved the sonic quality of Hendrix records, the article also shows how all three curators of his recordings have ended up using them very similarly – even reissuing their predecessors’ long deleted compilation albums – returning concepts which started the posthumous releasing of the music of Hendrix in the first place.
The article is a part of the research project “Productization, Branding, and Marketing of Popular Culture”, funded by the Emil Aaltonen Foundation.