| Product: |
Hidden Tracks |
| Date: |
07/06/01 (144 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Can be funny, Can make you jump
Disadvantages: Inconvenient, Often easy to spot, Not the main point of the CD
Hidden tracks... they are a strange thing that exist on many CD's but is there really much point to them? In some cases yes, in others no, it all depends on how they are done and whether they are truly hidden or not.
--Truly Hidden--
Play any CD on a PC with a hidden track and you will soon realise it is there simply by the length of the track you are currently playing, play it on a normal CD player and you won't get the 'click' from the CD stopping playing so if you are paying attention hidden tracks really aren't that hidden at all. This only applies for the majority of hidden tracks however, some (they seem much rarer though) are places at the very start of the CD before the first track begins and the only real way to find it is to rewind the track past the start, these tracks really are much harder to find and probably achieve the goal of being truly hidden much better, although they are perhaps too hidden for a lot of people to notice and therefore pointless to many purchasers of the product, although also more rewarding to find.
Having said this if you have no idea the track exists and don't try to change CD's after it has finished it is often easy not to notice the track is there, when it suddenly starts to play it can come as quite a surprise. One example of this is a Weird Al Yankovic CD I listened to, I had heard it at least 10 times and never noticed a hidden track, when I left it playing one time I jumped quite a bit when I heard it come on, this is one example of a hidden track that I enjoyed, it achieved its purpose by making me jump.
--Quality Of Tracks--
Often the tracks can just be a joke but if they are actually songs they are obviously a bonus, however the bonus often isn't that great. If a song was of such a good quality then the artist wouldn't use it as a hidden track but instead use it to promote the CD in order to try and increase sales, for this reason I don't bel
ieve hidden song tracks really work that well. Hidden tracks as a joke can work well as you aren't expecting anything great and if they were an actual track on your CD you would just avoid it, however as a hidden thing it surves it's purpose and is something you will only hear now and then.
--Inconvenience--
For me hidden tracks are inconvenient and if I ever want to listen to them it takes a bit of effort to actually do this, for this reason I also believe that the only point of them is for comedy purposed not for actual songs. There are a few CD's I own that have hidden song tracks that I do actually enjoy listening, however because they are hidden a lot of the time I just can't be bothered to do this and will instead put another CD on meaning I miss the whole point of the track, a joke however is something you will only want to listen to now and then and therefore it is OK if you miss it on most listens.
--Surprise Value--
This is the best purpose of things like this in my opinion (only applies to tracks at the end of a CD though), if they could truly remain hidden in every case they would achieve their purpose perfectly. This is especially true with hidden tracks that try to make you jump, unfortunatly there has only been 1 that has managed to do this to me and the rest I realised would play before they actually did through one means or another (hearing the CD still playing even though it should have finished for example). If a hidden track could truly surprise you it would be great, however in the current format they seem easy to spot and only surprise you if you really aren't paying any attention to the CD at all.
--Sense of achievement when found--
This applies mainly to hidden tracks at the begginning of a CD, unless you are actually looking for them most of the time you will miss them as finding them actually requires some effort on your part. If you do find tracks like this you do feel a sense
of achievement in finding it, especially if it's a CD you have listened to time and time again and never noticed. Having said this however it also means that a lot of people will miss out on the hidden track, provided this is only a joke track then this is fine as they aren't really missing out on a lot, however if it's a song they are missing out on then they probably aren't going to be getting the full value out of their CD and it would probably be more suitable at the end of the CD rather than at the beggining (or even given its own track if it's good enough).
---Conclusion---
There isn't really much else to say about hidden tracks, they aren't a huge part of the CD. I feel their true purpose is for either a comedy value or a surprise however also believe that the surprise is hard to achieve in the current format as it is very easy to spot a hidden track if you are paying any attention at all. I don't like extra songs being added as hidden tracks for the simple reason they are inconvenient to get to and therefore are passed over on most listens to a CD. Hidden tracks are strange and often not really that hidden, overall they can sometimes be fun but a lot of the time are just pointless.
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