Walmart, Guns N Roses, and Sopranos

[brandondrury]

Well, once again I've had to make my seasonal pilgrimage to Walmart. What do I see in front of me? A HUGE display pushing the Sopranos DVDs. I consider it to be the greatest show to ever be on TV except for maybe Band of Brothers, but that was a mini-series.

However, Sopranos is probably the most vulgar show I can think of. They use the word "cunt" in pretty much every episode.

So why do musicians have to make special versions of their cds for Walmart to even consider selling that cd?

Is it an issue with demographics? 13 year old kids are buying X rap cd. 13 year old kids aren't buying Sopranos.

[Brock]

You mean "cunt" is a bad word.... Shit.....

I agree. I think it's stupid... But it's the fault of the record labels for giving in to walmart's demands... If they all said screw you, then walmart wouldn't have any music to sell...
In a perfect world, that's what should happen.

[TAlderson]

Wal Mart deals in volume, which is why they can sell at such low prices. They need to be able to buy a ton of cds at each store and know they will sell all of those cds, or else they can't offer them at low prices, which is how they make their money (small profits per item x one million items = shitloads of money). So why would they sell music from artists that they are not absolutely sure would sell big? The Sopranos has a big fan base, and it has proven to be a big seller, therefore they sell it.

-Tyler

[brandondrury]

You mean "cunt" is a bad word.... Shit.....

So eloquently spoken. Nice!

The Sopranos has a big fan base, and it has proven to be a big seller, therefore they sell it.

So you are saying that Walmart never gave a shit about "family values" to begin with. They simply knew that they'd make more money if they didn't have those damn "explicit lyrics" stickers on their cd covers. Make sense.

The Sopranos has a big fan base

Thank god! I usually don't give a fuck if anyone likes what I like. In fact, I tend to avoid it. However, the enormous commercial success of a show that is about as unpolitically correct as possible in this modern, hyper sensitive pussitis society shows me that there is still hope. We can see this in other commercially viable movies such as Pulp Fiction, Good Fellas, and The Departed.

The fact that there are quite a few people who pay to see these kinds of movies is one of the few threads of hope that I still have the human race.

Brandon