Ahead of the curve
Jeff Robertson’s take on the legendary Warner/Reprise Loss Leaders:
The mix of artists even on a single one of these records [is] crazy diverse, and nothing is segregated by genre. On the early albums, you will quite literally find Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Randy Newman, James Taylor, and Gordon Lightfoot sharing the same record. This defies all notions of market segmentation.
Either they were really ahead of their time, reflecting how people would eventually put all those together on their mixtapes and iPods, or they just didn’t care.
They knew. They probably didn’t anticipate the iPod and its brethren, but they knew.
If you’re not familiar with the Loss Leaders, start here.