They included putting sound on the run-out of a record so that if your tonearm didn't automatically lift at the end of a record you'd hear some sound for eternity. Then CDs came along and Nirvana put a long gap of silence after the "last song" so you'd be all surprised when another song started. Then NiN and Cracker put 99 tracks on their CDs just because they could. Of course when you went to rip these CDs, you just excluded the silent tracks.
Like most things that are "clever" at first, the 10-15 minute-long songs with many minutes of silence in them are just annoying.
I am so surprised that bands and artists still do this. What's going through their heads? Do they think that its clever? Do they think that anyone likes it? Especially in this age of iPods and shuffle and smart playlists its nothing but an annoyance. There I am riding the subway, happily listening to my music when I'm listening to silence.
Let me tell all artists and bands out there unequivocally - its not clever, or funny, or entertaining in any way. Its dumb. Its old. Its been done and no one ever liked it.
Stop it.
Now.
Rant off.
Tune in next week when I go off about how movie and TV shows still put in dial tone sound effects on cell phones when everyone knows full well that there's no dial tone on a cell phone. Never has been. Never will be.