Nirvana, Guns N'Roses Recordings lost in 2008 Fire

That made the headlines in 2008. A major fire swept part of the lot of Universal Studios in Hollywood. But while the headlines focused on parts of the theme park being damaged and some of the video safes were on display, what was mostly overlooked was the damage to an archive containing some most iconic recordings of music.

The New York Times published a full article reporting on the 2008 fire and what it meant for the music industry because it had been revealed that about 500,000 titles had been lost. In the new report, the list of artists who lost works in the fire includes names such as Nirvana, Guns Nose, Nine Inch Nails, Aerosmith, Iggy Pop, Soundgarden, Hole, Sonic Youth and many others.

Recordings of former bands such as Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway, Charles Ray, Les Paul, Domino Fats, Burl Ives, King B., Loretta Lynn, George Jones and many other major artists of the rock era have also been included.

Writer Jody Rosen suggests that the news of the lost recordings that had just been revealed was probably due to the confusion surrounding the inclusion of the archives in Universal's holdings. ;time. "The confusion was understandable: Universal Studios Hollywood was a movie backlot, not a record company headquarters, and a series of mergers and acquisitions had largely cut the links between film and music activities. Universal In 2004, Universal Studios was acquired by General Electric and merged with GE, NBC, to become NBCUniversal, UMG was placed under a separate management and in 2006 became the exclusive property of the French conglomerate Vivendi ., UMG was a tenant paying rent on the NBC Universal property. "

When Vault 's senior director of archives, Randy Aronson, arrived for the first time, he realized that he was attending an event of considerable magnitude. "It was like end-of-the-world movies," says Aronson. "I felt like my planet was destroyed."

In a March 2009 document, it was reported that the "destroyed assets" rose to 118,230, while Aronon felt that the total was a bit low, considering that it was located around 175,000. Another confidential report obtained for the New York Times The story suggests that "500,000 song titles" have been lost. Mr. Aronson was reminded that he had heard that the company had set the combined total price of tape loss and "artistic loss" at $ 150 million.

The loss is even greater when one considers the possibility that unpublished music potentially disappears for reissue, which has become such an important market for artists over the past two decades. While the New York Times While the report did not distinguish individual recordings, the 2008 fire had a significant impact on many artists of all kinds.

Dig deeper into the overwhelming loss of music New York Times article right here.