by Justinpie on Thu Jan 09, 2003 12:26 pm
As far as interviews:
In 1993, when the Onion was still basically just in my hometown, they'd call up an artist (Puff Daddy or something) and then ask them right away "Why should anybody buy your CD?" Artists were usually so shocked that they'd just kind of stumble over words unless they were really dedicated to some artistic vision (like Fiona Apple), which was equally hilarious.
By the time the Onion got really big, most performers were aware of the question, so they had something scripted - but even that was cool, because it forced artists to sit and think about why people should care what they make - knowing that their potential audience would be reading. Something like this might be a good lead-in question in an interview.