Caution this article contains the author’s own perspective and does not necessarily reflect the views of The Bear Truth News or Winter Springs High School.
When a famous musician dies, it is tragic, like the death of anyone. An inspiration that contributed to the music industry, that moved people emotionally through music, and continues to affect the world is now lost and can no longer continue creating more. Although death is final, the music industry has proved that death does not necessarily mean the end of hearing something new.
Posthumous releases are a small part of the industry that has grown more common in recent years. A posthumous project is most commonly a collection of previously unheard material produced by a musician that is released after their lifetime by the musician’s estate. This could include demos, studio recordings, alternate mixes of previously released music, and more. The practice of posthumous projects occurs across all genres. However recently, there has been discussion about the ethicality of posthumous releases. Is it okay to release unheard material after death? The answer is extremely complicated.
Elliott Smith, an indie rock artist, passed away in 2003. Before his untimely death, he was in the process of completing an album that would be the successor to his, at the time, latest album titled Figure 8. The album in question was near completion, and his family and estate had approved its release in 2004, From a Basement on the Hill was then shown to the public. This is an example of an ethical posthumous project; the project was his vision, and he had originally planned to release the project.
Another example of a good posthumous release is Legends Never Die by Juice WRLD. Rather than a full album that Juice WRLD was planning to release, it was a compilation of unreleased songs he had finished and was planning to release. Even though the album lacked the creative input of Juice WRLD, it serves as a great tribute to the deceased musician.
Other projects like Circles by Mac Miller, Milk And Honey by John Lennon, and The Cry of Love by Jimi Hendrix fall under the same category of Elliott Smith’s release: these are ethical posthumous projects. Projects such as The Immortal Otis Redding by Otis Redding, Eva by heart by Eva Cassidy, and R U Still Down? [Remember Me] by 2pac are similar to Juice WRLD’s ethical posthumous compilation album. Not all posthumous projects are good, however; the people deciding to release posthumous projects do not always have pure intentions.
Michael Jackson passed away in 2009. The year following, Jackson’s estate had announced and released the posthumous album, Michael. The album served not only as a tribute to him, but also contained songs that Jackson had previously been working on right before his death.
However, a legal issue arose after several claims and accusations claimed that three of the ten tracks were actually recorded by an impersonator. After the unveiling of several pieces of evidence, and a court case in 2018, the reports were confirmed.
Another example of an artist who has had posthumous projects that caused ethical disruption is 2pac. A well known rap artist, the rapper had many albums released after his death, many of them were heavily remixed, altered, and edited. Oftentimes, his voice has been edited to praise artists he had never even met.
After examining several examples of posthumous releases, one can logically conclude there is no simple answer; music releases can be both ethical and unethical, it all simply depends on the intentions that follow them. Generally, the public considers albums that seem to be genuine tributes to the artist, and projects not motivated by greed to be ethical and acceptable.
