The ethics of posthumous pop albums

00:00 05:33

Graeme Thomson has narrated this article for you to listen to.

‘At the record company meeting/ On their hands – at last! – a dead star!’ Back when Morrissey was more concerned with writing a decent lyric than sour internet tirades, ‘Paint a Vulgar Picture’ by the Smiths summed it all up rather neatly: a living pop star is all well and good, but a dead one is far less troublesome – and considerably more profitable. Some artists only really get going once they’re dead. Commercially speaking, Eva Cassidy’s entire career has been posthumous; the Van Gogh of the lustreless Radio 2 ballad.

Death has been a boon to the pop industry since the year dot. Buddy Holly’s ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’ and Eddie Cochran’s ‘Three Steps to Heaven’ reached number one in 1959 and 1960, respectively, hot on the heels of their untimely demise.