One of the greatest consequences of the current trend of reissues, record digging, and overall of the vinyl resurgence is directly to the benefit of the stars of a passed era.
Everyone knows now of Sixto Rodriguez, whose story inspired a music label, a movie producer and tour promoters. He's not the only one who, thanks to a few diggers of good stories and talented musicians, enjoyed a late well-deserved fame.
Lately, the Ethiopian masters such as Hailu Mergia gained some worldwide exposure and managed to record again after decades of silence.
Googoosh, the Iranian icon of the pre-Islamic Revolution era, is among those stars who aged well. Her story and her skills have attracted the attention of the music world in the last few years. It started with some reissues and compilations on labels like Finders Keepers, which were followed by concerts and press articles. Check those two from 2018, by Vinyl Me, Please and Red Bull Music Academy, and also this one by the L.A. Times written before a concert at the Hollywood Bowl.
The downside, and this will never stops, is that original recordings from all these stars now fetch for hundreds if not thousands of euros/dollars. Some would argue that this is a new face of colonialism, which dries the originating countries out of the original stock of records, making them unavailable to the people and consequently pillaging the culture... Are record collectors salvaging these pieces or are they damaging the local cultures ? Could records possibly be sanctioned as non-exportable items by some countries, kind of like architectural artefacts ?
