h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Best of...music collections rarely have what is the best a band has recorded; they're usually just the most popular songs by a band, that is, what the label has sold as the most popular, i.e., what we're supposed to like, not what is really good. What's really good usually has a "swear word" or a long jam and the song becomes seven minutes long...too long for a greatest hits album. Of course, if the band was never that great, its best of tends to be eponymous.

If you already like the band, and have all their albums, then a "Best of" compilation becomes redundant if you enjoy the songs that arent played on the radio. However, if you like some songs youve heard, but not really into the band that made them, you can then just purchase an album dedicated to all that band may offer that has any redeeming qualities. For instance, Queen has three best of albums. One which came out in early eighties that covered their seventies greatest hits, and then a later album that included a few of their eighties hits as well. The third is really two albums, one covers the eighties and nineties (what there were) and the other covers the seventies and early eighties. For those that arent huge fans, these albums are a "great deal" purchase wise, and the music monopolys cash in on that mentality.