Did you know Bill Drummond and Jimmy Caughty AKA The KLF once burned 1 million pounds of their own cash.
On 23 August 1994 The K foundation burned the freshly printed dosh, consisting of £50 notes, in an elaborate performance art ritual on the isle of Jura in the Scottish Hebrides. The money was essentially the entirety of the duo's earnings from record sales up to that point.
The duo toured the UK to attempt to converse with audiences over the meaning of this act, then promptly stepped away from the music industry, informing fans that they would remain silent over the act for a period of 23 years, later they did briefly talk about it but it's clear they regret burning the money.
I think it was incredibly meaningful, if you see the film about it, narrated by none other than Martin Sheen, they actually portrayed the event in a wicker man inspired ritual performance that definitely left you contemplating how we are all controlled by money on some level. On another level i can see why they were trying to make a point about the whole A&R Warner Brothers label bullshit that they were involved in before breaking away.
As for burning the money, that takes some balls! and this was the early 90's folks. I know i couldn't do it.
I think Bill and Jimmy caused us to really look at the music we were consuming, what was going on behind the scenes and contemplate the whole idea of freedom to express without boundaries and stipulations WITHIN the public eye and the mainstream industry, as well as the whole idea of what money really means. Back then, these guys were artistically provoking us to consider these things.
KLF were one of the electronic bands who really introduced me to a new paradigm of music at the time, i was about 7 or 8 when i first heard their tracks and i remember getting their album "The White Room". After being bombarded with Pete Watermans rinse and repeat production methods with Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley, Sinitta and co all the time, hearing acid house inspired tracks like 3am and last train to trancentral at such a spongey minded age was quite mind expanding, it was so out of the box and had this elevated esoteric energy i could never put my finger on as a kid, but intuitively i knew this music was the future, and this was when pop music wasn't even that crap like now. I quite liked Mel & Kim and Waterman was a master marketer with his own signature sound, which i respect.
But, KLF were making a point, they took on the world with this new sound, which truly changed the landscape of music forever, and they conquered. Those of us of a certain generation had the tapes and wore them out. If only we had the internet back then, because what was bubbling beneath the surface was a new world in music. Acid house, Jungle, Techno, Detroit house. But the acid house scene was the pivot that broke all the rules and transcended what everyone thought music was about up to that point i think.
I've noticed that through all the innovation, evolution and change in all facets of music, there has been one constant that has never gone out of fashion or become obsolete, and that is sampling.