What about "The Artist formerly known as 'The Artist formerly known as 'Prince.''"</font>[/QUOTE]And when the Queen dies will Charles be known as 'The Monarch formerly known as Prince'?

Mmmm, this 'featuring' thing isn't a recent invention Leonis. Having a quick look at 2 of my CDs I can very easily come up with:

The Skatalites feat. Don Drummond
The Skatalites feat. Roland Alphonso
The Soul Brothers feat. Roland Alphonso
The Skatalites feat. Bob Marley & The Wailers
The Skatalites feat. Stranger Cole & Ken Boothe
The Skatalites feat. Jackie Opel
The Skatalites feat. Margarita
The Skatalites feat. Jackie Opel & Doreen Schaffer

These tracks date from 1962ish onwards. I would argue therefore that marketing in this way - by highlighting the involvement of well known names (at least to the target audience) has a bit of history, at least in Jamaican modern music.

Hey, Epona, my father-in-law has an old LP by, "The Harry James Orchestra, featuring Frank Sinatra," so it has been going on longer than that. :D And, you are right, it is to take advantage of "name recognition," hoping to stand out in a crowded market.

in the words of the great DJ Jelousy:

"This one goes out to anyone putting that Bull**** on the air waves... Knock that **** off f'real ya know what i'm sayin'? That **** is some greedy *** fake bull ****, and when that come and slap you in the face, you know i'm talking: that Greed, I'm gonna be right there laughin' at chall, On one other thing: While you keep on fakin' the funk, we're just going to keep on walkin' through the darkness carryin' our tortches! Now lets get back to the program! Undeground will live foreva' baby!

True, I agree, and I like the 'featuring' and collaboration of artists, particularly ones you wouldn't normally expect. eg: Metallica/Maryanne Faithful, Metallica/Orchestra (forgot which one), P.J.Harvey/Thom Yorke (although that's not too unexpected), Nick Cave/Kylie and so on...

Adding diversity, interest and even credibility is fine. When people are being pushed the collaboration over and above the actual song, and when it seems like they've gone - "screw it, we've got so many guest stars they could fart in a mic and it would sell millions" - that's what annoys me.

But it's the proverbial head against the brick wall isn't it? Fine music will keep getting made and sold, but it faces an increasingly difficult war of attrition against "music artists" who are all about looks, image and advertising deals.