Back in the day, so many musicians either hated the idea of a song ending, or just collapsed at the finish-line of the effort and couldn’t commit to a solid finale, that the song fade-out became commonplace.  But how could this be?  How could any discerning listener accept a fade-out as any way to end any sort of work??

No, the song doesn’t end.  It goes on forever.  Don’t you see?  It’s just receding into the distance!  It’s just being taken elsewhere– you, stay put.  The art moves on.  But take note that the song lives and plays on for forevertude in Plato’s heaven!  …That’s some serious goddamned artist hubris right there.   Fuck THAT shit.  No art should end in a way that is a simulation of me walking away.  How passive.  How effete!

Films don’t fade away to nothing leaving the viewer feeling unresolved.  Nor do paintings.  Or photographs.  Nor books.  Somehow, musicians felt that they could get off easy with a little bit of audiophonic legerdemain, but it isn’t going to work anymore.