Creativity Quote by Andy Summers

“I think rock records tend to be very expensive” lands like a throwaway line, which is exactly why it’s revealing. Coming from Andy Summers, a guitarist who lived through the major-label boom and the CD-era markup, it reads less like sticker shock and more like a quiet indictment of an industry that learned to monetize desire. The phrasing is cautious - “I think,” “tend to be” - the verbal equivalent of a sidelong glance. Summers isn’t staging a crusade; he’s signaling that the math behind rock culture has always been a little suspect.

The subtext is about access and ownership. Rock sells itself as the music of the people, but its primary artifact - the record - has often been priced like a luxury good. That tension matters because rock’s credibility runs on authenticity: sweat, clubs, rebellion, community. When the entry fee rises, the culture tilts from participatory to consumerist, from “this is ours” to “this is for sale.”

There’s also an artist’s double bind hiding in the blandness. Summers benefited from big budgets, studio time, and global distribution - the very infrastructure that inflates costs - while knowing fans are the ones eating the price. It’s a musician noticing the tollbooth on the road to obsession: the kid who wants every album, every import, every new format, and gets quietly taught that devotion has a receipt attached.