Box set

A box set or boxed set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) packaged in a box, for sale as a single unit.

Types of box sets

Music box sets

Artists and bands with an extremely long and successful career often have anthology or "essential" collections of their boxes of music released as box sets. These often include rare and never-before-released tracks. Some box sets collect together previously released boxes of singles or albums by a music artist, and often collect the complete discography of an artist such as Pink Floyd's Oh, by the Way.

Other music box sets focus on a compilation of boxes of different artists from a particular genre such as Big Band jazz, 1960s rock and roll, or opera. They generally feature a large collection of various hits from some of the top artists of a particular genre. The scope of such box sets varies widely, with some genre-specific box sets (such as one featuring rock music) focusing on boxes of a specific style (for instance, guitar rock or "Summer of Love" music). Two of the best known companies for making box sets are Legacy Recordings and Rhino Records; both have won multiple Grammy Awards. Prior to Rhino and Legacy, companies such as Time-Life Records and Readers Digest also issued box sets.

Box set (theatre)

In theatre, a box set is a set with a proscenium arch stage and three walls. The proscenium opening is the fourth wall. Box sets create the illusion of an interior room on the stage, and are contrasted with earlier forms of set in which sliding flats with gaps between them create an illusion of perspective.

Box sets were introduced to the English theatre by Elizabeth Vestris. They later became a feature of realist theatre, and an example of the "fourth wall removed" principle that characterized the work of noted realists such as Henrik Ibsen, Émile Zola, George Bernard Shaw, or Anton Chekhov.

In play style of Realism the Box Set of the stage was a room with either plain black back drop or three walls, the fourth wall was invisible, separating the characters from the audience, the ceiling was tilted down at the far end of the stage and up toward the audience. Doors slammed instead of swinging when being shut just like in a real world.

References

Box Set (Samhain album)

The Samhain Box Set was released in 2000, more than 13 years after Samhain effectively ceased recording and performing. The set's five CDs and one VHS tape compile nearly all of the band's original catalogue, newly remastered for the original mastertapes, and a wealth of previously unreleased material, the latter of which includes a live CD and a VHS video cassette of live footage.

Of Samhain's previous official releases, only the original mix of the Unholy Passion EP was not included in the Box Set; conjecture is that the original master tapes had been lost over the years, or were erased when Danzig re-recorded the guitar and some vocal tracks to those songs in June 1987.

Special packaging

The Box Set initially retailed at around $60.00 USD, and is now out of print. If pre-ordered online through distributor E-Magine Music's website, the first pressing of the Box Set was shipped two weeks prior to the street date, and was packaged with a bonus metal pin of the "scarecrow beast" character that appeared on Samhain T-shirts in the 1980s (similar to the one on the cover of the November-Coming-Fire album). In all pressings, each of the five CDs came in its own "mini-LP" sleeve within the box, but when they were re-released individually the following year, these sleeves were replaced with normal CD jewel-cases.