listening to lots of music lately and almost every second song is “remastered”; original is often not even available anymore.
and not one single time i can hear any kind of improvement. so what does it even mean, to remaster a song?
one of the worst cases, imo is atomic by blondie.
and to add: iʼm not some kind of nostalgic puritan, plenty of songs get better after some remixing, covering and whatnot, like
The Clash - Rock The Casbah (12 inch Version)
But the remastered version?
dear god, if i wanted to listen to sting, i would listen to friggin sting.
A master tape is the song recorded in the studio which will then be replicated and distributed. A remaster means you make a new one of those. Often that can mean just re-recording (a lot of Taylors remasters do this) or it can mean you totally change the music. There’s never a situation where you can’t get the old version though. Just buy the old CD/vinyl/tape/whatever that comes from the master you like.