The Current Music Blog: December 22, 2007 Archive

LONG LIVE THE ALBUM!

Posted at 1:41 PM on December 22, 2007 by Mark Wheat

That is the overwhelming response to our question of the week, or should that be 'provocative statement'' of the week? Many of you thought I was just being "extremely contrived...trying to stir controversy" as Brian put it.
Perhaps the lead in to the piece on our front page did suggest that I had made up my mind. Actually, as I have said many times on the air, I could go either way on this, or as Jay from Cleve put it..." my take on this issue is schizzy". Especially after seeing the depth and passion brought to this discussion by so many of you, we can't declare it dead just yet;

"I think the term "album" refers to a collection of sequenced recordings presented in a specific fashion. musicians will never abandon that." -minnie_music

"The notion of the album existed long before the physical manifestation of it ever appeared. Whatever that 'notion' is, in terms of human needs or desires, will exist long into the future as well. " -Happy Jose

"A good album makes a statement and it tells a story, and its not just about the packaging and artwork." - Jesse

"From a musical standpoint, the idea of creating and crafting songs that are a collection and a variation on a central theme has not gone away" - Courtney Klos

"The hard core music fan will always need that 45 minute look into the soul of an artist." - Matt

"A song can sell an album, but an album can't sell a song." - Amy

But to paraphrase Tom K (the only one to say I was right!) and david, it really depends on the nature of the consumer. Musicheads will always like albums, to search the soul of their favorite artists. But we musicheads make up about 10% of the population and everyone else just likes a bunch of cool tunes! When we started the station 3 years ago, we chose several tracks from what we thought were the best albums of the day. But the industry has changed and increasingly we are playing singles unattached to albums and I don't think it's a bad thing to play a band like Vampire Weekend who haven't even released an album yet!

Most people consume music in play lists, either their own, streamed services or radio stations. The DJs here love creating sets of tunes that have links, obvious or tenuous. The joy of discovering how Iron & Wine goes with Ali Farka Toure is as similarly satisfying as listening to a whole album from one artist and discovering hidden depths to the meanings of their songs.

I have no doubt that the album will live on, in some form. But I think Aaron's comment put it very well when he quoted Neko Case talking about her 'Fox Confessor' album; "Individually, the songs were written without thinking about each other, but they all end up with that theme in the end."

If albums are groups of songs that hold together conceptually and they are designed to be heard together, then they should be called an album. But not every collection of songs put on the same cd works within these guide lines and too many of them are too long with too many weak songs. So I think the concept of the album has become degraded. As Dale put it; "An album is an art form similar to a symphony, or a novel. Its not just a CD with 11 songs. Sure, the albums that have 2 singles and 9 filler songs wont sell. But albums as a concept aren't going anywhere."

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this discussion, the traffic on the site this week was phenomenal. We would like to try to do something like this every week on the blog. It will only work with your continued participation. If you'd like to suggest a theme or still have issues with me personally, e-me; mwheat@mpr.org

Next Week; What is the right length for an album?

I will try to get some of our classical music colleagues involved too, as david said;
"...there's just something about that length - 45 minutes. having been in several bands, I know when we plan sets its like planning a track listing. did you know how they came up with the album length? I've heard that it was based upon the time needed to perform a classical (i.e. - Mozart or Haydn - as opposed to say Mahler or Bruckner) symphony in its entirety on one side - roughly 20 to 25 minutes. like I said, there is something about that length - I guess there has always been, even going back a couple hundred years."