As we talked about in class today, virtually no one buys a complete album anymore. Not only is the physical act of going to a record store and purchasing an album lost, but so is the age and appreciation of the cohesive album. When cohesive albums were appreciated, artists were defined more by their albums than by their singles. Just look at the series of albums recorded by The Beatles during the 60s. This progression of albums defines The Beatles' and the development of their music.
I realize that technology has moved away from CDs and more toward Mp3 files, but even if the act of purchasing an actual CD is now obselete, that doesn't mean that the cohesive album should be lost. A couple examples of cohesive albums from the 60 are the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and The Who's Tommy, the first rock opera. These two albums were meant to be listened to in order, from start to finish, and each album was very carefully put together.
Today, albums are nothing but a group of singles, most of which have no relation to each other what so ever. In my opinion, it is too bad that "the album" has lost its meaning. Gone are the days when you would go to the record store, buy an album, and listen to it from start to finish. Whether you think this change from consumers having collections of cohesive albums to consumers having a random assortment of singles on an ipod is good or bad for music, it is certainly a significant development in the music realm; one that needs to be noted.
This is so sad. I know I happen to be changing to just downloading most of the stuff I like, but I always make sure that whenever one of my favorite artists put out an album, I go out to the nearest best buy and get it.
ReplyDeleteI actually bought an album as early as last tuesday. I'm just afraid that it wont be long before the record industry decides to cut the production of CD's completely, and i'll be forced to only download.
The same goes for movies and videogames - I really enjoy physically owning and showing off the boxes, but those days seem to be disappearing, as the download sales go up, and physical stores' selections go down.
I don't think the album is dead, I just think popular music tends to encourage the concept of the "hit song", as opposed to complete albums. I think its become worse with the creation of iTunes, and the like, which only add to that. But I don't think that's any kind of modern advancement either. We just tend to remember the good music like The Beatles and The Who and try to forget that Huey Lewis and the News wasn't exactly making "complete albums" either.
ReplyDeleteIt comes down to where you look, basically. There's no "classic" albums on the Top 40 like "Sergeant Pepper" or "Tommy", not in today's society. But that doesn't mean there aren't great albums that rival the likes of those. Great albums you listen to start and finish. And there are still people who buy albums. I have a stack here right next to me that I just bought over the past week or two.
But, what you're saying is right. For society as a whole, music has lost much of the meaning it used to have. But there are plenty of "perfect" albums out there, just no one's telling you that you should go out and buy them.
I have to agree that the age of the album has long passes. I still call CD's albums out of habit, however this title could not be further from the truth.
ReplyDeleteI may sound old, but I crave for the days for the Beatles to return. A time where music could actually be listened to and heard, not only as sound but with meaning behind it.
The albums of the Beatles showed the progression not only of the band itself, but of the times and of the people of that generation. I don't think we will ever see a band do anything like that again, at least not in our time. That is, unless some serious changes are made to the music industry and its one-and-done way of doing things.