Are albums dead?
 

I've seen this sentiment a lot recently ("the album as an art form or musical journey is dead/dying"), and this question is about as subjective and volatile as asking if arcades are dead on a video game forum, but...it just seems like the idea of releasing a bunch of songs that have some relation to each other in a physical form is becoming more and more antiquated (sp?), and the focus is more and more on individual songs. On one hand, it frees the artist from having to keep to a common thread and release albums on a timetable of every other year. At the same time, however, it could cause some people to shy away from experimenting or doing mood pieces because those sorts of things don't always hold up on there own-could you imagine Providence out of the context of Daydream Nation, or Scooter + Jinx out of the context of Goo? And this question easily leads to other questions, like what is role/purpose of the B-side if all songs are singles? How can up and coming musicians deal with this change or exploit it to their advantage?

I'd wager this is the wrong forum for that question. I haven't bought a single for years and years (with the odd exception) and I'd imagine most people here are similar.

Depends on what you listen to - the sort of rock that does the rounds around here is definitely album-based. On a dubstep forum they'd probably say something very different.

I still buy albums. It'll be shame if we lose them. People's attention spans will become even shorter.

I would think for this reason that this is actually a perfect forum for that question. You can't see a solution if you're part of the problem.

Well, in my case I predominantly buy classical albums, which don't have an existence outside of the album format, so there's really very little to say on that. The Classical market is thriving very healthily, and hasn't really been affected by the atrophy of the rest of the industry. Although studios are looking more towards former soviet bloc countries to record newer stuff a lot of the time (though Germany picks up quite a bit as well).

Otherwise, I buy dance compilations or second-hand albums. I don't really know this world where the album's dying. So yeah, I'm probably part of some demographic. The demographic that doesn't care about singles, at all.

This pleases me.


Your admission, on the otherhand, that you buy dance albums...

albums might fade away from popular consumption, but i'd say if anything that they may go in a similar direction to vinyl, i.e. valued by enthusiasts, but forgotten about by the public at large

That's nothing. You should see him dancing to them.

Dances like a fuckin spastic.

And if you've ever seen a spastic fucking you'll know what I mean.

I once had sex with a spastic and then killed it brutally. IT LOOKED LIKE YOUR FACE POOKIE, THAT'S WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE.

I think ive subsumed myself into a totally elitist musical taste now, so i dont really take anything seriously unless its been on the second layer website, or the Volcanic Tongue website, or the Norman records website. I havent been engaged with the public at large for a very long time, i wish i could have, but i just aint.
I think theres a very good culture that goes around and lets Ducktails have over 10,000 views on youtube and Oneohtrix have a london show. The album may be declining but its not dead

yeh dood we luv bein eltist 2. hey do u wnat 2 buy this new album its an unearthed recording of me playing free jazz noise post wave steel ukelele drone while being spanked by a dood on acid who recites bad poetry about being at one with nature in 1973? its handmade and features hand drawn cover art and a substantial booklet in a stunning art inexplicably jaw dropping emotion confusion. its like total mong ultra damage lo fi sunburnt post post pyschedlica post post punk but not post punk. get it quick only 2 copies left or you will end up engaged with the public Tip O The Tongue £45.99 2xLP

Ultra Mega Highly Total Highest Possible Recommended

Says him with the blog.

best post on the board, n'ik.

The reason Ducktails have 10,000 youtube views is because one of the members is in the boring band REAL ESTATE.

Nah, as long as there are stuck up, elitist pretentious snobs to buy them... Haha... :) Just joking... Really, the only people who buy albums anywhere in the planet anymore are Sonic Youth fans... To the average caffeine-imbibing, subway-taking, drone/labourer; Youtube is the new Billboard, Rolling Stone and MTV rolled into one... If it's not on Youtube with at least 100,000 hits - it's not worth it...

I couldn't understand why people were wearing watches, because they seemed like hourglasses of death, keeping track of how much time was running out.

Maybe they liked to know what time it was?

That's not necessary. Time is an invention of man. Time isn't real.

Exactly why they wanna know... If time was invented by 'Man', it stands to reason that 'Man' would be the creature most interested in it; as opposed to; say, a gnu... And seeing as how 'Man' is an egoistical and self-serving creature by nature; it is only obvious that watches sell so well... And sometimes they're a fashion statement as well... :)

I imagine you're really popular at airline check-ins

Worrying about the death of the album is so 2005.

The album isn't dying. Wal-mart even stocks vinyl now.

Come the fuck on. This Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame eschatology is smug and timid.

I've bought some excellent singles this year. Arthur Doyle, Hans Chew, Amber Alerts, Jack Rose, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Rudolph Grey off the top of my head.

The artists I'm interested in generally record albums.

wal mart stocks albums from the [past that are guaranteed sellers.

as far as new bands coming up iwth full albums..

It has been a while , years, since I have heard an album of songs where the whole was amazing.

I put on Built To Spill's KEEP IT LIKE A SECRET in the car the other day and it slammed me how each song is KILLER, and just builds and builds so that by the time you are reaching the 10th song on the album it is overwhelming how awesome it is.

That was on WARNER BROS.
I would venture that nowadays finding a full album of amazing tunes coming out of warner bros is near impossible.

The thing with this is that there's a greater impetus for complete, quality product (and we are talking product) from WB and the like. You say it's been years since you found a whole album of great tunes - if you buy primarily in the indie sector, there's far less necessity for that level of quality. I know you, and most people here, don't care for the huge end of commercial pop, but WB and the like have been upping the ante on 'quality product' for years. Again, I know most of you won't like it, but Breakout by Miley Cyrus is a simply astonishingly great record (if you happen to like that sort of thing), and there's been some very consistent whole records from the likes of Britney, Christina, Avril and so on since the 'death' of the industry.

No-one's obliged to think like that sort of thing - that's personal taste - but in the context of pop music, quality has very seriously increased in the last 10 years. I think the indie sector has a different set of problems - I'd maintain that they should let people branch out a bit, and include a couple of duff songs as experiments. The problem now, I suppose, is that someone like Kate Bush, who did some preposterous things in the name of commercial pop, simply wouldn't be given that chance. I remember reading that, all that time ago, Slipknot had to remove a couple of bitchin' solos from their second record because it just didn't fit with their general ethos. If they were on MFN or Earache (unlikely, I know) they'd be given the room to include that sort of thing in their sound.

But yeah, in essence, it doesn't surprise me at all that WB put out a consistent record; what surprises me is that the market it was aimed at wasn't the pop consumer that I'm talking about, but the pop consumer that crosses over with the blackened husk of the independent underground.

Do you thik too many bands are just not taking the time to develop an album's amount of quality songs?

I think that's a bit of it - but I also think there's the fact that there's a real premium on what it takes to make a decent record. I don't care what anyone from the lo-fi brigade says - and bear in mind I own EVERYTHING Urusei Yatsura put out on every format - to sell a moderate amount of records, it takes time and decent recording. Someone like Nurse With Wound or Faust were given studio time, and lots of it, to experiment and see what they could do. In Faust's case, this was financed by what turned out to be an absolutely massive label. Even something patently commercially viable - say, early-mid REM - would struggle to be afforded the time and patience that existed when the industry was flush with money in today's climate.

Oddly though, I think this only really affects the sort of commercial indie/ rock that has a pop at the mainstream. A band like Times New Viking or whatever can do ok (in a manner of speaking) out of minimal fidelity because they're never seriously going to trouble the charts. They're kind of left to their own devices. I can't stand them, but bands like them seem to be doing alright out of the sort of people who frequent this forum. Obviously, the money that could've sent them on a European tour isn't really there any more, but that's a different matter.

No.

The irony of all of that of course is that the average consumer will only care about one or two songs from the whole package. As great a product as the whole package of a Lady Gaga album is, for example, most will only want a 'Poker Face' or a 'Bad Romance'. Meanwhile, the demographics that make up the section of people who want the sort of whole packaged album experience are being blatantly ignored. Why? It's all economics...

what the fuck is an album

Times New Viking play in Europe frequently, though. Vivian Girls are over here enough a lot too.

Ok, well, another band then. I'm sure you get my point.

I get the point you're making, and mostly agree with it. The reason I think a lot of these lo-fi bands don't tour outside the US a lot is simply because their labels are too tiny to afford that kind of money. For every rare appearance on foreign soil by your Pink Reason (a guy who seems to be able to travel and operate as an artist despite his humble finances), there is, on the same label, a US Girls who toured both her great albums across the pond.

i remember the day i bought the times new viking cd. i sat down at home, the excitement caused me to shake as i put the cd in the player for the first time... after track one i lay stunned in a trance... imagine what track 11 is gonna be like? i salviated over every glorious second of careful attentive listening that lay ahead of me... but it was too much excitement for me and i shot myself there and then. out of respect for the album.

Or, to remain on UK soil, check the rising fortunes of Male Bonding. Not a particularly great band or one that I'd think of as difficult listening myself, still not exactly cut from the same cloth as, say, Razorlight etc.

There's plenty of albums in my local branch of HMV.

Yeah but do they look well or like they might die soon?

The "Last Album you Bought" thread is still up and running so....yeah my answer is still no.

you guys, he doesn't mean "album" as in any music released on cd or vinyl, he means album as in a cohesive package. most bands now just record a bunch of songs and when they have enough they release it. there are of course exceptions, but there are not as many bands now working on ALBUMS as in the (late) 60s/70s

I think 80 minute albums are dead. They need to start putting music on DVD's. THat way you can fill hundreds of minutes. That way drone bands can really have lots of fun. "Man, minute 636 is when it stars gettin' GOOD!"

You mean concept albums?

If the concept album is dying, I'll fucking rejoice in the streets. Concept albums are mostly wank.

And I still don't see evidence of the end of the concept album beyond peevish message board rants from people who listen to too much Frank Zappa and Primus (which, for the record, is any).