[gmku]

This really points to why I think it's hard for there to be any kind of great breakthrough album these days. A release once upon a time included many other cultural attachments. It's fine to be all about the music but focusing only on the music also means those other things lose significance. It's hard to create a huge swelling of fan enthusiasm without those other cultural aspects, because basically and quite simply, those things are a lot of "fun."

They may also be a lot of marketing but you can't deny the fun factor in things like cover artwork, rock fashions, videos, and so on.

Think about the Beatles making music if their music had just been downloaded and we never saw them on TV, or they never made movies, or kids never started copying their hairstyles and clothes, or if they didn't make those revolutionary album covers.