thePULSEEach month, musician and Pulse Music Editor Alex Kantarelis will share his thoughts on different aspects of the music industry ~ it won’t always be pretty, but it will always be his honest opinion ~ good or bad ~ on all things music, A-Z. This month’s column is entitled “The Death of the Album.”
Things are changing. The information age (which I also call the A.D.D. generation) has stepped in and altered the way we consume media in every way. So how exactly does this effect music? Well, the album is certainly becoming a thing of the past ~ and by “album,” I don’t mean vinyl record, I mean the idea of an album: 10 songs, or 12 songs, or 18, all on one format, be it vinyl, cassette, or CD. With digital downloads overtaking CDs as the most popular way to listen to music, the idea of the album has gone straight out the door.
Before I go any further, let me ask you a serious question. When was the last time you bought a full album? I don’t necessarily mean a CD, I mean when was the last time you bought every track off the album, and ~ more importantly ~ listened to the entire thing all the way through? If you answered, “I bought Tommy by The Who on iTunes and listened to it all the way through,” that’s cheating. No old classic albums. I’m only talking about new music. I can’t remember the last time I did, and that is so weird. The truth is, a lot of people (myself included) are listening to music in new ways. 10 years ago everyone blamed Napster, but with iTunes becoming the world’s biggest music seller, we can’t blame the illegal (or as I call them, free) music downloads anymore. iTunes and mp3 players welcomed us to a world of on-demand music and an entirely new way of experiencing music as a whole.
So let’s track the life, and eventual death, of the album. It all started with vinyl. The LP was the birth of the album. The invention of the long play record brought the possibility of bands recording more than a song or two for a record, so they started thinking in terms of a full album, 12 songs that told a story from first song to last. The LP had songs in a certain order and you had to listen to them in that order, which was incredibly important to the band. The order of the songs became their way of telling the story, and was an element that they took very seriously. Next came my personal favorite, cassettes, which followed the same basic rules. You had to listen to the full album to hear the songs you wanted. So bands kept recording their albums the same way. But then the compact disc arrived and ruined everything. Remember CDs? Hard to believe they’re now considered “old school.” They messed with things because they allowed you to skip a track you didn’t like. Listening to the entire album became totally unnecessary; you could just listen to the 3 songs that you liked and call it a day. But luckily, the only way to buy the music was to buy the entire album.
Bands write albums because they want people to listen to their music as a whole, but now that digital downloads have overtaken CDs as the number 1 way to listen to music, people are just downloading 1 song at a time and ignoring the album entirely, then tossing their iPod into shuffle mode and enjoying their personal radio station.
So who’s to blame? We could blame the record companies for releasing so much average music that none of us wants to hear ~ we’d rather just pick and choose the few decent tunes that strike our fancy. Or maybe we can blame the musicians for filling their albums with so much…filler. Or perhaps people who are too impatient to actually listen to 12 songs in a row are at fault. Or maybe we should just give up trying to blame someone and accept it for what it is. I’m sure there were some purists in the 50s who were upset that bands were putting out full albums instead of singles on a 45. Well, we’ve come full circle. Let’s just be glad that we have the option to listen to so much music ~ more than ever before ~ at the touch of a button. Pink Floyd freaked out when iTunes first came out. They were completely against the idea of their albums being sold as individual tracks. Well, a year ago they changed their stance on that. So whether we like it or not, the change is officially here, and the next generation of music fans may never listen to an album all the way through. It’s a bummer, but that’s just what happens. I guess I have no choice but to embrace shuffle mode more than I used to. After all, it seems to be the future of music.
Think Alex is totally wrong? Think he’s making a good point? Tell us what’s on your mind either way by leaving a comment on this article below!
