Posted on 01/05/2004 10:54:36 AM PST by Rebelbase
For nearly 40 years, the album has been the main currency of pop music and its No. 1 source of debate.
Is Abbey Road better than Rubber Soul? Is Nevermind really the greatest rock album of the '90s? Is Britney's new album lame or what?
But questions like that may soon be as dead as the eight-track tape.
With the recent boom in 99-cent-per-song downloading sites, music fans are cherry-picking their favourite tunes and ignoring full-length albums - much to the dismay of musicians who spend months crafting them.
The album's glory days could be history, with three-minute singles ruling the music world as they did in the 1950s. That shake-up would not only affect the record labels' bottom line but might also transform the way pop music is created and heard.
"I see the demise as inevitable," says singer David Bowie. "In the future, it'll all be in the hands of the fans, who'll cut and paste whatever songs they want. The artist will have no control over it."
Yet not everyone is ready to bury the album. Some high-profile musicians insist that the album - not the song - is the be-all of pop music, and they argue that fans shouldn't be able to carve random pieces off an album any more than readers should be able to buy one chapter of a book.
"We have to be the ones who decide what happens to our music," says Lars Ulrich of Metallica. "We conceive entire albums, and I'm not gonna give it to you in any other form than the one I conceive. ... You can dissect it after that if you want, but at least you have to respect our choice."
Metallica is among a handful of acts that refuse to sell their songs a la carte over the Web. John Mayer, Linkin Park and the Beastie Boys are also bucking the 99-cent song trend by only allowing their complete albums to be downloaded for $9.99. But they might be fighting a lost cause. Album sales have dropped 20 per cent since 2000, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and all eyes are fixed on new digital music shops such as Musicmatch, BuyMusic and Apple's iTunes, which has sold more than 25 million songs since it started in April. Unlike brick-and-mortar record stores that deal mostly in full-length CDs, the internet stores focus on songs. At iTunes, single downloads are outselling albums roughly 15-to-1.
"It's a song economy now," says iTunes spokesman Chris Bell. "Consumers have come to expect it through illegal file sharing and CD burning, and we're making sure every song is available for individual downloading."
The company's slogan - "iTunes is designed for instant gratification" - points to the biggest reason why albums may be withering. With attention spans shrinking and music outlets multiplying (on TV, satellite radio and in cyberspace), people aren't as willing to sit through an entire album as they were in the past.
Super-size albums are making the problem worse. The 35-minute album of yesteryear has been replaced by 60- and 70-minute epics, in part because compact discs fit more music than LPs and tapes did. But the marathon albums are also a result of musicians trying to justify the $18 or $19 cost of a CD.
"It's like, 'How much music can I cram on there?' and the albums just get weaker and weaker," says Joe Levy, a Rolling Stone senior editor who helped compile the magazine's recent "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" issue.
"It's not just the download services that are chipping away at people's interest in albums; it's the bloat that's been created ever since CDs were introduced."
In the '50s, rock 'n' roll revolved around the 45-rpm single. Albums - if record labels even bothered to put them out - were just ragtag compilations of unrelated singles. But the psychedelic '60s turned that upside down. With the Beatles and Bob Dylan knocking out songs at a rapid-fire clip, the 33-rpm album became the best way to get them to the marketplace.
Spurred on by free-form FM radio, musicians started writing longer songs and weaving whole albums around a musical or lyrical theme: The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Who's rock opera Tommy (1969), Marvin Gaye's socially conscious What's Going On (1971).
Suddenly, rock 'n' roll was no longer just a random parade of ditties blaring from an AM car radio. Thanks to the album, rock was an official art form, worthy of being analysed on hi-fi stereos and dissected in The New York Times - just like jazz or classical music.
By the mid-'70s, concept albums were standard fare in pop music, from Willie Nelson's Western fable Red Headed Stranger to Pink Floyd's stoner-rock song cycle, Dark Side of the Moon.
Even if albums didn't have a theme, bands treated them as indivisible works of art, which helped boost their egos as well as their bank accounts: When Stairway to Heaven became the rage of FM radio in the early '70s, Led Zeppelin refused to put it out as a single, a ploy that catapulted sales of the group's fourth, untitled album.
Record labels took a similar approach in the '80s and began phasing out singles to force music fans to buy full-length CDs. But not everyone was convinced the album was infallible.
"I've never found an album - even a Beatles album - where every song on it was great," says B.B. King, who now listens to his favourite tunes on an MP3 player.
R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck agrees. "I can't tell you how many albums I bought back in the vinyl days and only listened to one side."
Post-punk bands such as R.E.M. formed as a reaction to the bloated "art-rock" albums of bands like Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Even as singles began vanishing from record stores in the '80s, people began clamouring for their return.
"Singles are the essence of rock 'n' roll ... Nobody goes around humming albums," rock historian Dave Marsh wrote in his 1989 book The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1,001 Greatest Singles Ever Made.
Today's post-Napster generation goes by the same philosophy. Armed with hand-held MP3 players, music listeners have turned into free-range DJs, playing their favourite singles whenever and wherever they want.
But don't hit "eject" on full-length CDs just yet. Though the album may be faltering, the pay-to-download sites account for a small percentage of all music sold, and most musicians still plot their careers in terms of albums, not songs.
This year, concept albums have been coming back in vogue (Neil Young's Greendale, Mars Volta's De-loused in the Comatorium), as have heady, experimental works such as Erykah Badu's Worldwide Underground.
"I'm an analog girl in a digital world. ... I don't even have the internet," says Badu.
"I have faith that real music lovers will always want to hear every little bit of an album," says singer Edie Brickell. "Artists will have to get more creative with websites to encourage people to listen to the whole thing ... but the album is still such a great concept."
And if musicians keep sticking to the concept, the iTunes nation could eventually get over its album phobia.
"Ultimately, the fate of the album is in the hands of the artist," says Rolling Stone's Levy. "If they keep making great albums, the album will survive."
Red
One word.
Newsgroups.
Download any number of excellent (read: EASY) newsreaders (nomadnews.com, Powergrab - resumes broken downloads), or better yet, pay 10 bucks a month for an 3 month retention news service (easynews.com) and download mp3s to your heart's content. Even on 56K, I am downloading far, far more albums per day that I can even listen to. But I can sample all of the album before I shell out 20 to 30 bucks for a 2 disc set. Most of my favorite groups/genres: New-Age, Classical, Anime, Jazz, Ambient, Film Soundtracks, and even video game soundtracks (Metal Gear Solid 2, Resident Evil 0, . Couldnt believe the stuff available on Usenet that never even thought existed. Soundtracks to every PS2 and Gamecube game in existence. Stuff you would never find on Kazaa or Napster (or only partially and badly ripped at 92 kbps). Stuff that is not available here unless you want to pay 100 bucks to import it from Japan.
And whats more...Usenet is anonymous. Downloading won't bring the Record Nazis bustin through your door at 1am. I have bought many Jazz and New-Age stuff that I wouldn't have had a chance to listen to (ever hear of a new-age radio station?)
'Radiohead - OK Computer' is a great composition, one of my favorites from the last 10 years or so. Even if they are liberals they still make great music. Also 'The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots' is an excellent piece.
Translation: "We want to produce one or two good songs, a lot of crap filler and retire at an early age after ripping the consumer out of 20 bucks for our cds. Or, if they want, they can get sound files (whole album only) for only ten bucks and they gotta provide their own cds, jewel cases and covers. They'll still get the crap, though."
Uh, Lars, it's the CONSUMER ultimately driving the market for your music. If it's good, then it will be bought. If it's bad, or not in a form that is desireable (e.g. singles), then you aren't going to be able to sell it.
Don't forget...Alcoholica (metallica's true nickname), when they were a struggling Thrash Metal band in SanFran used to tell the fans to bootleg the shows, and make copies of the songs and pass them around!
Songs, Lars...not "Albums"..since you DIDN'T HAVE A RECORDING CONTRACT then!
Now...it's all about THEIR CONTROL OF THE CASH FLOW! If the album is good, the fan's will eat it up...but the albums AREN'T GOOD...usually due to the MASSIVE EGOS of these "SUCK"-cessful artists, but also because the Record Companies are DESPERATELY trying to find THE formula that they can sell Bands with...not good music, or good hooks (Fountains of Wayne comes to mind as a GOOD act), or good albums...but GIMMICKS!
I'm a Pro musician, and I can tell you that with VERY few exceptions, a band makes it's $$$ selling seats, putting a$$es in seats, and the merchandise that is sold at a gig! Not from the recording contract, because first time acts get PENNIES on the dollar of sales, and all the up-front $$$ and recording costs, and publishing costs, and promo costs are DEDUCTED from their "profits" on sales BEFORE they ever see a penny from sales!
It's the equivalent of slavery today, and that's why these "Starving Artists" would sign these HORRENDOUS contracts (Goo-Goo Dolls, TLC)...this was their SHOT! They were so hungry they grabbed whatever crumbs the "Industry" sent their way!
I have NO SYMPATHY for the big recording/artist houses...they screwed the Black Blues players, MoTown artists, R&B acts...and then the dumb-a$$ Rock&Roll acts!
Good point. There is SO much good music from the past that you could spend several lifetimes exploring it all. The bulk of my CD purchases lately has been classical music off the Naxos label. The works of Bach, Beethoven, Handel, Mozart, etc., are stunning to listen to, even today. Very little "filler" on those works and they didn't need MTV to promote them. 400 years from now, we'll still be listening to Bach. Will people be listening to Britney Spears 400 years from now? You've got to be kidding. Ten years from now, most people won't know who she is just like most people today have no clue who New Kids On The Block were or Milli Vanilli. Pop music has become so disposable and forgettable that it's not worth the effort to keep up with it anymore. I have CDs I bought just a few years ago that are unlistenable. As a result, I am going to be much more discriminating about what to add to my collection.
If classical isn't your cup of tea, there are some great blues and jazz records available from the earlier part of this past century (1920-1960) that are just outstanding. Even the country music from those days was consistently good. They don't make country music like Hank Williams anymore!
I love FR - it's the only place where this sort of interesting trivia surfaces! My grandparents had several such "albums" of 78 rpm platters - my mom has them now (but no 78 rpm turntable, sadly).
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