A tip of the hat to my colleague Jeff Dorsch for sending this fine little piece my way.
The death of the album as a musical format has been threatened for years, but now it seems like a real possibility. On purely economic grounds, it seems like a long-overdue development. The record industry is teetering on the edge of collapse. Massive piracy of digital music continues unabated. Major labels fumble their way through a methodology that emphasizes marketing impact over artistic merit. And online retailers like iTunes make it easier than ever for music fans to purchase a single song without having to pony up for an entire album.
Why on earth would any artist want to try and release an album under such conditions?
The first album I ever bought was Michael Jackson‘s Thriller. It was the album that convinced me that I was — and still am — not a great dancer. Regardless, it moved me, just as the best albums do. When I think back to the music that has defined my life, I don’t think of the iPod Shuffle. I think of albums.
I continue to buy full-length albums to this day. On an artistic level, the album is a perfect canvas on which a songwriter can dump the fruits of his or her labors. Great albums offer a concept that takes the listener succinctly from point A to point B. Great albums also accomplish the same thing through a loose collection of songs that tie together perfectly through good sequencing and production.
To me, Thriller embodied that latter example, while Radiohead‘s OK Computer is perhaps the best model in the last 15 years of the former. Either way, they both sold boatloads.
I lament the idea of a world without albums, but I’m hoping against hope that a solution still exists for this amazing medium.
You’re welcome, Lee — nice post!
Great post, Lee. For me it was Pink Floyd’s The Wall. I used to listen to that album from the first track to the last over and over. When my mom told me it was time to go to school I would reply, “We don’t need no education.” It never seemed to work.