Death of Albums

April 26, 2008

Welcome, new visitor! My name is Ari, the man behind Aries9. Here I share my thoughts on music and life, so you can get to know me and my music. Thanks for visiting!

I read a post on big budget porn over at Music Marketing dot com blog. In it, Derek Sivers made this comment:

Have you noticed that for every trend there’s an opposite trend that benefits?

“Everyone only wants tiny bite-sized TV from YouTube”
True, but giant 100-hour-long dramas (24, Lost, Sopranos) are more popular than ever.

“Everyone is driving gig gas-guzzling SUVs”
True, but notice the hybrid Prius, Mini Cooper, and Smart cars.

“Death of the album. It’s only songs, now.”
Maybe this will re-invigorate the long concept album?

This last point in particular, I thought about for a while. This is part of the reason why I am so attracted to progressive music right now.

I’m not trying to steer my artistic impulse based on a reaction against some kind of market trends. That said, I always thought that an album should be a cohesive collection of work that functions as a whole, more than merely a batch of songs. These so-called “albums” that are just an assembly were made because everyone just assumed that it was the way to package and sell music.

But even outside of the “progressive” circles with their obvious concept albums and rock operas, smart artists like Steve Vai and Tori Amos have been putting out thematic albums. They do see the point and the challenge of assembling albums as an entity of its own.

If you’re just assembling songs just because that’s the way to do it, well, you can no longer assume that. In fact, you can stop doing that now and think of a better packaging, because that kind of song collection has lost meaning — both artistically and business-wise.

That said, a thematic album, a collection of songs that are put together to form a greater whole, is not being threatened by the current trends. Rather, it’s an opportunity. Because to do so will help these smart artists stand out from the crowd and give listeners more rewarding experience, of tackling and appreciating more challenging and ambitious body of work.

Filed under: Ari |