do muscians still need to release an "album" full of songs??

[danger boy]

with digial downloads such a big part of how people listen to music these days.. and most people who listen to a digital music file.. how often does that person download an entire "album" by a band?

don't people usually just download one or two songs from a band/artist and that's it?

if this is true.. then why should bands ever put out a disc that contains 8, 10, etc songs?

Shouldn't they just realease singles all the time? Makes sense to me.. singles being less expensive to release and in the end buy. Face it, how many bands these days are good enough to release an entire "album's" worth of good listenable music? few if any.

Maybe the music industry needs to reinvent itself in that area.

[coolsax]

I don't know.. I think maybe some of these pop groups could get away with that but I know that I have found songs in albums that I find that I personally like better than the singles.. I also think that a lot of bands that write their own songs aren't going to just stop writing songs and not releasing them.. so maybe they won't call it an album, but bands that write their own music will still release more songs than just their singles.

[mantis]

Very Interesting topic to say the least.

I'm a musician and write my own songs. I never was signed or anything like that but my lives work is based around probably about 30 songs. They to me are all great songs. They have meaning to me. I write what I experience in life. I talk about what I feel about this or that at that time in my life.

Albums yeah sure I could go into my collection and find so many I only like a few songs or in case of "The Flies" album , I only like 1 song. I also got some that the singles are the worse song.

Todays easy downloading music could justify your comments about releasing singles. I see both sides being beneficial to a wide range of people. Some only like hits they hear on the radio , some like the album to see if there is any other songs that would be cool to listen to. If they stop making complete albums , then you could never again experience side B if you will.

It's strange times changing away from what us older guys are use to. I for one try to stay with the times but still like to hold on to some things.

[98Badger]

I hope the practice of releasing entire albums continues. I find I get tired of songs quickly when they are overplayed by radio stations. In addition, I find that many times I may not be very impressed by an album at first listen, but grow to like it more as time goes on.

[punk-roc]

I always download the entire album (or purchase the album) and listen to the whole thing. My favorite albums are the ones that seem to have cohesion and substance throughout.

I miss the good ole' days of the concept album.. Although The Decemberists released a cohesive album telling a celtic-inspired fable.. It is really cool on the album and performed live...

Only full albums!! Down with radio and their singles! =)

Jason

[FiveORacing]

I hope the practice of releasing entire albums continues. I find I get tired of songs quickly when they are overplayed by radio stations. In addition, I find that many times I may not be very impressed by an album at first listen, but grow to like it more as time goes on.

I agree. I have so many albums that I like every song, even the ones that were not radio hits. EX: Dire Straits first, Counting Crows first, Audioslaves first, Days of the New first, etc I think this is a result of being around long enough that I was used to buying an album without ever hearing but perhaps one song, and playing it one side at a time from start to end. :)

[MacLeod]

Musicians probably still do because the people that listen to musicians enjoy music.

iTunes is reserved for the bubble gum pop music and rap crap. The stuff that takes no talent and doesnt really involve musicians at all....just really hot dancers and an effects processor. Thats the music that gets downloaded one song at a time. Actual musicians have more to offer.

[lightman1]

Blasphemy, Al.....pure blasphemy.......

[cnh]

Interesting...I'm not sure what I think about this? Not having albums could further encourage the idea that everything is 'disposable' and just to be written for 'immediate' consumption...that 'nothing' has lasting value. This could lead to more and more fluff and irrelevant and thoughtless and heartless music that is only 'commercial' or a bunch of old guys my age or older who know how to pull the Pop-strings and put singers like Britney Spears in front of a mike and pump out the flashy easily forgetable but very similar tunes, day after day, week after week....or the 'ERA OF THE MUSIC BLOG!'.

I think 'albums' have a place for more thought and more feeling, for themes and issues--they often have a general feeling that links all the songs together. One of the things I do is write...and I can tell you that people's attention spans are NOT what the used to be. Would you sit down and read War and Peace or a short story by a current author that could be read during a couple of bus or subway stops, or perhaps nothing at all?

cnh

[hearingimpared]

I have the opposite reaction. Now that I mostly listen to classical I get really irritated when I buy a new rock/pop album and it is only 45 minutes in length. I feel as if I have been robbed with the popular CD, while the classical CD is 60-75 minutes in length, and the entire CD is listenable

And as you say, most of the songs suck. Over the last 40 years it has been the rare rock/rap album that has more than 2,3,4 good songs. That is one reason I absolutely hate turntables. I was always dropping the arm while trying to play the good songs.

I'm of the opposite opinion. Vinyl forces you to listen to each song on each side, unless you are jumping up and down like a yo-yo and trying to get the stylus perfectly in between tracts, this has forced me to listen to the entire LP and have found great music in those songs other than the "hits" AND many albums are theme albums which one song leads into the next with relevence to the one before and after. I will however concede the fact that some songs suck but at least with vinyl you get to have them grow on you. With digital, it is just to easy skip around not knowing what you might be missing.

[comfortablycurt]

The day that musicians stop releasing music as an album, is the day that I stop being interested in new music altogether.

All of the greatest music of all time is in the form of an album. Think about it.

DSOTM, Animals, The Wall, Sargent Pepper, Abbey Road...Basically ever Dead album...nearly all music from the 70's really...as well as the late 60's...just to name some examples.


I think that the onset of downloading individual songs has really taken away from peoples enjoyment of music. How many times have you gotten an album for just one or two songs in particular, and after listening to it, realized that the rest of the songs on the album are just as good, if not better? It's happened to me MANY times. In my experience, the singles that turn you on to a band, are almost NEVER their best songs. They're just the ones with the catchiest beats that caught the attention of the mindless masses that don't actually "listen" to music.

I've still never downloaded any music. Ever. I don't really plan on starting anytime soon either. If I can't buy it on a CD or LP...I don't want to buy it.

[hearingimpared]

The day that musicians stop releasing music as an album, is the day that I stop being interested in new music altogether.

All of the greatest music of all time is in the form of an album. Think about it.

DSOTM, Animals, The Wall, Sargent Pepper, Abbey Road...Basically ever Dead album...nearly all music from the 70's really...as well as the late 60's...just to name some examples.


I think that the onset of downloading individual songs has really taken away from peoples enjoyment of music. How many times have you gotten an album for just one or two songs in particular, and after listening to it, realized that the rest of the songs on the album are just as good, if not better? It's happened to me MANY times. In my experience, the singles that turn you on to a band, are almost NEVER their best songs. They're just the ones with the catchiest beats that caught the attention of the mindless masses that don't actually "listen" to music.

I've still never downloaded any music. Ever. I don't really plan on starting anytime soon either. If I can't buy it on a CD or LP...I don't want to buy it.

My point exactly Curt and vinyl has caused me to realize these great songs rather than skipping around.

[TNRabbit]

Remember when an album had a THEME?

[yepimonfire]

Remember when an album had a THEME?

most of the albums i own do have a theme, if you want good production quality, real "art" rather then commercially written songs churned out of a meat grinder, you would have to look into the metal albums out of different countries, (sorry america, your music SUCKS) for instance, Slechtvalk's At The Dawn of War is a theme, a story, and all of the songs seemlesly fit together, same with Obscura's Cosmogenesis, Equilibrium's Sagas, Sylosis's conclusion of an age. all of them are themes and the entire album is good, not just one or two hit songs. these bands generally have more freedom to write artistically because they know absolutely no one is going to "air" their songs and only a handful of diehards are going to be listening, most of them aren't in it for the money either. Pop music sucks, unfortunately it is ruining what music is.

[yepimonfire]

Musicians probably still do because the people that listen to musicians enjoy music.

iTunes is reserved for the bubble gum pop music and rap crap. The stuff that takes no talent and doesnt really involve musicians at all....just really hot dancers and an effects processor. Thats the music that gets downloaded one song at a time. Actual musicians have more to offer.

lol i have been saying this forever, it is NOT music. you know most of those pop "artists" use something that keeps their voice in the key it is programmed at? (forget what it is called but they exist because i have seen one)

[hearingimpared]

I'm of the opposite opinion. Vinyl forces you to listen to each song on each side, unless you are jumping up and down like a yo-yo and trying to get the stylus perfectly in between tracts, this has forced me to listen to the entire LP and have found great music in those songs other than the "hits" AND many albums are theme albums which one song leads into the next with relevence to the one before and after. I will however concede the fact that some songs suck but at least with vinyl you get to have them grow on you. With digital, it is just to easy skip around not knowing what you might be missing.

Remember when an album had a THEME?

Indeed I do and artists are still making theme albums.

[concealer404]

I've been finding that albums that truly all go together, rather than a cd with 10 separate ideas are becoming more common again. Granted, my experiences may be with music that may not be so popular on this website, but Coheed and Cambria comes to mind immediatey just as an example.

[dkg999]

It would be great if some of the artists (term used loosely in this case) that my daughter listens to would not release an entire album's worth of songs

[jgido759]

^ ^ :d:d:d

[hearingimpared]

zombie boy 2000 (Jason) turned me on to a couple of relatively new bands;

Arcade Fire;

Funeral (2004)

Neon Bible (2007)

Both excellent theme LPs.

The Shins

he recommended "Wincing the Night Away" the music was so fresh and the SQ was so excellent that I bought all their LPs;

Oh, Inverted World (2001)

Chutes Too Narrow (2003)

Wincing the Night Away (2007)

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/show...2&postcount=50

All theme albums.

[hearingimpared]

It would be great if some of the artists (term used loosely in this case) that my daughter listens to would not release an entire album's worth of songs

Hehehe, they are probably the same song with different lyrics & beat! LOL!

[madmax]

Many artists use one song to get you ready for the next, much like they do in a live concert. I have often come to a song and if felt really right then found it not to my liking when played by itself.
madmax

[comfortablycurt]

lol i have been saying this forever, it is NOT music. you know most of those pop "artists" use something that keeps their voice in the key it is programmed at? (forget what it is called but they exist because i have seen one)

Saying that pop music isn't even music may be a bit of an overstatement. Yes, it is in an entirely different league than most other music, and it's more based on the lyrics and a single front person...but it is still music.

Also, you were thinking of "auto-tuning", which is very widely used amongst the "one-hit wonder" pop stars. They use auto-tuning in a lot of musicals too...Across the Universe is a great example. It's an excellent movie, but the usage of auto-tuning is glaringly obvious at times. Moulin Rouge is another great example of auto-tuning.