Goodbye Concept Album

I started this at least three times, but I can’t seem to find just the right way to begin. So, let me start with the quote that started my train of thought.

"The music business historically has been built around albums. This album-centrism is like saying the sun revolves around the Earth. We don't listen to albums now; we listen to collections of songs."

-Tom Silverman, chairman and CEO of Tommy Boy Records (quoted in a Gizmodo article)

Now, I have two problems with this statement. One is quickly dealt with so I will start with it.

What is an album? Not, what is a music album, but in the generic, what is an album? An album is a collection of items. A photo album is a collection of photos. A music album is a collection of music.

So, unintentionally what Mr. Silverman is saying is “we don’t listen to albums…we listen to” albums.

Now, before you run down to the comments, I understand what he means.

Today, we rarely listen to collections of songs by a specific artist as chosen by the artist, his producer and his record company. We listen to collections of songs that we choose or that the software on our music player chooses.

Before I go on I should probably provide this link to my post of a year ago.

A New Music Paradigm

As the paradigm shifts from album to song we free the artist from the need to find 35-60 minutes of new songs each year. This is a good thing. It may bring new problems, because the artist will make less money, but I am not terribly concerned with that. If he makes money for what people listen to, then that is enough.

The record companies may be the ones who suffer, but I don’t care at all about them. Without LPs or CDs there isn’t much need for a Record Company, though there may be just as much need for a Recording company.

But, while artists will no longer be forced to produce an entire album of music each year, they will also never be stretched by that need. The need to produce more of your art can either be boredom and drudgery, or it can be the spur to find greater creativity.

It is true that a lot of albums are a couple of good songs and eight album fillers, but there are some really great exceptions. The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get (Joe Walsh) is a great album. I love all the songs, and oddly it is the one hit on the album which doesn’t fit with the rest of the album.

In addition to missing out on a few gems, the new music paradigm may come deny us something else.

The Concept Album

It has been some years since I saw a concept album. Back in the 70s and 80s the concept album often marked the point when a band or musician tried to push beyond just being musicians and attempt to raise their music to the level of art.

Instead of just another album, we get…

• Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• Tommy
• The Wall

I was happy to see Pink Floyd win the right to keep their albums intact. Yes, it may hurt their sales, but Pink Floyd, possibly more than any other band, actually put together albums. In addition to The Wall, Animals and other albums are the sort of thing that you really need to hear all the songs together.

As consumers we asked for songs and now we get songs, but in buying only songs are we denying artists the opportunity to produce more than songs? Are we denying them the opportunity to tell a story across multiple songs?

I am not saying that the Concept Album is dead, but increasingly it feels to me like our unwillingness to buy anything but a song is driving the Concept Album to extinction.