albums: are they overrated?

YES!

Are bums overrated

I've been called "very album-oriented" myself, as in I tend to express a lot of enthusiasm for specific records (whether singles, ep's or whatever) but no particular artist loyalty. "Artist-oriented" does seem to be the default orientation and I'm gonna say hugely overrated. As is talking about art in degrees of "greatness". Also audio and mixing engineers are very much underrated and under-recognized imo, as far as people who are largely responsible for creating the immersive little album-worlds. And people who design the instruments etc.

I think album-orientation makes sense for someone who grew up with albums as the dominant music "product", and that part of what a preference for albums signifies is exclusionary- an illusion of choice, that you can select, control or filter what you listen to (which of course you can't), define personal taste... that engagement with music is (or even should be) elective. And it's interesting that the album format has survived in the abstract. Part of what it means to make an "album" now surely has a lot to do with inviting this kind of investment, a desire to exert this powerful... whatever. It's asking for a commitment.

Buying singles, i mean the 'idea' of buying singles though not necessarily the reality, might represent making something repeatable that you happened to encounter.

Classical music notwithstanding, I'd go with: albums > artists > tracks.

xp I mean, you don't really get to choose your influences, you're influenced by everything you encounter.

an exceptional take with great value

"The truth is that albums worked as a medium only because everyone was a captive. When you look back at your favorite older albums now, I’m sure you see the weak spots that you’d happily have programmed out if you had the technology then." https://t.co/YJzrFw4oEv

— New York Times Music (@nytimesmusic) January 3, 2021

if only...

11 Love Songs

10 Golden Country Greats

oh wait

When you think about it...an album is like an artist making a playlist out of their own tracks *galaxy brain*

I have not read the thread yet but my take is that because there is no money in music anymore, or being able to take decent amount of time to just tour/practise/work on ideas, the album format is fucked because people who should be given enough time to come up with 10-15 great, cohesive songs together are busy paying the rent, and come up with their one killer idea idea or two in their spare time, making the album obsolete for many who could have wowed with the format or time to grow.

Weirdly enough, having the technology to listen to a whole bunch of albums is actually making me more likely to listen to albums. I used to just download individual tracks (or, to be more exact, ask my brother to download them for me because I am a luddite), or buy them from itunes, and so it was cheaper and easier to just put a bunch of individual tracks on my ipod and make playlists or hit shuffle.

I finally got Spotify a little over a year ago, and it feels like such a luxury to just be able to listen to albums all the way through, the way I did when I was a kid. It's so much richer and more immersive, I have a context for what I'm hearing, I have more to think about because of the way the songs interact with each other, and I'm not as likely to burn myself out on individual songs. I still make playlists, but I would say that at least 70% of the time I'm listening to albums.