There is literally no reason to listen to albums or think of them as a discrete unit of music...

There is literally no reason to listen to albums or think of them as a discrete unit of music. Albums are not superior to singles. They are collections of stand-alone songs. Nothing more. The whole is not more than the sum of its parts. The only reason we consume music this way is because of the century old technological limitations of vinyl records and the convenience of distribution models from the 1950s.

Other urls found in this thread:

soundcloud.com/teejayraps/badass-kids
youtu.be/2HR4Junqmzg
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

This has already been debunked.

What are
>Concept albums
>songs that flow into one another
>General concepts with albums
>Prog rock
>Prog Pop
>anything prog
>Anything made specifically to flow

It hasn't, because it can't be. It's the truth. At no other time in history has music ever been created or consumed in this manner. It's purely the practicality of commercialization left over from half a century ago. Albums as a format will be dead within 20 years, and it's 30 years overdue already.

The "album" is a conceptual continuation of a classical symphony. Long form musical works have been a tradition for hundreds of years.

Albums are never going to die. No one wants to pay 1 or 2 dollars for a track(s) when they can buy an entire set at once, and for cheaper.

...

No, it isn't. At all. Symphonies and long form compositions are written as a complete work. The "album" is nothing more than a collection of discrete, unrelated compositions by the same artist, grouped together only because of the convenience of having been recorded at the same time.
"Concept albums" could and should be nothing more than complete compositions. If the musical and lyrical themes are not closely related enough to constitute a complete composition then they are nothing more than discrete songs strung together on the same apparatus, no different from any other album. The same goes with "prog", which is no different from any other genre of popular music where unrelated compositions are collection together for reasons of convenience rather than any unifying subject matter.

Symphonies have movements which are usually discrete, despite sharing common core ideas, and are often written sequentially and not simultaneously. Then you also have suites or collections of shorter works in classical music, where the individual pieces have even less to do with one another, and the whole thing even further resembles a modern "album", like pic related.

holy hell this is retarded as fuck, does it not occur to you that artists arrange and order songs based on how well they work together as an album, specifically selecting a combination of songs that work well together?

>It's purely the practicality of commercialization left over from half a century ago.
No shit, but artists work within that medium in a deliberate and thoughtful manner, thus the album is an important format.

Music wasn't very easily obtained until the invention of home formats. You live in a better time period than you would've 100 years ago. Vinyl records didn't exist until the late 1800s, where they were available at the same time as phonograph cylinders, and didn't become the standard until the very end of the 1920s. You're lucky to be living in a time where you can get easy access to music in a bundle like an album.

If you don't want to listen to music via albums, that's fine, you can do your own thing. That's not to say there don't exist albums that were intended to be played in one sitting. I myself am making an album I'd prefer for people to play in one sitting, as it's a concept album. Concept albums like The Wall, Welcome Reality and Ziggy Stardust can all be enjoyed by listening to individual tracks, but there's more enjoyment to be had by listening to the whole album. Like with a movie, sometimes, individual scenes can be great to watch on their own, but there's more enjoyment to be had in watching the whole thing in one sitting. Not to mention, other albums like Centipede Hz, Since I Left You and Lateralus are all gapless track albums, which are clearly meant to be heard in one sitting, as there's no clear spots to pause or stop the album.

As for "Albums are not superior to singles", I can go find some good quality albums in the dollar bin of a record store rather easily. Average price for a single on iTunes is 99 cents. Well regarded artists like Mercury Rev, Seal, Soundgarden, I frequently find albums of theirs in record store dollar bins. You mean to tell me you'd rather buy one song than 12 of them for the same price?

Like what you like, but don't claim things that aren't true. There exist plenty of people who make albums for the purpose of playing them in one sitting. Not everybody makes albums for the purpose of fulfilling their label's contract or to pad out their singles with enough material to clock out 40 minutes worth of stuff

I agree that albums are going to be a thing of the past only because an artist can make so much more off of singles and the world we live in today peoples attention is so shortchanged that an album is not as valued as it use to be back in the day. I think if albums do live it will be more of a collectors type of deal. as it is there are artist who aren't doing physical copies any more cause they feel it has lost its value.
PS:
Hey you guys i do music and if you can it would be dope for you guys to check me out and leave some feed back or share with friends and family if you like what you hear very much appreciated!

soundcloud.com/teejayraps/badass-kids

>does it not occur to you that artists arrange and order songs based on how well they work together as an album
They customarily do not. I am guessing you have never worked in the recording industry and are not all that familiar with the process. The primary reason artists conform to the limitations of the medium is because they are under contract to record labels and have deadlines they must comply with. Except in the case of compilation albums, it is exceedingly rare that artists select particular songs and group them together in an album format specifically because the songs are complementary.

>Vinyl records didn't exist until the late 1800s
small nitpick: 78s are shellac, vinyl wasn't used until about 1948.

the business side of it is not known by may but you do make a strong point there. would you say that albums are only made due to industry contracts and "politics"?

>I am guessing you have never worked in the recording industry and are not all that familiar with the process.
As it happens I finalized the tracklist for an album this afternoon.

>Except in the case of compilation albums, it is exceedingly rare that artists select particular songs and group them together in an album format specifically because the songs are complementary.
So you've never heard of artists omitting songs from an album because they don't fit with the rest of the material? I'm pretty sure you're being retarded on purpose.

If a composition is written to be understood as a complete piece then that is one thing. That very rarely happens with albums. And even when it does, most such compositions are written specifically to fit the time limitations of deprecated media even though it is now technologically feasible to record and distribute discrete, individual compositions of any length.
> Like with a movie, sometimes, individual scenes can be great to watch on their own, but there's more enjoyment to be had in watching the whole thing in one sitting.
This is simply not comparable in most cases, because films are intended to tell a story and each individual scene cannot be fully understood out of context.
>As for "Albums are not superior to singles", I can go find some good quality albums in the dollar bin of a record store rather easily.
This is an argument about economic utility, not music.

Perhaps not solely, but the album format is a product of the recording industry wanting to maximize the efficiency of their production process. That is just a fact.

Me? I prefer compilations.

>So you've never heard of artists omitting songs from an album because they don't fit with the rest of the material?
I've heard of artists writing 30 songs under a deadline and then selecting half or fewer of those to actually take into the studio and record, and then place those onto an album under the supervision of their record label, usually based on what is likely to sell.

I have very rarely heard of or encountered a situation where an artist with an extensive catalogue of songs written over a number of years or decades picks songs from across that entire catalogue and places them together into an album merely because they are complementary.

>I have very rarely heard of or encountered a situation where an artist with an extensive catalogue of songs written over a number of years or decades picks songs from across that entire catalogue and places them together into an album merely because they are complementary.
Well you're apparently living under a rock or something, because that happens rather often.

Cite an example other than a compilation album (which is put together by the record label, not the artist by the way). Go ahead, I'll wait.

>This is simply not comparable in most cases, because films are intended to tell a story and each individual scene cannot be fully understood out of context.
Concept albums are stories too. You just don't (normally) have the visuals to accompany them. The story lies in the lyrics, themes and sounds of the songs. Discovery and The Wall are examples of concept albums fortunate enough to have films made to visually accompany them. While I get huge enjoyment out of listening to High Life, it's certainly more fun for me to listen to the whole, near gapless album. The film accompanying it is icing on the cake.

And no, there's plenty of films where scenes can be taken out of context and still be entertaining. It'll make more sense in the context of the movie, but they can still be enjoyed fairly well. The acting, the humour or suspense, the visuals, they're all still there.

youtu.be/2HR4Junqmzg

>its a Sup Forums gets baited episode

>hurr I was just pretending

Frank zappa did this sort of thing all the time numb nuts. You Cant Do That on Stage Anymore 1-6 were designed and edited by him.

OP is a faggot

I'm pretty sure singles was a much popular choice over albums, both nowadays and half a century ago. Not sure why you're being so dense.