I know I'm biased and have a biased reader base, but I'm incredibly grateful that the album hasn't died. I think that format continues to be critical to musical expression, and most music lovers I know are serious about full album listening (even though playlist have a place!)
Love it. The kids who only listen to playlists, or god forbid, listen to an album on shuffle, will never know the Blackbird --> Rocky Raccoon journey.
I think the reason is overwhelmingly number (3) in your list, which then informs (1).
In some ways, the intention and cohesion an album offers is actually the creative foundation for the marketing needed to grasp attention for album and tour sales in a fragmented media landscape.
Tyle The Creator does this a lot with each album. Bad Bunny's whole tour aesthetic looked like DTMF sounded, etc.
So while the album may seem unfit for how music is consumed today, it's actually the perfect foundation for how it's marketed.
Love the data vis! On the newest episode of The Lonely Island & Seth Meyers pod they discussed song sequencing for their album and mentioned a vestigial convention of putting your best chance for big singles in the 3rd or 4th position because of how grooves on vinyls work. Thought that was interesting! Also, you’re missing out on CRJ!
Hey, don't diss Rocky raccoon! As a self-identified music nerd, I all but exclusively listen to albums on my streaming platform. The only time I stray from that now is when I truly can't be bothered and just need something in the background and I blend a zillion stations on accuradio which I discovered because of you!
Daniel, good piece - how did you miss my new book Body of Work: how the album outplayed the algorithm and survived playlist culture? I’ll have to write a second edition now! (Only came out last week btw)! ☺️ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/813195/body-of-work-by-keith-jopling/
I know I'm biased and have a biased reader base, but I'm incredibly grateful that the album hasn't died. I think that format continues to be critical to musical expression, and most music lovers I know are serious about full album listening (even though playlist have a place!)
As someone who lived with a guy who spent a week trying to learn Rocky Raccoon on guitar, and failed, this article was triggering....but well done
Love it. The kids who only listen to playlists, or god forbid, listen to an album on shuffle, will never know the Blackbird --> Rocky Raccoon journey.
I think the reason is overwhelmingly number (3) in your list, which then informs (1).
In some ways, the intention and cohesion an album offers is actually the creative foundation for the marketing needed to grasp attention for album and tour sales in a fragmented media landscape.
Tyle The Creator does this a lot with each album. Bad Bunny's whole tour aesthetic looked like DTMF sounded, etc.
So while the album may seem unfit for how music is consumed today, it's actually the perfect foundation for how it's marketed.
Love the data vis! On the newest episode of The Lonely Island & Seth Meyers pod they discussed song sequencing for their album and mentioned a vestigial convention of putting your best chance for big singles in the 3rd or 4th position because of how grooves on vinyls work. Thought that was interesting! Also, you’re missing out on CRJ!
Hey, don't diss Rocky raccoon! As a self-identified music nerd, I all but exclusively listen to albums on my streaming platform. The only time I stray from that now is when I truly can't be bothered and just need something in the background and I blend a zillion stations on accuradio which I discovered because of you!
This is a great article, with some good discussion on what is or may be going on. Thanks for putting these numbers into context.