A few years ago, I saw a video interview with Billy Corgan (the mastermind of the Smashing Pumpkins) with the title "Album is Dead". I must say, as a fan of Pink Floyd´s conceptual albums, I was outraged by his claims.
His argument is that no one stops an hour to listen to an organized set of music anymore, people nowadays just want fast information, such as the conveyed by singles. The single began as a fast way to introduce the artist to the public through media. That one song was meant to convince the public to listen to the album and to go to the concerts. With the development of streaming services, Singles are no longer a part of an album, but THE album: the defining work of an artist.
If people don't have time to listen to entire albums, what could be the point of streaming services that let you listen to its organized version? Spotify left that possibility and focused on allowing free users to make playlists, available anywhere in a shuffled version. This method, of shuffling and playlists-making, makes the music service more personalized, but it is also killing the album format. Streaming gives too much power to the listener and no chance to the artist of defining himself by the album. Is it still worth it to make albums at all?
For those of you who are fans of "The Wall" (like myself), the answer is a solid "yes!". It's impossible to immerse into this type of album in a shuffling mode. This shuffling between songs, albums (and even similar artists) can give a false portrait of the artist, an image that doesn´t do justice to the evolution of a singer or a band.
You can say "use the premium version of spotify", if I really want the album experience. Sure that's a solution, but doesn't change the fact that the default free version means the death of the albums. Not everyone has the premium version, what means that those users can't get the experience to listen to the full album from the first to the last song. That is even worse for the artist who puts an album that only makes sense if you listen to the songs in order - it damages the way the artist wants to be portrayed by the listener.
In these dire conditions, the artists take just the-one path: Singles. People will never listen to the entire album, but they can listen to an entire song, so let's put all our efforts on the song itself and not on the album. All of these factors of the Digital Era, brought down the poor idea of «Album = compilation of songs».
So... the conclusion is: we agree with Corgan?
Not exactly...
We agree that nowadays the industry produces compilations of songs and streaming services benefits the single more than the album, bu that doesn't mean the album is totally dead.
There are still artists who work really hard on the concept of full albums more than singles. I can give you some examples:
"Lemonade" from Beyoncé,
"Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino" from Arctic Monkeys,
"Madeleine" from FKA Twigs
"Flying Microtonal Banana" from King Gizzard and Lizard Wizard.
...There are many artists who still respect the classic function of the album. What can we learn about Albums from these artists?
The most important feature of an album is the CONCEPT.
An album cannot be just a compilation of songs, there must be something that unites the songs. The concept of an album is a mix of music styles, themes, references, connected symbols and motifs. This is the most important feature of an album: the repetition of symbols.
"The Wall" has some characters, like the mother and the teacher who reappear on the song "Trial". That makes impossible to understand the trial without listening to "Mother" and "Another Brick in the Wall".
Beyoncé, on "Lemonade", makes an incredible portrait of a woman who tries to deal with the infidelity of her husband (Jay-Z). We can't understand "Sandcastles" or "Daddy Lessons" without listening to the firsts songs where we see a woman sad and enraged by the betrayal of her favorite person.
These artists make songs as episodes of a big book or a movie that we shouldn't skip parts if we want to understand the story and the concept behind.
But the concept can be a challenge or a musical experience, like in "Flying Microtonal Banana". King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have been on the front page of experimental rock and hard rock, and, on this 2017 album, they bring an album that mixes the concept of modern rock and microtonal theory. This becames a concept for the album that let us identify the band and their evolution.
All these examples show that the idea of concept albums is alive and well and there´s still much to develop in these areas. In conclusion, I think the album isn't dead, but the digital era must take a new step to bring more artists to develop albums and (consequently) their album's concepts.
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