The album thing has bothered me for a long time. There are now tons of “internet artists” that all seem to release one or two singles every six months and that’s just how they release music.
Albums aren’t just about a limitation of the medium. It’s about putting a concept together that’s bigger than a 3-5 minute idea you had one day. It’s about capturing a time of that artist’s or group’s life and progress. It gives you the chance to bind all of those tracks together and organize them in a way that you think will help guide your audience.
With single-only releases, you may never really get to know the artist or what emotion they may be trying to convey in a greater sense. Or worse, all of their singles just sound like “them” and never evolve beyond that.
Albums are a great statement from artists but in the history of recorded music the LP phonograph or album is relatively new, introduced in 1948. Before then artists basically only released singles. In a way the album was originally a value purchase; instead of buying 7 different singles you could buy one LP for a lower price. It’s almost more like the modern “greatest hits” albums successful musicians release.
I don’t think it’s fair to outright dismiss someone who’s only releasing singles; it’s not actually a new phenomenon. Maybe they’re not saying as much as people releasing albums, but not all albums are really carrying a concept or bigger thought, either. Not everything needs to be a novel; there’s a place for short articles or random comments online.
The album thing has bothered me for a long time. There are now tons of “internet artists” that all seem to release one or two singles every six months and that’s just how they release music.
Albums aren’t just about a limitation of the medium. It’s about putting a concept together that’s bigger than a 3-5 minute idea you had one day. It’s about capturing a time of that artist’s or group’s life and progress. It gives you the chance to bind all of those tracks together and organize them in a way that you think will help guide your audience.
With single-only releases, you may never really get to know the artist or what emotion they may be trying to convey in a greater sense. Or worse, all of their singles just sound like “them” and never evolve beyond that.
Albums are a great statement from artists but in the history of recorded music the LP phonograph or album is relatively new, introduced in 1948. Before then artists basically only released singles. In a way the album was originally a value purchase; instead of buying 7 different singles you could buy one LP for a lower price. It’s almost more like the modern “greatest hits” albums successful musicians release.
I don’t think it’s fair to outright dismiss someone who’s only releasing singles; it’s not actually a new phenomenon. Maybe they’re not saying as much as people releasing albums, but not all albums are really carrying a concept or bigger thought, either. Not everything needs to be a novel; there’s a place for short articles or random comments online.
I suppose my tone was a little off. I shouldn’t imply that it’s wrong to not pursue an album or that it’s a more correct approach to do so.
Except that it is.
And I will die on this hill.