Albums Are Dead - Ola Englund's Thoughts

[Dean N]

I teach college kids and it’s depressing as hell. Two examples:

I was tired one morning because I went to a concert the night before. I thought I was bragging when I said that I went to Queens of the Stone Age. One kid was like: is that a museum or something?

This struck a chord with me. 15 years ago, I went to see Pearl Jam. When I mentioned it to someone, a 15 year old at the time (she's 30, and my sister-in-law now, married, kid, God I'm old) she looked at me, genuinely shocked, and said "isn't that old people music?"

A guy at my work who is much younger than me (he is in his late 40's) could only name two of the four Beatles. I was stunned.

I'm 46 and this dumbfounds me. Did this guy grow up in a cave or a cult?

 

[J_Bass]

The examples above are just people that don't care about music. They just listen what the media feeds them.

Being young or old has nothing to do with your musical knowledge.

 

[br1qbat]

^^^ All true and well said. I was going to post something similar, but Glover beat me to it and said it more eloquently and succinctly than I could.

Yes. Think of it this way, in the 100 or so years of buyable recorded music, the LP/album didn't gain prominence arguably until 1965-1966ish (Pet Sounds/Sgt. Pepper) and in some areas, it never really did (EDM, disco, hip hop, many forms of pop music, etc). Rock/metal and jazz for example are still tied to the album, real or imaginary. Again, if my tastes were top 40, why pay $10 or $15 for a physical object that contains 1 song I want to hear? Especially if I can hear it right now for essentially free (streaming) or pay $1 and 'own it'.

I love albums. Most that dig the types of music I do still love albums. I collect vinyl, but yeah, its not going to save the music industry. It does give a modern album artist a medium to make an attractive and comparatively expensive package option to listeners ($25-$30 usually vs a $8-$10 digital album download). I buy vinyl as I like the format and it helps the artists out. I stream on Spotify at work, but do vinyl at home whenever I can listen.

 

[48thStreetCustom]

I like this guys videos, and think he makes a good point about the connections between music, money, and art.

"The narrative history of a thing adds to it's value."

That's the secret to sales. People buy stories. They make emotional decisions and then rational justifications.

“This process seems to be happening somewhat unconsciously, people are not really aware they’re coming up with these justifications. What is even more interesting is that people who claim that emotions are not that important, who consider themselves to be really rational, are actually more prone to fall into this trap.”​

 

[br1qbat]

This struck a chord with me. 15 years ago, I went to see Pearl Jam. When I mentioned it to someone, a 15 year old at the time (she's 30, and my sister-in-law now, married, kid, God I'm old) she looked at me, genuinely shocked, and said "isn't that old people music?"



I'm 46 and this dumbfounds me. Did this guy grow up in a cave or a cult?

For the record I'm 34, know my Beatles, as does wifey. 2 of my 3 kids (Ages 8 and 5) know their Beatles. My son (8) plays vinyls all the time. My 3rd kid gets a pass as he's only 8 months old. But he already has a Beatles shirt!

 

[MojoPenguin]

People make EPs I guess or Singles. I mean Singles have been released as "Singles CD" back in the day, it's nothing new. I'd say having a nice videoclip that "works" on Youtube and a nice Instagram fro your Band is key.

 

[mapleglo]

I still buy Cd's. I listen to a lot of Prog, so the album still has meaning in that genre. And I like to collect things. I have a pretty large CD collection. When I die, my son will probably throw them all out.

I used to love buying records. It was the whole experience. Going through the album artwork and liner notes while listening to the music. It was a ritual. I miss it, almost enough to go buy a turntable. Never liked the pops and clicks though.

When I was working, I was friendly with a guy who played guitar. He is young, maybe late 20's or early 30's. A mutual friend gave him a CD. He literally did not know what to do with it. He ended up throwing it away. He did a face-palm when I asked him why he didn't load it into his CD drive in his computer. The same guy looked at me like a "dear in the headlights" when I told him I was building a David Gilmour black strat tribute guitar. "David who?" he asked. He only knew who Hendrix was because our mutual friend was a big fan and spoke of him often. He was into metal. Didn't know Deep Purple.

Kids.

 

[J_Bass]

The main problem I see with streaming versus CD or vynil is that the streaming is a passive source. I will try to make my point the best I can, it would be easier in Portuguese.

I compare it to the book VS movie. With a book your brain is active. It's an active experience. You have to read the story, imagine the look of the characters, how they sound, how they walk, etc., etc.. You have to create the hole thing with your mind. With a film you don't have to do anything. You just have to sit down and be there.

With streaming you have a passive experience. You just eat what they feed you. With Playlists it's the worst. You don't do anything!

I use both systems, CD and Spotify. I have room for both. But the physical format, for me, it matters. It's like my books.

 

[RichardW]

The album is dead? So what? In the history of music, the "album" era makes up about .00000001% of the time.

And please don't tell me about 14 million vinyl sales in a year. You know there used to be single albums that sold that many pieces? Yes, vinyl is trendy right now (my son is an avid collector), but vinyl sales are a pimple on the backside of the music industry.

It's called capitalism.

 

[higain617]

There are lots of interesting albums being released now. These are mainly on obscure, indie labels. Since the general collapse of the mainstream music industry, the major labels won't take chances on anything that isn't formulaic and sure to sell.

You can make your own album inexpensively now.

 

[monsterthompson]

 

[JaseyT]

Kids these days don't have those memories of sequential linear passtimes to draw from. Their culture is basically transient, it changes course midstream constantly. That's kind of what defines it IMO.

I think there's a lot of truth to that. And it's sad. I feel fortunate to have grown up before this was the norm.

 

[Basshappi]

I can concede not having the physical media/album in my hands, but I need to be able to buy the album as a download at least. Albums deserve to be recorded and listened to as a collective. They convey an artists thoughts and creativity at the time of the recording, that’s why they bunch them together like that.

Streaming is like one continuous, no-feel mix tape that just bounces around without direction. It reminds me of that non-musical friend that you have that constantly changes the song before the last one gets halfway through.

I hate the idea of not having an album stored somewhere either. I don’t have magical cell service everywhere I go.

I also agree with this. I believe that there are larger implications to the "death" of the long format recording than just the commercial aspects. I believe that the impact of this new paradigm upon music as art and as an experience upon the listener is a significantly negative one. Whether the new generation of listeners realizes this or not is irrelevant.

Also, I want to OWN what I buy. I buy CDs because I want a physical copy of the music, when an artist does not offer a CD I will burn one from the digital download that I purchase from them. This points out another detrimental aspect of digitization of practically every form of documentation which does not include a physical format, it is inherently ephemeral. But perhaps that is a different discussion.

 

[Bassbeater]

I feel fortunate to have grown up before this was the norm.

Don't feel guilty, they feel just as bad for the older generation.

 

[steubig]

depends

commercial concerns

or

artistic concerns

??

 

[SactoBass]

This struck a chord with me. 15 years ago, I went to see Pearl Jam. When I mentioned it to someone, a 15 year old at the time (she's 30, and my sister-in-law now, married, kid, God I'm old) she looked at me, genuinely shocked, and said "isn't that old people music?"

LOL!!! I'm 62 and I enjoy listening to 70's-era YES music. So I guess I listen to "old people" music too! But then, that's appropriate. I'm old!

I'm 46 and this dumbfounds me. Did this guy grow up in a cave or a cult?

Perhaps both?? He's quite a character!

 

[pcake]

I think the vinyl "resurgence" is romantic fashion mostly. Serious DJs like it because you can slow down and speed up without artifacts, but other than that it's basically a stone tablet. The people I know don't listen to albums, they list to playlists.

i'm 61, and i've rarely bought / listened to an album - whether vinyl, tape or CD - that didn't have at least one song i actively disliked. i'm talking about a song i would turn off immediately if listening to the radio in my car. some albums have only 2 or 3 songs i like and the rest i skip, so i'm happy with digital music and playlists. it means i don't have to listen to songs i think suck or get up and go to the stereo (remember those?) and skip over a song, sometimes several times in a listen, to get to the good stuff. i especially hated doing that with records.

i still buy CDs, more to support the artists and help let the labels know someone is listening. and of course, many CDs on amazon come with the pre-ripped, downloadable songs from the album, which is pretty handy. it also means i have a lot of still-wrapped CDs around the house

But albums are mostly sh!t because most are fodder + singles. Bands who can make every song a single will do so. Bands that can't will make albums with a ton of fodder.

for me, the whole fodder + singles thing is far from new. i've been listening to albums i'd describe that way since the '70s. a few songs i really enjoy plus stuff that sounds (to me - maybe others love them) like they were thrown together to fill out the listening time.

 

[blue4]

I think this is one of those subjects where our memories become selective to some extent. I'm 43 so I've owned my share of albums, and I still buy I decent amount of CDs. But for every rich, Dark Side of the Moon experience there's been 4 absolute clunkers. I remember Pearl Jam's Ten as a pivotal moment for me, yet sometimes I forget that most albums weren't full of deep cuts or hidden gems.

The key to success now is the same as it was for hundreds of years before the album format. Your performance. Whether it's on YouTube or the street corner you have to perform.

 

[48thStreetCustom]

In my lifetime, music has gone from being double sided (LPs and cassettes) to one sided (CDs) to zero sided (downloads).

Don't be a one or zero sided musician. Be multi-dimensional.

 

[CapnSev]

LOL!!! I'm 62 and I enjoy listening to 70's-era YES music. So I guess I listen to "old people" music too! But then, that's appropriate. I'm old!

I’m 35 and I listen to “old guy” music.