3 ms·
> Albums are big statements. Some of the most iconic releases in popular music have been albums. On the contrary, most of the greatest contemporary hits was si
by SergeAx 6y ago
> Albums are big statements. Some of the most iconic releases in popular music have been albums.
On the contrary, most of the greatest contemporary hits was singles. I can't remember really bold and moving statements in the form of albums, except maybe "The Wall". Classic composers never wrote albums,their large forms were symfonies and opera - whole pieces of separate parts.
Albums was invented by vinyl/CD music industry and will die with them.
- dragonwriter 6y ago> Classic composers never wrote albums,their large forms were symfonies and opera - whole pieces of separate parts. Albums, in the idealized form (there are, of course, lots that are collections of basically disconnected singles, too) are “whole pieces of separate parts”, like symphonies or operas (or, I suppose, soundtracks.) People who lament losing albums aren't talking about package-of-convenience collections of singles, they are talking about pieces where, while the individual songs may stand alone the same way each planetary theme in Holst’s The Planets can, but they also form a single thematic work with an arc and movement across the whole body.
- SergeAx 6y agoThe Planets is a later piece (beginning of XX) and may be inspired by sheet music industry, which worked the same way and has same limitations - it was too expensive to manufacture and distribute "singles". I beleive the term "album" itself was inherited from there.