I think a lot of music (especially pop) has always been this way to an extent -- a bunch of songs are written with no sequencing in mind, and then the "structur

I think a lot of music (especially pop) has always been this way to an extent -- a bunch of songs are written with no sequencing in mind, and then the "structure" of an album is built up after the fact by sequencing those songs in a way that sounds good. Like, I don't think "Please Please Me" by The Beatles was written with an intent to tell a story though the arc of the album (it almost feels random, if anything, although maybe the most popular song was put at the end on purpose?) In all honesty, I don't think the ratio of "a bunch of tracks thrown together" albums to "narrative arc" albums is overall all that different than it used to be.