Albums and Playlists

On Wednesday my new media teacher said something interesting: The album is no longer important, when you go home you don’t listen to an album, you listen to a playlist. I of course dismissed this because I still listen to albums, so it was a shock to me to realize, while I checked iTunes to see what the next song on Genius playlist would be, that he was right.

The discussion in new media was that the age of the album is over, playlists are so much more commanding especially now that many people just download their music. It was noted that it was especially important now that so much music is downloaded illegally that fans no longer have a relationship with the artist through an album, and this was evidenced by the increase in touring and concert popularity recently.

I’m not waging into the authenticity debate of that lesson, but I am going to say some things about playlists and albums. I think that the age of the album may be over, but that it is not over because albums aren’t important any more but that they are now more important and less convenient. An example of this I suppose could be a party soundtrack: at parties in the past whole albums could be put on at the guests’ request, now a predetermined party mix is loaded in iTunes long before the guests arrive. As somebody who has spent many hours thinking and sorting about and over my party mix I can vouch for the new method. Instead of hoping that the mood of the party is one to fit an album that the guest likes, or hoping the guest has an ok taste in music, it is easier to select a few tracks off many albums and cover as wider range of tastes and moods as possible. (Incidentally Hottest 100 CDs are usually ideal for party playlists, you just need to cut out some of the crap first.)

More focused on every day listening though, playlists have become the standard form of music. It used to be albums, once upon a time it was concerts only; things move on it isn’t the end of the world. But an album is a more important form than a playlist. If I’m just checking my mail and the web for a bit then I’m going to put on a playlist, usually a genius playlist based on the song I’ve had stuck in my head all day. I don’t want to put on an album because I might not finish it. I still think that an album is more than a collection of songs, it is an art in itself. I’m sure I’ve expressed that view on the blog at some point in the past. I don’t want to put on Disintegration because it goes for 73 minutes, if I need to leave the computer after 40 minutes I don’t want to miss the last 5 songs. If I listen to a playlist, which is simply a collection of songs, the only problem with missing the last 5 songs is that I don’t get to hear them. That may not be strictly true with some playlists, but as a general case it is true. Some people don’t even make playlists, they just put their library on shuffle and hit play.

My new media teacher said “Nobody will ever make Dark Side of The Moon again.” I think this is a sad statement, however it is probably true. In an interview on Triple J in 2007 (I think 2007, it was around then) Ash said they weren’t interested in making albums any more, they wanted to stick to singles because they felt it was more important to make singles than albums now. 20 or 30 years ago you could release just 2 singles from an album and be all set, now most bands release 4 or 5 from each album. It shows that record companies are losing profit from album sales and making it up from singles, because nobody is going to buy the single if they already own the album and most people will know if they are going to buy the album when the third single is released so anything after that is just hogging airplay. Going back to the 50s and 60s, Elvis or The Beatles released up to 3 albums a year, now we a band will release an album every 3 years, but enough singles from that one album to last 3 years. It all goes to show that albums are no longer the profitable form to sell music, and I don’t think it is too far to extrapolate that record companies therefore no longer consider albums to be as important.

Albums are more special now, if I put on an album I want to listen to it, not just have it as background sound. It is easier therefore to listen to a playlist while working. Only listening to an album in order to listen to it, I think, makes it more important and I’m not sure why the majority of people don’t draw the same connection between importance and specialty. I mean the romantic dinners for two you have once a month are more important than the rice and sauce you eat for the 30 other days.

Sadly if record companies can’t make money out of it, it is unlikely to stay important. And with the emphasis of importance placed away from albums I wonder how many people are going to stay interested in them in the long term.
On the bright side, treasures like Dark Side of the Moon, Disintegration or OK Computer have already been made so we will still have something to hold tight as we enter the age of the playlist. Only time will tell for new music and its unfortunately grim outlook.