In the 1980s I wrote about the death of rock and roll as anything but another musical genre, by now it is a given. For the past three years I've written about the death of the album and it is dying, but, with streaming becoming the norm, not because of the expense, not just because of Itunes. Then what?
With record albums, with two sided vinyl, the perfect length for an album was around 30 minutes. 15 minutes a side, and as ambitious as the 60s were, that old signpost of things to come, Sgt. Peppers" was a smidgen less than 40 minutes. When the Beatles, the great Beatles, recorded a double, it was considered a disappointment. Today, it might not appear to be so, but think of how strong the White Album would be if it was a single album.
The thing is, that old sustained vision thing works well in 30 minute blocks, less well in 60 minute blocks. And dare we say, not at all in 80 minute blocks.
The birth of the CD began the end of the album. From rappers filling their albums with endless comedy segments, to rockers performing sustained acts of masturbation over agonizingly long albums, to pop filler on pop filler on pop filler, the single CD was dead and the CD album was a nightmare.
You would have thought that digital music would lend itself to the single and you would be right but only up to a point. Look at it this way: if the cost of a song is $1.29 on Itunes, and the album has 12 tracks and you are selling it for $9.99, that's a value of $5.49. reason enough to buy the album, or for $13.99 the deluxe version plus "DVD". Still, the album seemed on its last legs.
Till Spotify resurrected it.
If you're only paying a monthly subscription, why not listen to the entire album . And on Spotify you might. But something happened on the charts, obviously not reflected in subscription services, lots of established acts got to number one in the charts. From Avenged 7Fold to Tony Bennet, these acts were the top of the Billboard 200. How did that happen. Easy. People stopped buying albums so established acts with a fanbase only needed their fanbase to buy the album to have a "hit".
And that, folks, is the ballgame.