This year we have seen major new releases by Bruce And Rufus, Madonna and the Shins, and none of them have left the slightest impression. They've been completely forgotten in a matter of weeks.
It doesn't matter what the album, 95% of the time it has a two week shelf life.
Why?
Because there is too much information and time is finite, unless it can stick, it can't stay. The flip side of instantaneous and free access to everything in the world is: we don't have the time to breath let alone absorb anything. We might give Bruce 40 minutes… but can we give hime 5 hours? Who has the time to listen to a bad album over and over and over again.
The floodgates are open and if you thought we had no attention span in the 1980s, you have no idea what it can be like in the 21st century: the immediacy of sound, choice, or life, is sci-fi like. If you stop and think about it, book and record stores died on us! We don't have the time because we don't need to give up the time.
And so the album as cultural signifier as personified by Sgt. Peppers… is dead. Even last years most popular album, 21, signifies nothing at all. It is happenstance, there is no cultural impact, nothing to be learned and nothing to be mattered.
What now for the pop album? Is 40 minutes per world view for a rock back essentially over? It feels like a return to pre-rock.