Did the CD-length album kill the album?

Some of my favorite albums are long @$$ CDs. Just sayin.

 

Does it really matter when you can just make a playlist to separate the good from the bad? We're in the computer age; it's doable now. You can download only the good stuff too-make the album the way you want it.

An album isn't bad automatically because it's long.

 

But that's your attitude it seems like with most music from the CD era. Just saying I noticed, not a criticism.

 

I don't think that has anything at all to do with it. Very few artists are talented enough to put out a quality product exceeding ten songs per album. Even at ten, there is a filler or two on nearly every one of them. But, it's easy to skip them on a CD and people generally aren't going to complain about getting more, so that is why I feel the way I do about the question. I think it's great we are going back to the traditional album length sessions. I hate seeing long CD's resulting in a double vinyl album when for the most part the extra material is not necessary. If an artist is particularly prolific, and you could make the arugument that Taylor Swift has been, though I think that day will run it's course as she runs shorter on ideas, I prefer to see the "Elton John" model where you release two albums in a single year. Worked great for him and it was more fun for us too! Yes, I would have hated to see that with Yellow Brick Road, but then again there are few albums out there that are that amazing!

 

But then everyone complains about reissues that don't have bonus tracks. I rather have more tracks and sift through to find the best. No one is telling anyone they have to hear a CD in full every single time.

 

A perhaps more eloquent and shorter way of saying what I was trying to say! It's easy to skip over them, so I don't think anyone stopped buying over that issue.

 

Ha far from eloquent. Kinda whiny on my part. But I do agree, it's hard for any artist of any era to really come up with every track that everyone can agree is good.

 

Nah, it's just too bad the CD era albums of the mid to late 90s sucked so much. I'm all for 80 minutes of tuneage, it's just too bad a lot of crappy bands were the ones doing it

 

Of course this is a more recent development that was more difficult before ripping became easy. The long CDs were around for a decade before that happened. And now that it is fairly easy to do, CD material is getting chopped up and put on personal Hot 100 or 1000 playlists for the mobile.

The point is that this was destructive of the concept of a more or less integrated work called the Album. To take Sgt Pepper I find some of the songs much weaker than others but in context they work to create a certain experience that would disappear if I took a few cuts here and there.

 

Most CD players were programmable from the get go, so the era of picking and choosing songs more easily started with the CD, not ended because of it.

 

The record's skipping! Get up and bump the needle!

 

Can't be done. This is a record/ CD thread, not an mp3 thread!

 

numberNINE numberNINE numberNINE numberNINE numberNINE numberNINE

 

Right about those 10 years but we still could program a stereo to only play what we wanted. It was destructive but the single now rules the land. I prefer the album, but technology has geared us towards the single download. I think it's a great option to have. Anyone ever hear one single, love it, buy the album, and hate the album? We used to waste some money deciding. Now we have samples, YouTube, Spotify, downloads of just one song. We have plenty of ways to combat our long filler albums these days.

 

You asked for it!

ReRun dance on What's Happening! »

 

Yes. One example among any: I had Bowie's Black Tie, Whie Noise" in the car today. That's a good example of quantity over quality. Many songs and instrumentals just drag on and on too long. There is some good music in there for a neat 40 minute album.
You're right though, Pre-CD era music is my preference. I don't think that the CD alone killed the quality of albums but it was a major contributor.

 

Yes the war against the Album is going quite well. However you are making the point of the thread title, not refuting it. The Album helped to inspire or prod the better artists to create a more extended and superior work. I hope that 30-40 minute CDs and LPs can sell enough to stabilize the situation. Put filler/bonus material on special edition CDs for the fans. And make the shorter CD with better packaging /artwork/ non music extras.

 

Yep the middle 90's. Awhile back, I noticed all the Deep Purple albums in the CD era (with Ritchie Blackmore: 1984-1993), kept the albums at around 45 minutes
with two sides still in mind. So it got me wondering if Blackmore might have been behind the LP length decision for Purple...but now, I'm thinking coincident.

 

yup...i love mellon collie by smashing pumpkins.... a TWO CD set...

i think the cd length was the next step in album making. an evolution.

however not many bands were prepared for this leap....actually the majority of bands were not up to task....so it was filler city all over the place. it did dilute quality albums....so yes i think it was a cause but it was a necessary step forward in music.

 

Totally agree. Listening to some albums, like Supertramp's Crime of the Century, in a broken up fashion really completely takes away from the intent of the album. It is unfortunate for some artists that we can so easily change the way their art was intended to be listened to. But, I agree that in the 90's there as a whole lot of fat on so many CD's. That isn't a fun listen, and perhaps its also on the artists shoulder's that so many younger listeners have found it necessary to create their own play lists.

 

Yeah I miss antiquated technology.

 

60 mins is the max that we can listen to without a little break.

 

Nowadays most musicians prefer to release albums in lengths like 40 minutes again. But the gap between one release to another hasn't changed.

 

In the 1960s Capitol albums had an average length of 25 minutes (rediculous, isn't it?), which today is actually a running time for EPs or mini albums.

 

Sometimes it looks like the forum doesn't want to put your post into the thread so it's obviously some of us repeat our answer but don't recognize until an hour later that the first (and later) tries were indeed posted.
Not sure if this is a short running server error or a fail situation in the cache process of our web browsers.