Were bands of yesteryear more or less lazy/productive than today's musicians?

All those years ago the typical album was only 35-40 minutes long, however these days a 60-70 minute album is expected thanks to the (now old) introduction of the CD.

However bands used to release albums more frequently (at least in their earlier years of formation).

So in the end, are musicians becoming more lazy by releasing fewer, longer albums, or does it all average out?

(By the way, this isn't an old music vs. new music thread or something, just a general chat!)

 

I don't think it has anything to do with laziness. I think it's that the artists and producers are so obsessed with getting everything absolutely perfect to the point of sterility. Even though I am not a fan of this approach, it involves a lot of tedious work unrelated with writing the song or playing the instruments.

I preferred when bands would release an album, warts and all, every year. Sometimes more than once a year going back to the 60s. Each album was a snapshot in time of where they were as artists. You could really hear a band develop and grow organically, plus there was an immediacy and spontaneity that is lacking in the 75 minute polished to a sheen album every 4 years approach.

 

See Ty Segall for a modern exception to your rule. Sometimes I do wish he'd take a little more time though!

 

The bands of yesteryear were definitely more productive.

 

The time limitations of vinyl did affect the length of albums, but that was a good thing in my opinion as a lot of recent albums could do with quite a lot of editing.
I would prefer a 40 minute Rolling Stones album every year that an 80 minute album every 10 years.

 

Yes. The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang was 64:23 long, but that is the only album they have released in the last 18 years. That's less than 0.6 seconds of work a day - lazy indeed!!

 

Bands of "yesteryear" produced more quality music, that's for sure.

 

Reminds me of a 2007 interview with Chris Rock:

CR: Music kind of sucks. Nobody’s into being a musician. Everybody’s getting their mogul on. You’ve been so infiltrated by this corporate mentality that all the time you’d spend getting great songs together, you’re busy doing nine other things that have nothing to do with art. You know how crappy Stevie Wonder’s songs would have been if he had to run a clothing company and a cologne line?

Q: Plenty of rappers say, "I’m not a rapper, I’m a businessman."

CR: That’s why rap sucks, for the most part. Not all rap, but as an art form it’s just not at its best moment ... And I don’t really have a desire to hear Warren Buffett’s album – or the new CD by Paul Allen. That’s what everybody’s aspiring to be.

My $.02:
Amen, Chris — I quote that Stevie Wonder line all the time — but rappers are hardly the only offenders here.

 

Wait, let me be the first to say it: "You're just not looking hard enough into all the great music today. Dig deeper!"

 

Do you mean rich dinosaur acts or current acts? There was a period after the ascendancy of the CD where, yes, albums were longer and the labels would milk singles off a mega hit for two years or so. Since you didn't want to be competing with yourself, plus it took so long to produce an album, and the top artists were so rich, productivity went down.

Today, with a few exceptions, an artist making an album in a professional studio is lucky to break even, and most lose money. Groups make their living on the road, and can only stop to write and record once they've built up enough cushion or if a major wants to take a risk and bankroll it. Fortunately for the artists, technology has made it a lot cheaper to record a professional sounding album or many couldn't release albums at all.

 

In the 60s, it was common for a band to knock out two albums in a year and, sometimes, three. By the 70s, one album per year was the norm and it stretched from there. Today, three years between albums is common for established groups. Offhand, I'd bet that touring schedules were more hectic in the past. I don't think that the length of albums makes up the difference. I do think that new bands are generally going to work harder. I do notice that many Japanese artists keep up a steady annual pace with studio album releases.

 

And let me be the first to say this:

Get off my lawn!!!

 

CCR comes to mind with their three 1969 albums: Bayou Country, Green River and Willy and the Poor Boys.

 

Thank you, I hadn't thought of them. Your example will carry more weight than the Monkees' three albums in 1967.

 

What've ya got?

 

I have dug deep, Iam always digging deep and all I hear is something that has been done better before and at a time when it meant something.
Now run along and play with... your phone?

 

Nice! Hostile much?

 

Actually, I've observed that the average length of newer albums are decreasing back to 35-40 minutes based on the shorter attention span of the younger, social-media-based audience.

 

Look at Deep Purple's output from June 1970 to November 1974. They released six albums while doing more than 200 concerts a year everywhere in the world. Nobody today comes close to that kind of workload.

 

Just a sarcastic reply to your sarcastic comment on my post.

 

Bands of today are just as productive as they used to be, but they have to spend a lot of time focusing on things that used to be taken care of by publicists and management. Activities such as promoting through social media are necessary, but it takes a lot of time if you think about it, and I'm betting indie-type bands don't hire people to do it for them. So while their time might not be spent making music, it's still productive time doing things to directly interact with their fan base and trying to attract a bigger fan base.

 

Someone upthread mentioned Ty Segall: including singles compilations, a live album, and album-length collaborations with other artists, he's released 11 albums since 2012.

 

It seem like every band now takes years between albums. I'm a big fan of The Hives and in the last 8 years they have released one album, and they are not a huge act. I would have thought they would need to release new material to make a living.

 

Averages out.