Albums are dead.

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by manco, Jan 15, 2019.

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  1. DRM

    DRM Forum Resident

    What unifies Taylor Swift's albums is the underlying and prevalent theme.

    Steve Howe is one of my favorite guitarists. Close To The Edge was a highly cohesive, well thought out, and excellent album. As was Fragile and The Yes Album.

    Here's the best of Steve Howe. In one song:
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2019
  2. Vaughan

    Vaughan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex, UK
    That's all well and good - but they're artists, and no artist wants to make the very same thing over and over. Music is an expression of the artists thoughts and ideas. How can it not change? My favorite Radiohead album is The Bends, but they obviously went in another direction. We're lucky to have an album as good as that one, imo. I'd of bought another album as good as The Bends, but Radiohead had other ideas. That's fair enough, surely?
     
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  3. Vaughan

    Vaughan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex, UK
    I'm no expert in Taylor Swift. She is what she is. I've not heard her take risks. I've heard Yes take risks many times. It's just the way it is.
     
  4. DRM

    DRM Forum Resident

    Please see below. I wasn't agreeing with Modern Dad. I was making the point that Modern Dad would not have gotten his favorite Radiohead album, OK Computer, had they NOT changed from their previous work. But Modern Dad's post was saying that he wants his favorite bands NOT to change. But he would not have gotten OK Compter had Radiohead NOT changed from what they had created before.
     
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  5. DRM

    DRM Forum Resident

    Tales maybe was a risk. But it also was doodling and bloated. Overindulgent. I was not serious about even considering singles or thinking in those terms when it comes to this album.
    See my recent post on this thread regarding the cohesive, well thought out, and excellent albums Yes made. Via Close To The Edge, Fragile, and The Yes Album.
    I'm not really into singles. I love albums. I was just playing off ShockControl's paradigm for a minute and running with it. Temporarily. Because he WAS making some good points. And others were putting him down or saying he was undereducated or culturally deprived as to classical music. But he actually broke it down quite well. Using informal slightly irreverent jargon.
    I don't think Swift takes risk. She sticks with a rote script and is on autopilot. Her consistent and unifying theme in all of her albums is what I described above. Burlesque.
    Yes and Taylor Swift are extremely different. I love the risks Yes has historically taken. Even if I think it fell short with Tales. That I TRIED to like. Over and over.
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2019
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  6. DRM

    DRM Forum Resident

    Yes achieves in 15 minutes via Awaken what they couldn't with Tales of Topographic Oceans. An extended masterpiece.
    Yes - Awaken
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2019
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  7. DRM

    DRM Forum Resident


    A 15 minute "song" as good as many albums.
     
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  8. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    She can still sell enough. Her last was rather good. I think she may be in a bad place after finding her tapes were smoked. Wouldn't surprise me if this isn't the last. Maybe an excuse for writers block since this 'last' one is covers.
     
  9. Bemagnus

    Bemagnus Music is fun

    Recorded music has been on for -maybe 120 years. Music has been around thousandsy of years. The idea that LP or CD should be the highest or greatest way of presenting music is just an idea in the head of all us who were brought up enjoying music that way
    Yeah I miss record-stores, albums,cd-s and all that. Even if I own more than I can possible need
    Must say I also enjoy the endless and easy access to most kind of music that things like Spotify presents
    Most of all I enjoy music and it s more available than ever before
    Why complain?
    :)
     
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  10. Pop_Zeus

    Pop_Zeus Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southport, UK
    Seriously? You listen to an album by a band you like ‘exactly once’ before forming an opinion?

    Countless songs I love probably didn’t leap out on the first listen. Are you not familiar with the concept of songs growing on you? I guess as a Modern Dad you don’t have time to play a song more than once before declaring it good or dud
     
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  11. Luvtemps

    Luvtemps Forum Resident

    Location:
    P.G.County,Md.
    Hey-shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh keep it down...my lp's might hear you and get their little feelings hurt..shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
     
  12. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    in my opinion all this "dead" crap is just wishful thinking...
     
  13. schnitzerphilip

    schnitzerphilip "Modern Dad" Unlocked Award

    Location:
    NJ USA
    Modern Dad embraces modern technology. He thinks modern music is as dead as the album is. So he uses streaming as a way to get to his favorite old stuff and the subset of the old stuff that he never discovered.

    Case in point: Tonight while making dinner, I put on Apple Music's "Lounge Songs" channel, just wanted to hear some random kitsch while the wife and I made dinner. On comes this song, California Dreaming, but it's not by the Mama's and The Papa's but rather Jose Feliciano. And it's excellent, I really loved it. "Hey Siri, play this album" and on comes Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying, In My Life, it's a Puerto Rican guitarist covering some great 60's songs and I'm in love. "Hey Siri, add to my favorites" and there you go, it's something I own and will listen to in its entirety several times a year from here in.

    Technology working its magic.
     
  14. schnitzerphilip

    schnitzerphilip "Modern Dad" Unlocked Award

    Location:
    NJ USA
    It's not people's taste in music that's dead; it's the artists who lack creativity and can't stitch together 12 songs that are above average.
     
  15. schnitzerphilip

    schnitzerphilip "Modern Dad" Unlocked Award

    Location:
    NJ USA
    Modern Dad approves this message.
     
  16. broshfab4

    broshfab4 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Long Island, NY
    Maybe for hipsters and millennials, but not in my world!!!
     
  17. broshfab4

    broshfab4 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Long Island, NY
    Old guard still has it. The newer bands -- not so much. Keep working on it LOL
     
  18. schnitzerphilip

    schnitzerphilip "Modern Dad" Unlocked Award

    Location:
    NJ USA
    Sometimes artists change and it floors me. First time I heard Achtung Baby I was like "whaaaat?" I was so happy. The buzz from that U2 pivot lasted years.

    Then I think of Out Of Time and Automatic For The People by REM. No, they didn't change styles, but they nailed it, they created an album where every song was just perfect. Twice.

    Then there's OK Computer and a surprising one, Welcome To The Black Parade, which was like a last hurrah of the grunge attitude we'd ever see, and it was like 20 songs that were mind-shattering.

    But bands don't make albums like these anymore. And most of them "change" because they think it's what they need to do when in fact we just want them to stay the same.
     
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  19. schnitzerphilip

    schnitzerphilip "Modern Dad" Unlocked Award

    Location:
    NJ USA
    To me, "change" means discovering a new band for the first time that I know I'm going to stick with, listen to their back catalog, and always follow and keep up with. Tame Impala was the last one that did that for me.

    I don't want the artists I'm already in love with to change. Because I fell in love with them because they made a sound I really liked and that's how I identify with them. Adele has a certain sound. I don't want her changing and making Tame Impala music.

    When I go to my favorite Mexican restaurant I always order the same thing. Same for my favorite Italian restaurant. Each place has a specific meal that I can count on and I know will make me very happy. When I want to broaden my culinary scope, I discover a new restaurant.
     
  20. schnitzerphilip

    schnitzerphilip "Modern Dad" Unlocked Award

    Location:
    NJ USA
    Let me clarify: When a band fiddles about on their first few long players they make a few interesting songs, but when they make The Epic Album and it makes them a household word and they influence the entire industry, it's at that time that they need to hit the Pause button. From that moment on, no changes. Just make more of it. Because that's what we fell in love with and that's what we want. When you stray, when you try to 'grow' with your audience, ugh, it doesn't work. We just hate you for it forever.

    U2 did it twice. Joshua Tree should have been the Pause. But they shocked and made Achtung Baby. Only they and the Beatles could make it as a refreshed/renewed band. Can't think of a third. Perhaps that's why so many of us hold those two bands in such high regard.
     
  21. schnitzerphilip

    schnitzerphilip "Modern Dad" Unlocked Award

    Location:
    NJ USA
    And that's why the album is dead!

    The great bands we love "change" when we don't want them to and the newly emerging bands lack creativity and mostly suck. So it's deadsville for the music industry and onto the era of "We the best music! Another one!" and "Thank U, next!"
     
  22. schnitzerphilip

    schnitzerphilip "Modern Dad" Unlocked Award

    Location:
    NJ USA
    Yes. Because I have a very good ear for what I know I like and it only takes one play of an artist's new album to tell me if I'm going to love a track forever or not care. And since so much of what I listen to I listen to with my wife, kids, and friends, the whole point is to build Playlists where every song that comes on is instantly beloved. These songs that supposedly "grow" on people don't grow on me and would bore my audience.

    Modern Dad just wants great songs to come on all the time, every time. Outside of listening to XM radio in a pinch, I haven't heard a dud song in years. Imagine life like that. Every time you hit a button, something wonderful fills your ears. All that filler never does. It's like a dream.
     
  23. Dr. Luther's Assistant

    Dr. Luther's Assistant dancing about architecture

    Location:
    San Francisco

    That scenario you presented sounds remarkably unappealing to me. I would at least want to formulate a transition to my next musical foray, and get off of the couch and retrieve it. Organic, like. But, hey -- that's just me, I guess.
     
  24. Pop_Zeus

    Pop_Zeus Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southport, UK
    You must have done. You already said that you pick a small number of tracks from an album then ‘move on’ without playing the others ever again. So you must consider those songs to be duds
     
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  25. Dr. Luther's Assistant

    Dr. Luther's Assistant dancing about architecture

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I had forgotten that Modern Dad's shtick is most-likely satire. Must remind myself of that. Saves time.
     
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