Albums are dead.

If you are a fan of "alternative rock" you should be looking more toward indie labels and self-released stuff than major labels anyway in my opinion. Many indie acts are putting stuff up only on Bandcamp these days and maybe self-releasing singles and albums on vinyl. Just look at the massive output of an act like Car Seat Headrest (not a huge fan but he is a great example of putting out consistent content).

 

I don't understand why "streaming" and "albums" are put up as opposing positions (except in terms of sales specifically). I constantly stream... albums. I'm confused.

I can barely keep up with all the albums I love being released every year. Maybe my standards are just low. Honestly, the fact that there are so many might have as much to do with the low sales figures as any format change.

 

Did it? I remember Britney Spears, NSync, Backstreet Boys, Robbie Williams selling millions of LPs in that period.

 

but that begs the bigger question? Why get upset about the thread? Poster is just making an observation that can be debated, but there is no ill will intent

 

CDs, not LPs. Also we only had Napster. iTunes wasn't around.

 

Bull.
Tons of great alternative and rock albums out there if you look for them. But you won't do that, will you?

 

I think this is an extreme example that is interesting but doesn't really prove anything. The first full week of the year is a slow time for album sales & new releases. There were plenty of times in 2018 when albums topped the charts.

 

More people are listening to more music than ever before - it just happens to be on the commute to work, or even in work, or in the background in some other way.

The old way in which we listened to music, in a group with the music having so much attention, is the thing that's dead.

 

Tell it to the guy that delivers my Amazon orders.. next you'll be telling me that books are dead too!...

 

The 3 record stores in my town are selling tons of new and used vinyl.

 

What nonsense.

Why does great new music need to sell millions like U2 and Radiohead (were they ever great? ). There is tons of great new music that sells, just not in the mega band category.

Do you need the affirmation of millions of others to like something?

Get your head out of your classic rock albums, it's never been easier to find great new music.

 

It's heaven for some of us!

 

Couldn't have said it better. There's a ton of great music out there if you know where to look. Granted, the ease of recording/booking/etc. has resulted in a glut of bands, but that's not a bad thing. In addition to old stalwarts, like OMD, The Cult, The Church, Gary Numan, The Breeders, Superchunk and Guided by Voices (who have all released stellar albums the past couple of years), there's a ton of new names:
Wild Nothing, Papir, Neighborhood Brats, Causa Sui, Protomartyr, The Soft Moon, Tennis, Lo Moon, Moon Duom DIIV, Khruangbin, Lithics, Beach Fossils, Darker My Love, Wolf People, and the list goes on. These are all widely varied styles that don't sound at all like recycled Radiohead. I'd recommend finding a good blog or pick some artist that you like and just go down the rabbit hole from there (streaming, reading about related bands, etc.). Sirius XM also has a lot of on demand and mix stations that you can tune to your tastes.

 

I still own all my cds but I do stream either a subscription service or my cloud through headphones or aux chord.
I haven't leaped to Bluetooth yet but once I do I know it will be more of the same with convenience.
If a big wireless system can blair the same music from across the room from me just sitting with my phone as it can with me putting in and taking out cds, and I can change artists, albums and songs with the click of a button, which I'm doing now with earbuds and a long aux chord, my cds will remain primarily a nice collection to look at.
Sure, for absolute peak quality I can throw in some titles in physical format, but honestly, in the same way the cd was so much more convenient than albums and tapes, so is streaming.
Plus, all the money we spent replacing our albums and tapes with cds we don't have to do in order to replace cds with streaming.
During the digital download era, it was great to painstakingly transfer all our cds to the computer for mp3 play, and it's still nice to know we have those exact unique mixes and masters saved on mp3 and hard drives.
But for the most part what's available on stream is the same.

 

digital payola

 

It's just that there are so many threads about this and that musical form or format being dead, when the facts indicate this is not quite true. It sounds like whiny, drama queen stuff, a lot of it.

There, now I've undoubtedly irritated some people enough to take shots at me.

 

Here's my best of 2018 list, it contains lots of rock and whatever alternative is. If the album is dead, I must have missed that memo.
Christine and the Queens - Chris
Blood Orange - Negro Swan
Jake Shears - Jake Shears
Ezra Furman - Transangelic Exodus
Rolling Blackouts CF - Hope Downs
John Grant - Love Is Magic
Chastity - Death Lust
Neneh Cherry - Broken Politics
****ed Up - Dose Your Dreams
The Beths - Future Me Hates You
Beach House - 7
Sons Of Kemet - Your Queen Is A Reptile
Amen Dunes - Freedom
Screaming Females - All At Once
Superchunk - What A Time To Be Alive
No Age - Snares Like A Haircut
Belly - Dove
Big Red Machine - Big Red Machine
Camp Cope - How To Socialize and Make Friends
Joan As Policewoman - Damned Devotion
Wye Oak - The Louder I Call The Faster It Runs
How To Dress Well - The Anteroom
Ty Segall - Freedoms Goblin
Robyn - Honey
Troye Sivan - Bloom
Cloud Nothings - Last Building Standing
Messthetics- Messthetics
Idles - Joy As An Act Of Resistance

 

You forgot the very best album of 2018. Arctic Monkeys- Tranquility Base Hotel And Casino.

 

Whatever. I’ll still listen to and buy my favourite albums.
Poor me.

 

Albums aren't dead. Culture however...

 

I thought it died when the gramophone was invented. Where have you been???

John Philip Sousa, "The Menace of Mechanical Music," 1906
http://explorepahistory.com/odocument.php?docId=1-4-1A1

 

Just read the entire article. 1906! Astounding! Thanks for sharing.

 

Fine, I’m going to get dressed and drive down to the record store and buy it....wait....

“Hey Siri, play Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino by Arctic Monkeys”

On comes ‘Star Treatment’ on my HomePod. I’m liking it. ‘One Point Perspective’ pretty cool too. I’ll report back with a review shortly.

 

I'm a physical product kind of guy and recently bought a brand new, fully-loaded car. And the one option that wasn't even available from the manufacturer? A CD player!
We are being forced to look at alternatives. I had no choice but to start streaming my music. I didn't want to, but felt forced to try it. Now that I am, I digging it. It's so easy. For $10 a month, I can download any album I want.