It was 2010, I’m in the car with my band's bass player and we’re on our way to our local Best Buy. Our idea of fun was to just stroll through the aisles of CD’s and see what metal offerings they had. I’m sure my bass player was there to pick up something Slipknot related, but I was looking at random bands CD’s looking for something that I might like. I picked up this blueish-white CD that had this black logo of a capital P on it. I had no idea what this band Periphery sounded like, but for some reason the simple designwork, and possibly some of the song titles, caught my attention. The next thing I remember is opening it in the car and pushing it into the CD player as we drive home. After the first track plays my bass player just says “What the fuck is THIS?!?!” I think he was genuinely shocked at the style and thought it was cool, but maybe not as cool as Slipknot. I, on the other hand, was very encapsulated by their sonic offerings and the musicianship was super high. I don’t remember anything else about that day, but for some reason I remember EXACTLY when I got that album.

Music discovery today is absolutely nothing like this. I don’t buy physical CD’s anymore, and it’s becoming more difficult to discover something that makes memories such as that one. We are constantly fed new music the algorithms ‘think’ we would like. Everything is carefully curated, and it can be difficult to break out of the forced echo chambers we find ourselves in. Media production and consumption has vastly accelerated within the last 15 years. There’s so much out there that companies are now trying to occupy your limited attention by bombarding you with new things. I can’t help but think of how newer generations might not get that level of memory creation excitement from discovery and that makes me sad. This all leads me to the main question: are albums dead?

Albums used to be this big achievement that a band would put out every few years. It’s a selection of songs that they thought were good enough to share with the world, or they are a tangible way for record labels to write contracts around to get a product to sell. With the constant pressure from social media, and record labels following the curve, artists are encouraged to make something new to show fans every few months. As a newer artist I feel as though I should be producing something new every week whether it’s content, a new song, a new video, a collaboration, or even just a silly blog post (ha!). I believe this is why we continue to get spoon fed singles on Friday’s until the album drops. Even then, when the album drops it only has 3 or 4 new songs that haven’t been put out as singles so what even is the point if physical media is becoming more irrelevant? Why not just put out smaller EP’s so you are able to release sooner? 

Meanwhile, there are artists that put out ‘concept’ albums. I would argue that this is the only reason why the album should still exist. A collection of songs that tell an overarching story. Some bands exclusively make concept albums. I even have an idea for a concept album that I will start working on early next year. Yet, I don’t see many musicians hopping on this bandwagon either. So to this thought, it must be the record labels keeping the album alive.

Record labels don’t really have anything to show unless they have a product. The album has always been the primary product they put money behind in order to make money. For a long time it was a way to gauge how successful an artist's work is and their reach. While this still holds somewhat true to this day, it is not the sole measure of success they look at today. Now they have to look at social reception, engagement, time spent watching or listening. The data they need to gather has become much more microscopic in scope than waiting for an album to be released every year or two just isn’t feasible. When the attention market share has become so slim there’s really nothing you can do but overproduce and oversaturate until you can find what works and dominate the social feeds. At this point in time, and in my own opinion, it feels almost unnecessary creating a whole album if it isn’t a concept album, especially as a new artist. Shorter thematic EP’s and singles make the most sense for where we head to next, but is that for the best?

At the end of the day, there is no right or wrong way to create music and put it out there. There is if you have an end goal for what you determine as successful and there are plenty of guides you can use, or pay for, that will help you out. If you want to make an album then go make an album and put it out. I, unfortunately,  think music has reached its fast fashion era. Gone are the days of putting on a full album and listening to it. Playlists have become a larger source of discoverability in the past decade, but now with AI taking curators jobs things are looking more and more bleak as we fall into the bland soup that is the music industry.

What do you think? Are albums dead? What is their purpose? These are just a few questions I encourage you to think about.