npr looks at the death of the album
something we’ve talked about here a couple times was the topic of a segment on npr’s all things considered program this past friday. see “the death of the ‘concept’ album.” a few choice quotes from people interviewed in the segment…
tim quirk, rhapsodyi think even if you just look over the last couple of years there’s arguably more artists making… that are album-based rock music at least than there has been in a long, long time whether that’s the flaming lips or radiohead or wilco…
todd rundgren [flash required]before there were ever recordings, it seemed like serious composers always gravitated toward the long form. towards doing symphonic works as opposed to 3-minute minuets all the time.
perry farrell [also flash]i haven’t thought in terms of an album for probably a decade. i’d rather be making singles.
record companies have gotten to be such hacks that they have made the idea of doing a full record almost impossible for an artist. it’s disheartening what little respect they have for people that have concepts of albums.