I love my MP3 player.
I love downloads. The instant gratification of "want it, get it, have it" without ever leaving the house. Plus, instant access to obscure artists that even the big chain record stores* would have to order. I even love the ability to buy one song off an album even if the artists didn't think it merited release as a single.
But this last bit worries me, because I love albums even more. And I'm afraid they are a dying artform in the MP3 age.
I wonder what, if anything, would have been different in my life if, say, back in 1984 I could have gone online and bought U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" without ever having been exposed to the rest of the War album?
(45s and CD singles never seemed to have the universal popularity that MP3s do. At least, I personally never knew anyone over 15 or so who had a large collection of them. The fact that I wasn't over 15 myself in 1984 is beside the point.)
Bands get to experiment with album cuts in ways they never could if they were constantly worried about making hit after hit. They can be truly themselves here, and more often than not, it's these songs that make me fall in love with them. To continue the War example, it is, for the most part, an album full of politcal anthems like "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and these are brilliant, but the quieter moments really shine. Imagine "40" on the average American rock station. Can't do it? Me either.
A good album is a piece of art in and of itself, seperate from the individual songs that comprise it. This doesn't just apply to concept albums that are united by a strong theme or storyline. Musicians and producers put a lot of thought into what songs are included, which go where in the order, and how they segue from one to the other.
When we chop them up, song by song, we lose that completely.
What does this have to do with my art blog, you might ask? Nothing really. Though my art is heavily influenced by the music I listen to, and I hate to see any art form die, its mostly just that I've been listening to the perfection that is The Joshua Tree (it's been U2 week at my house) and feeling nostalgic.
[*I also miss record stores. Even the big chain ones. But that would be another blog entirely.]
1 comments:
Great post, I too have been thinking about stuff like this quite a lot. I'm a huge fan of concept albums (or the concept of album, more like!) so all this digital download stuff saddens me and leaves me a bit numb.. I usually download lots of mp3s and if I find something truly worth listening to I always try to locate a physical album, like an LP or something, because music just doesn't feel as good when it's all chopped up and separated from the context.
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