Albums Verses Singles

Which do you prefer, albums or singles? I've always like the album. Singles have been what it all about for a long time now. The reason being is that radio plays our favorite music as one single play followed by another. However, the music always that's gotten my attention has mostly been from albums. It seemed that the artists whose music I liked always had several track on an album that packed more melody and less gimmick. Also, it was often that an album would be so well put together that just about every song could be released as a single. In fact, it wasn't until the late 1980s that the single became all important in a record company's quest to produce a hit record. Actually, in the beginning of music recording, it was the LP,or long play format that lead the way. But after the introduction of the 45 RPM the push to score a hit with a single release was on.

Successful recording artist of the 90s use several producers who names were synonymous with scoring hits. These producers would might appear on several artists' albums who might all be on the same label. The problem with this was that many times an album done this way would not have a uniform sound and might only have a couple of song that lent themselves to repeated play. The result would often be a very successful album with one or two hits and the rest would be filler. As we moved into the mid 90s it was very common to find one hit albums selling millions of copies. Many albums of this nature were the result of powerful marketing and promotion campaigns. Combine radio air play with a couple of visits to the late night talk show circuit, and maybe an appearance on a prime time TV show or a movie in theatrical release, and your name could well become a household word.

There's been not only a decline in overall music sales, and a decline that continues into the present day. Many reasons have been given for this. Everything from piracy to file sharing has been blamed. When digital downloads exploded on to the scene, they too were added to that list. Many have come to believe that album sales have dipped due to consumers "cherry picking," singles from the albums of their favorite artists. Lets face it, there's nothing like getting what you want and only what you want. But, at best, most compilations assembled in this way, lose some of the soul of the albums from which the singles were taken. My own personal belief as to why music sales continue to slump, is that it's due to the merging and acquiring of the late 1990s, but that's a topic for a blog post all its own.

Thankfully, there are many new and up and coming artists and bands who believe in the album as art. In fact some of them are beginning to release their albums on on Flash drives. In this way, they can give music consumers value added extras like the art work for the album. Also, they may add demos, outtakes, and bonus tracks. So, the next time you go shopping for new music, be sure to check out the independent section. You never know what you might find. It just might be the next, "Dark Side of the Moon."