Death of the album?

The article I chose centered on the idea of the death of the album from The Guardian's music blog. The writer argued that while the album may not be as important as it once was, it still serves a great purpose in the music industry.

He also tried to argue that the growing number of music journalists who are proclaiming the album dead are in fact hurting the music industry. He cited an example that many reviews for an album at the bottom of a web site will often include a box that tells the listener to "listen" to certain tracks, while skipping others. He argues that by encouraging potential buyers to not listen to the album, the reviewers actually use their ethos in a way that further diminishes the albums importance.

The overall stasis of the argument is one of definition, as each side makes a claim: one that the album is dead, and the other states that it is still alive, and music journalists are overstating its death.

In my opinion, each side has a valid set of ideals to base their arguments on. The side that believes the album as a proprietary means of selling music is dated would argue that the impact of the iPod and iTunes have had on the industry. They could also point out the massive decline in album sales, while singles have held steady.

The opposition could argue that with the internet, this decline was inevitable. There are still albums that sell millions (even Radiohead's In Rainbows with their online experiment reached #1), and the music industry has simply failed to adapt to this trend. They would also argue that declaring the album dead despite evidence of quality albums that are released is a sign of ignorance.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/aug/04/album-format-dead/print