Like many people, especially those of this younger generation, media is a very present and very important part of my world. While I experience and digest media in a plethora of different forms, for the sake of today’s post I will be discussing in particular the ways in which music are received by modern audiences, and the importance in choosing a delivery method for audio media.
A huge moment in the field of audio came with the creation of the album, which was a way to release a collection of music or songs within a single listening medium. Throughout the 20th Century, the release of albums through vinyl became not only a way to distribute multiple songs at once, they were also utilised by artists to transform their work into a ‘musical journey’, and allowed for an increase in creativity and artistic expression, as albums were carefully written and designed so that each track contained themes, ideas, or styles that co-existed with each other, making the album itself an extension of the musical art form.
Albums such as The Beatle’s Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band(1967) and Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of The Moon (1973) are examples of such albums, devised with tracks that deliberately run onto each other from beginning to end, creating a collection of songs that are intended to be listened in the particular order curated by the artists. This creates a unique listening experience that is much like a novel or film in its narrative capabilities.
But with the coming of the 21st Century there has been a decrease in albums such as these with the release of alternate music listening platforms, including streaming devices such as iTunes, Spotify and YouTube. The rise in a ‘streaming’ subculture seems to give damage to the budding subculture of the album, with some even referring to the early 21st Century as the ‘death of the album’ in music history, marking the time when artists began to favour the release of individual tracks (singles), and smaller, less complicated versions of albums (EPs) over a lengthy collection.
In its place, modern day listeners now seem to enjoy music through a ‘pick-and-chose’ mentality, with the possibility of creating playlists through these streaming services. Although the creation of a playlist or mixtape is not a new activity for music lovers, the ease of customization when it comes to music taste has never been simpler in this digital age.
While the idea of the album is an extremely effective medium for musical artists, I also believe the value of modern ways of delivering music (in particular the playlist approach), also has its perks. Music listeners now have a level of connection with particular songs that is more personal than ever before. Artists’ tracks can be used for a million and one purposes, and sometimes in ways that the artist least intended. The new age of music delivery builds even further on the level of artistic expression first made possible by the creation of the album.
And, as a comfort for those who yearn for the return of a solid and structured album, we now see modern artists such as Halsey releasing work in the traditional format discussed above in her newest album, Hopeless Fountain Kingdom (2017), with 16 songs that, while intended to be listened to in succession, can also be experienced as individual tracks. A successful combination of the old and the new.
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