# Do you listen to albums?



## FAST6191 (Jun 18, 2021)

So I was watching

I don't teach guitar (or any instruments), I don't play guitar, I don't even have that great a grasp of music theory, and while I don't much envisage that changing (I do like music theory videos though which is presumably why ze algorithm shoved that in front of my eyeballs) it saw me ponder what might go.

Short version guy in the video has been teaching guitar for a few decades now. Enough to be around for the earlier days of CDs, through the rise of downloadable music and burnable CDs, to the rise of mp3 players, to apparently the kids being about burning money on bandwidth and subscription streaming services today (I would watch the video as it is quite enlightening from just a social trends perspective) and with it the trends in consumption of it and how even the self selected group of people wanting to learn an instrument approach listening to things. I would also counterpoint it with music topics in this section -- ever so often we have variations on the theme of desert island, favourite, least favourite... and most of those are song or artist level rather than album.

Now albums were not always the dominant form of music, even after the advent of the LP record, however if the average classical symphony, opera, musical performance and whatnot almost regardless of where you were was about album length and albums tended to be what bands were referred to with and known for/banked on by record companies for then yeah (though I will certainly note singles during that time being of considerable importance, even if they were often made into compilations and greatest hits type deals).

To that end do you listen to albums or are you more about singles, or indeed is it just background noise from a streaming service these days?


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## ClancyDaEnlightened (Sep 26, 2021)




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## ClancyDaEnlightened (Sep 26, 2021)

Snip


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## AkikoKumagara (Sep 26, 2021)

Depends entirely on the artist for me. Some artists I will binge entire discographies frequently, others I only enjoy a few songs by. I guess, technically the answer would be that I do still listen to albums, but I certainly don't listen to albums released by every artist I happen to enjoy.

I do prefer listening to music locally when possible rather than streaming something at a lessened quality. Usually VBR v0 or 320KBPS MP3s or FLAC CD rips.


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## SG854 (Sep 26, 2021)

No. Back then they had one good song but the rest of the album crap and forced you to buy the whole album to hear that one hit wonder single. 

But with individual songs downloads it means I don't have to give money for a whole album that I don't care about. It forces artists to make better overall albums if they want my money for other songs in that album.


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## D34DL1N3R (Sep 26, 2021)

I am a very huge music fan of many different types of music, and for me it really depends on the band and/or album. For example, I would listen to something like say, a Lady Gaga track here and there. But I am not in the least bit interested in listening to an entire album of hers. The new Sleep Token album however, is something that feels to my ears as being intended to be listened to as a complete album. The three singles from it that were released prior to the full album really don't stand out that much on their own for me. But they sound amazing in the context of everything else surrounding them. So yeah. It really depends on some different factors. I enjoy both types of listening equally. But I feel most pop music albums like Gaga, Beiber (who for the record I do not listen to whatsoever, lol), etc. are written as singles that are then just then thrown together to form an "album" of material written around the same timeframe. They usually aren't written specifically as an "album". If that makes sense to anyone. lol.


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## CoolMe (Sep 26, 2021)

Yes, mostly because i listen to old stuff that was way before my time.. now there's some good albums released in the early '00 and after from artists/bands that i enjoy, mainly those are not pop artists/bands and the music they make is not what you call mainstream or commercial, and even then it could be a hit or miss, there's too many variables.


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## Rob_Boates (Sep 26, 2021)

Do I listen to albums? Yeah I do. I'm a fan of albums that tell a story so there's that, but I also like to imagine albums as a guided adventure rather than a collection of songs. With that said I probably still listen to albums a bit less than 50% of the time. I recommend this dude's videos for his perspective of a metal recording artist


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## phreaksho (Sep 26, 2021)

I do believe that musical albums have a special place among the arts. That said, I always prefer to listen to an album over any single track. Sometimes I will double dip on a song that gives me good vibes. I especially like the liking system that most music streaming apps have for this reason. If I dig a particular track on an album at the time, I'll throw a like at it and when I'm up for it, I'll have a shuffle on the playlist and it'll be full of these tracks. I haven't cared for "singles" since I stopped listening to radio many years ago. I can't stand most of the popular modern music but I give it a try every now and again... Until my ears start to bleed.. lol


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## Veho (Sep 27, 2021)

Here's a tl;dr of the video in OP, for anyone who gave up trying to finish it: 








That's it, that's the video. "Music was better when I was young, people *really listened™, *youths these days and their iPoods and smartblobs and their spotifies". The guy draws from his vast experience as a _private guitar tutor_, an occupation largely rendered obsolete with the advent of YouTube tutorials, and relegated to a plaything of the wealthy idle elite, and completely fails to adjust for this double bias. 

Anyway. Albums. While some albums are envisioned by the author to be a single work (mostly concept albums), the vast majority is just a bunch of unrelated songs from vaguely the same time period, while the author was under a particular inspiration, influence and/or frame of mind. This gives them some similarity in tone and content, but really doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing deal. 
That being said, musicians still work under the constraints of "an album", it's so ingrained in the industry despite the fact it's a purely arbitrary technical limitation and doesn't exist any more. I was listening to an old musician recently and he said the pause to flip the vinyl record halfway through still shapes the way he puts albums together, he has to include some contemplative silence at the 25 minute mark and then come up with a god lead in to the rest of the album. 
The pressure to release full albums, and to have the albums be a coherent whole and not just a pile of random stuff, and to have a "flow" to them, and you get this:








(A little aside here, they say things on the internet are there forever, it's permanent, and so on, but don't count on it, get backups of everything you want to see in a few years' time. This is the highest resolution of this comic I could find online, the original was 1200x1600 or something, it was over on Viruscomix and a copy of it was on Cracked.com but the creator removed it and good luck finding it nowadays. Anyway.) 

Thaaat being said, albums as such are becoming a thing of the past. Even the record labels (the very name indicates they're stuck in the "album" mindset), slow to adjust as they are, will shift with the times. Musicians may still want to create a longer connected work that spans more than one song/single, and they will, but now it's on their own terms, as much as it can be. 

tl;dr: I listen to albums when it makes sense.


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## Flame (Sep 27, 2021)

I did when I brought albums back in the day. now with Spotify do you really need too? make a playlist how you want.


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## Ricken (Sep 29, 2021)

I'll listen to an album if I appreciate the band's music thoroughly
Otherwise it's just singles


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## Dr_Faustus (Sep 30, 2021)

Listen to the album a few times, see if it grooves or only if some of the tracks slap.

Typically I only listen to whole albums, rarely just the hits unless that album just happens to be trash. I have had instances where a band I once loved would come out with an album teasing the singles hyping it up only for the rest of the album to not have any of the same drive as the singles had in it, which feels like a bait and switch/false advertising scenario. But again, this is a rare case for me, as I just do not find myself listening to singles as much as the whole album if its good.


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## duwen (Sep 30, 2021)

Yes. I almost exclusively *ONLY* listen to albums.
I believe, in most cases, you are doing a disservice to the artists work by only picking individual tracks and placing them into custom playlists.

...and, btw...


Veho said:


> Here's a tl;dr of the video in OP, for anyone who gave up trying to finish it:



...that's bullshit! I'm over fifty, and while I'm not at all into current pop music (although I regularly listen to Billie Eilish's albums), I am still just as likely to be listening to something 'new' (either literally new, or just new to me) as I am something that's been a part of my life for a considerable length of time.
For example, just this week alone I have listened to albums from the 80's and 90's by metal and grunge artists, a few synthwave albums from the past 5 years, and a bunch of indie and EDM from the period in between. Next week it's just as likely that I'll be listening to a load of 60's/70's soul and funk, 80's hip-hop and 90's techno.


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## Deleted member 514389 (Sep 30, 2021)

Now THATS a topic I can get into 

Albums, lots of them.

But instead of bands, I remember "composers".

No matter if they are called Yutaka Minobe, Shuhei Naruse, Blake Neely, Yoko Shimomura, Lena Raine, Satoshi Okubo (or any other of the 40+ that I have permanently made space in my head:

I'll listen to whatever they put out.

Makes it easy to find new music, as many already produced some stuff.

My personal newest addition: Ryo Kawaski.
(Is pretty similar to me age wise,)

I have the bad habit of leaving "full albums" on my extHDD, and /butchered-for-my-hearing-pleasure" on my MusicPlayer.
Guess I'm weird like that...

Man.

I could talk for hours about music.

One thing though:

Instrumentals > all. other. music. period.

I merly view the human voice as "yet another intrument".
Composers get way too few credit.
Just like programmers


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## Xalusc (Sep 30, 2021)

Yeah, I usually listen to an entire album before "cherry picking" the songs I like. Sometimes I like to listen to my favorites in their entirety every once in a while, especially concept albums.


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## Hanafuda (Sep 30, 2021)

If I'm dedicating time to music, I listen to albums, or bootleg recordings of whole concerts. But if I'm just at the PC it's not unusual for me to check out a single track on youtube ... but it's usually with the aim of finding a good album to enjoy. Most recent discovery, Slift: Ummon.


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## Issac (Sep 30, 2021)

Yes, I'm most definitely listening to albums. Not always though, it depends on the artists (or the albums), or what mood I am in.

It's not uncommon for me to just hit shuffle on my phone and listen to whatever comes next, but then if I get stuck on a song there, really feeling it, then I'll take that album from the start and listen through it. 

There are many albums that has much thought put into it, that tells a story. Songs transition seamlessly from one song to another, and some albums even skip the tracks altogether. 
An example of this last one, and one of my favorite albums is *Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven. *The vinyl release has 2 records, 4 sides. The CD? 2 CDs with 2 tracks on each, and digitally: well 4 tracks. But basically it is just the different sides of the vinyl release. Does that mean there are just 4 long tracks? No. Not really, there are lots of change, and they kindly provided a track list: Well, it's not too easy to follow but it exists:





I have made a cue-file (and later even cut the files up) with all the movements, just in case I want to go to a specific part easily. 

Then we have plenty of "radio pop" albums where it often feels that they never put any thought into putting the record together, except maybe the pacing between fast songs and slow songs, weird songs and the hit singles. But there's no cohesive story, no theme running through it all, you can pick a song or two and be done with the album without missing out on much.


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## bazamuffin (Sep 30, 2021)

Yes, and always will. Sometimes sticking to the whole album and not just playing the "killer" tracks can change your initial opinion of it


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## The Real Jdbye (Oct 1, 2021)

I rarely listen to full albums, I just have a playlist of all the music I like, there might be full albums in there but I leave it on shuffle so I don't listen to the same music too much and get bored of it.


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## Milenko (Oct 1, 2021)

20 years ago yeah, but my attention span has gone so I'm lucky if I make it through a song


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## lisreal2401 (Oct 21, 2021)

Yup.

Lots of singles, too. Bias towards 75-93 or so


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## Alexander1970 (Oct 21, 2021)

Today: One or Two Times....Unfortunately Musicians/Bands today are no longer "able" to produce
70 - 80 Minutes of "continuing good Music"....

Earlier Music - of course, for example "Dark Side from the Moon" by Pink Floyd or "Music from the Elder" by KISS are Albums that I could listen to for Hours and Hours .....


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## Julie_Pilgrim (Oct 22, 2021)

If an artist I like releases a new album, yeah sure


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## BobCh (Oct 29, 2021)

Really rarely. It can be once my favourite band releases a new one.


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## dei99 (Nov 1, 2021)

Sure, I do


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## Spring_Spring (Nov 3, 2021)

Of course I listen to albums. I don't care much about what people did in 1997 though, or even, what most people do in general when it comes to music taste.


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## Mama Looigi (Nov 5, 2021)

Never. I find every single song I enjoy enough that I find it worth keeping around individually, and put it in one ‘master’ playlist that I put on shuffle when I want to listen to music.
I’ve found that in general, whenever I find one I enjoy that’s a part of an album, I usually only enjoy 2 or 3 of the songs in that album at most.


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## Julie_Pilgrim (Nov 5, 2021)

There are some albums where listening to the songs by themselves doesn't feel right, and then there are albums that are just a bunch of random songs with no theme or anything


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## Julie_Pilgrim (Nov 5, 2021)

notrea11y said:


> Composers get way too few credit.
> Just like programmers


you know who else gets too few credit? producers


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## zxr750j (Nov 5, 2021)

I do listen sometimes to older albums, the sequence of some albums is deeply rooted in my system. 

Mostly though I listen to spotify playlists and a couple of radio stations to get some more random music.
Does anyone know if you can block 1 album from an artist? Fuck Kanye's new album, it's songs are like a rash in recent playlists.


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## Soraiko (Nov 8, 2021)

Yes... Of my favorite Band but they cant Release anymore Real Album..... RIP Linkin Park


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## Pixel64 (Nov 20, 2021)

I usually listen to albums once and add the songs I like to a respective playlist. Sometimes I'll put on an album if I like all the songs on it (Max & Match by Odd Eye Circle )


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## Underbeddy (Mar 22, 2022)

As for me, I`m a big fan of listening to all kinds of music! (I`m meloman but like more rock and 90th music )
But because of my studies, I can't enjoy the songs of my favorite artists so often ( 
I've been playing playlists of songs on YouTube, basically putting them in the background.

I'm already lost in the time count I feel a bit sad about it((( Is it okay?


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## CoolMe (Mar 22, 2022)

Underbeddy said:


> As for me, I`m a big fan of listening to all kinds of music!


That's very good, openness to learning/enjoying different kinds of music, from different eras/genres/styles is a gift in my eyes, as you aren't quick to judge something until you give it proper time/listening.. 


Underbeddy said:


> like more rock and 90th music )


Good choice! many great (rock, alt, punk, metal, Shoegaze, Triphop etc) acts emerged from that era, from RATM, GD, Nirvana, AiC, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, MBV, Weezer, Faith No More, Portishead & many many others.. all great music, you really can't go wrong there. 


Underbeddy said:


> But because of my studies, I can't enjoy the songs of my favorite artists so often


You can use the Pomodoro Technique, it's 20~25min of studying then after it another 20~25min of doing something YOU like, in this case listening to music, then repeat over and over as much as you like. 
You get more work done this way, as it's like giving yourself a reward for studying for 25min straight, and with much improved focus and without the risk of getting bored..


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## MikaDubbz (Mar 22, 2022)

If I like the band, absolutely I'll listen to their album through and through, and if it turns out I love that album, it will be in my regular rotation.  I absolutely love a brilliant cohesive album from start to finish.

However, we also live in an era where making a "mixtape" as it were (or a playlist by today's terms) couldn't be easier or more straightforward.  So the desire to only grab select songs from musicians I'm overall not crazy about, but they have a few good songs here and there, is so easy to fulfill, that it is no wonder why straight-up listening to albums from start to back is not nearly as common as it used to be.

And I get it, there are problems with this, so many diamonds in the rough get passed over because people will check out of an album if it doesn't immediately keep them hooked, especially with so much possible music to digest, no one wants to waste time listening through each album that they might possibly enjoy or just to look for the good songs, especially when the structure of the music industry today makes it so easy to find the universally loved songs from any musician.


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## Soraiko (Jun 25, 2022)

Yes i listen to this albums (Linkin Park):

- Hybrid Theory
-Meteora
- Minutes To Midnight
- A Thousand Suns
and old demos of em.


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## CoolMe (Jun 25, 2022)

Always! There's still good albums being released if you know where to look..


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## ciaomao (Jun 25, 2022)

any open questions?


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## TraderPatTX (Jun 25, 2022)

I listen to an album when I first buy it. After that, it gets put into my collection of 24k songs on shuffle, never to be heard from again


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## WiiMiiSwitch (Jul 20, 2022)

Sorry for the possible bump but I do listen to albums, I feel like people don't really do it anymore simply because they only want to listen to the big hits (singles). However, some album songs in general can be way better than just that one big single


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## aoikurayami (Jul 29, 2022)

Yes.
I relisten to some religiously



Spoiler



•Death Note III - Hideki Taniuchi
•Kingdom Hearts II         - Yoko Shimomura
  Kingdom Hearts 358\2 - Yoko Shimomura
•VRAINS SD 1                    - Shinkichi Mitsumune
•Full Moon Wo Sagashite h V.a.
• The Mentalist Soundtrack - Blake Neely
• Another Code R - Satoshi Okubo
 etc..



I might kill the post chara limit if I went on. I love instrumentals.


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## spoggi (Jul 29, 2022)

Listens to pirated albums, if that counts


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## subcon959 (Jul 31, 2022)

I mostly have random stuff playing in the background but if I am doing it to actually listen then I tend to go with vinyl which is much more of an experience in itself. I don't have any decent headphones at the moment though which is hampering my enjoyment.


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