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POPGAF |OT2| Oops!... We Did It Again
- Thread starter Sai-kun
- Start date
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Yum.
It's the special edition tho
paperheart
Banned
Halcyon is the album of the year for me folks. Just had to put that out there. Such an amazing album. Thank God for Ellie Goulding. 
hi
YAAAASSSSS
Halcyon is the album of the year for me folks. Just had to put that out there. Such an amazing album. Thank God for Ellie Goulding.
YAAAASSSSS
Crumpet Trumpet
Banned
Yes, Halcyon has grown on me like a fungus. Love it~ (ﾉ◕ヮ◕ﾉ*:･ﾟ♥✧
ﾉ*:･ﾟ♥✧
I'm talking about iTunes. ;_____;
Flawless album incoming.
More like bloated album coming. Guess Gaga is trying to usurp Xtina.
what part of special edition do you not get?
I'm so glad this has been brought up in the thread because I've been wanting to rant about this very subject for awhile, but thought that if I just launched into it without a lead-in I'd \be met with "Haha tears of an Xtincta stan!"
I think I talked to Chris about this before in the DJ room, but: Why does it matter how many tracks an album has? More specifically, when did it become a bad thing for an artist to fill a disc with music?
I remember back in the 90s it was a lot more common for music artists to create large albums - like, 15-18 tracks I feel like. It was the accepted reality. Heck, I remember being back in middle school in the early 2000s in hearing/reading lots of complaints about artists making albums with less tracks and yet charging the same amount of money. The point being, once upon a time larger albums were considered a GOOD thing. When did that change?
There seems to be this purveying idea that albums are made to convey a central theme tonally and thematically, and that every track on the album has to be absolutely critical to some central narrative and that ALL the fat must be trimmed. And this may be true for Jazz and Classical, maybe even Rock - genres that place more importance on storytelling through instrumentation and progression through "movements." But, when it comes to Pop:
HEW is making albums like this???
The modern Pop album is really nothing more than a collection of potential singles. And I don't mean that as a criticism, but very few Pop artists are making these deeply personal/conceptual albums where every single track is absolutely integral to an overarching narrative. Really, the most recent albums I can think of that attempted this are Born To Die and The Idler Wheel (although, you'd have a hard time arguing that Fiona Apple is a Pop artist these days). Most albums seem to be made with the expectation that they're going to be chopped up, made into playlists, remixed and sold individually, so on and so forth.
And if that's the case then GIVE ME ALL THE FUCKING MUSIC YOU CAN FOR MY GODDAMN MONEY, thx...
I'm not going to look at Lotus and ARTPOP's 18(plus?) tracks and think, "How DARE they try to give me SO MUCH MUSIC for 14.99 (12.99 on Amazon)!? OFF WITH THEIR HEADS."
Load me up, I say. Especially since these days having smaller albums is no gaurantee that an album won't be crap and full of filler
Like 3 hour movies, if your album has a ton of tracks it better be frikkin good and you better have some well thought-out reason for being that long. It's better to put 11 great tracks on there than to lump on your semi-successful attempts as well. It does drag down the album as a whole. More is not always better. Exception is if you're crap at making albums anyway, then you can just let us cherry pick, but the album's album still matters to some.
But you'd get that with any post tbh.
Movies are different, because you HAVE to sit through them to get the complete picture. You can't just watch a few tracks of a movie.
With music, sure, you'll likely listen to an album all the way through the first time, but then you're also likely to pick your favorite tracks and spam those, build playlists out of it, or whatever - REGARDLESS of how good or bad the album is. Listening to an album end-to-end each time isn't the ultimate goal like it is with movies.
If you don't give a shit about the album as an art form, I guess.
I mean I do, but I tend to not look for that in Pop, mostly because Pop artists themselves don't tend to make albums that way. When I'm listening to Jazz albums, for example, is when I expect that.
In Pop, I think having a strong theme is more important than a narrative, and that doesn't really have to limit the amount of tracks you have.
Crumpet Trumpet
Banned
I don't think it's a bad thing to have a long album these days- I just remove the shit tracks from my iPod and pretend they don't exist. The thing is that long albums filled to the brim with a mix of singles and shitty filler nonsingles tend to hamper pop music's critical credibility. Then again, since when did critics ever approach mainstream pop with anything but outright hostility?
<+)O Robido O(+>
Member
Seriously, the only time it posts in the thread is to try to READ ME but it throws this terrible expired half-baked shit.
Gerl plz. I asked you a question in regards to the article YOU linked. And quoted a section from the article YOU linked. Don't be mad at me cause your girl looks like Snuffleupagus.
<+)O Robido O(+>
Member
Regardless as to how you perceived it, my question was based on what YOU presented, sweet girl.
I'm sure that Gaga, like Obie will lose the weight.
Don't let him ruffle your feathers Nem.
Regardless as to how you perceived it, my question was based on what YOU presented, sweet girl.
I'm sure that Gaga, like Obie will lose the weight.
drag ha
<+)O Robido O(+>
Member
Quite.
I completely agree. There's nothing more satisfying in music than hearing an album from beginning to end, and getting the feeling of journey and closure. This applies as well for pop, where the most popular and storied albums also tend to be succinct and cohesive. ADELE made a pretty good case in the last two years that the buying public still values the art of album; even though 21 was monotonous and boring, it was still a cohesive album rather than a haphazard compilation of songs.
This isn't to say albums that are long or all over the place can't be good, but the more an artist attempts the more room there is to produce FILLER or downright ERRORS.
But I can't blame artists these days seeking singles success instead given how much album sales have slipped. Releasing an album with an overwrought number of songs, or a short but thematic fruit salad of an album, makes it more likely that something will stick in the charts. I'd still give an artist a pass if they're making amazing songs, but that doesn't mean their albums aren't shit.
Gworl, so many prayer candles need to be lit for this song since Godney is the feature and shit.i.am is the main.
Ch... ;___; hopefully she has the pre chorus, chorus and bridge and I'm good
Nemesis_
Member
What the fuck is this shit? Seriously?
You are very sensitive lately tbh
Gaga getting fat has gotten to y'all. Don't worry she lost the weight she purposely gained which was her plan all along.
Why are you surprised tho? Gaga called in radio stations talking about her "weight gain" while at the same time promoting her fathers restaurant. Gaga trying to squeeze every bit of promo to herself isn't even a bad thing. More exposure for her upcoming era
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/09/20/lady-gaga-weight_n_1900603.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/09/20/lady-gaga-weight_n_1900603.html
I agree that nothing beats the sensation of listening to an album that has a purposeful structure and takes you somewhere. But, I don't know if I'd call 21 a cohesive album that takes you on a journey from beginning to end. It's mostly a collection of love (gone wrong) songs and ends in the same place it began without really exploring much in between. I think that it's pretty tight thematically, considering most of the songs cover the same subject, but I think 21's success can largely be credited to her talent, the album's appeal to pretty much every demographic ever, and a marketing team that actually promoted it as an album worth buying, and not just the singles.
Personally, I think that 21 as an album suffers from being so one-dimensional. Some great songs, but everything's so soppy and melodramatic. I have to be in a very specific mood to want to listen to it. Could have really used some variety.
I'd also like to point out that one of the most critically well-received Pop albums in recent years was Janelle Monae's "Archandroid" and that also has 18 tracks.
For me, Lauryn Hill's "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" is one of the strongest albums I've ever listened to when it comes to creating a journey through narrative. LAWD, that album had preteen me evaluating my life's choices by the end.
too bad it didn't do the same for her. ;___;
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