Beyonce: "People don't make albums anymore...
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On Beyonce's recent HBO documentary she talks about how music has changed compared to what happened to 10 years ago back when the Internet hadnt taken off or the technology stuff hadn't been around yet.
There was a clip of Beyonce and Destiny's Child finding out that their 3rd album Survivor debuted at #1 while filming the music video for Bootylicious. Sold over 663,000 copies that week and their first #1 album too. That's when Beyonce goes on an says this:
"People don't make albums anymore"
"They don't make albums anymore"
"They just try to sell a bunch of lil quick singles"
"And they burn out, and they put out a new one, and they burn out, and they put out a new one"
As we all know Beyonce debuted with Destiny's Child in the late 90's back when everything had to be done through albums and had to worry about getting an album to sell. When Beyonce went solo when debuted 10 years ago with her debut she still had to rely on album sales too as they were peaking too around that time.
So now we come up with this question do you agree with Beyonce's assessment on how music is like now compared to 10-12 years ago?
And do you think artists don't make much of an attempt to really make an album seriously?
There was a clip of Beyonce and Destiny's Child finding out that their 3rd album Survivor debuted at #1 while filming the music video for Bootylicious. Sold over 663,000 copies that week and their first #1 album too. That's when Beyonce goes on an says this:
"People don't make albums anymore"
"They don't make albums anymore"
"They just try to sell a bunch of lil quick singles"
"And they burn out, and they put out a new one, and they burn out, and they put out a new one"
As we all know Beyonce debuted with Destiny's Child in the late 90's back when everything had to be done through albums and had to worry about getting an album to sell. When Beyonce went solo when debuted 10 years ago with her debut she still had to rely on album sales too as they were peaking too around that time.
So now we come up with this question do you agree with Beyonce's assessment on how music is like now compared to 10-12 years ago?
And do you think artists don't make much of an attempt to really make an album seriously?
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4 and Dangerously In Love weren't bad, But IASF had 8 singles out of 13 songs and B'Day had 5 singles out of 10 songs. She's had 36 singles in total. That's only 11 under Rihanna who has 3 more album under her belt. That's 13 more singles than Destiney's Child with the same amount of albums.
I don't think Beyonce's one to talk about making albums. She's a pop artist, pop artists are expected to release an album centered around one or two big hits to cash in on them, have some accompanying art for the fans and some messages, and then some other drossy songs. Its like, the rule.
I love playlists. Youre not limited to one album, make loads of songs you like, from whatever eras, genres, unrelated, a whole mix of things, and set it to play on repeat. I have ones for walking about, ones for working, for going to the gym, for parties...its how people listen to music nowadays. Albums and albums as works of art, mini-movies for the ear, so to speak, were at their peak when people listened to music in a different way, the majority of people anyway. Of course, if you actually were going to LISTEN TO MUSIC as a main activity, buying a thing, setting it up in your room, and just sitting and listening, letting yourself get absorbed into it to live it, thats when you want a great album, with a narrative and a story that you can get involved in.
But when you just have music on in your earphones for background noise (not in a derogatory sense, but as you would have the radio, like a companion or to perk up your mood) when youre doing something else, not as a main activity in itself, then you dont want an album, necessarily.
So, thats why singles are the big thing nowadays. Music's more accessible and takes less effort and involvement for a larger number of people, although there are still plenty who listen to music in the other way too.
And people have music on all the time nowadays too. Thats how I see it anyway, masterpiece albums being something you devote time and focus to, and playlists of singles and other tracks being something you have on as background noise to get your energy going.
This. I agree with it wholeheartedly.
I rarely buy albums these days and just download singles off iTunes. I usually tend to download album tracks if I like what I hear on the 90-second preview (or YouTube ).
But yeah, Beyonce isn't the type of artist to say this. Of course, she has great opening week album sales but after that, it really varies for her (as with almost all pop artists - good or bad starting week). Had it not been for Crazy in Love (and to most extent, Baby Boy), I doubt DIL would have taken off as huge as it did. B'Day was almost a flop until Irreplaceable (3rd single) was released as a single and people bought her album again. Sacha Fierce also faced similar problems because even with Single Ladies helping that album era immensely, it wasn't until Sweet Dreams (5th single!) in most countries that she was able to impact high album sales. 4 underperformed and it showed. Run The World wasn't the single as it hyped out to be and even with Best Thing I Never Had/Love on Top being at her best, it still didn't help.
Not many pop artists' are as "in the know" as she seems to be.
I think people do make albums but no one wants to listen to them is all about quick and easy digesting of a few hit songs and on to the next one. But there are artists out there who make albums and i would consider more album artists you just gotta get out there and look.
I also don't mind the fact Beyonce had 8 singles off 'I Am'. She knew what she had to do to survive. Nothing wrong with that. She just embraced the way everything is changing.
In summary then, listeners are seldom able or willing to engage with an artist's complete album at one go.
Amazing what impact the Walkman and iPod technologies have had on listening habits? Probably worth a dissertation or two.
.... Except for Rihanna.
Lady gaga and Adele too
With Destiny's child she had like 15 million plus albums with Survivor and The Writings on the Wall. 11 million with her debut solo album Dangerously In Love.
But the success of 21 has been quite a rare one to be honest.
Also, can I just say she didn't release 8 singles from I Am Sasha Fierce. For every album she always makes videos for singles she doesn't release. For example, she done a video anthology for her second album Bday. With Sasha Fierce, many of the songs off the album managed to get into the chart, but they weren't actually singles (for example Diva).
Although I disagree that 'people don't make albums anymore'. Hmm, for starters her own husband and pal Kanye. And, as pointed out already, Adele who has become one of the biggest stars in the world thanks to a great album that people couldn't get enough of - though granted she is a rare exception in that she gained massive success both commercially and critically.
DIva was definitely a single. It was a US only single. She released 8 singles from that album here. I'm not sure about everywhere else.
i dare say, rihanna is not complaining. the sooner she gets those records out, the sooner she can renegotiate her contract for more money, but its the record company and her management that are ultimately making those decisions.
Conceptually an album is related to the technology of old, be it vinyl or cd. You could only get 10 or 12 songs on to an vinyl album. You could get more on to a CD but it rarely happened.
Downloads mean you could release far more than 10 or 12 songs because it is effectively just a list. The 'packaging' is just a little pic in the corner and the listener doesn't have to listen in any particular order and can download only the songs they want.
An Album doesn't mean much any more so no wonder artists don't produce good ones. Still you would expect the last 10
years to be a renaissance era for singles then but it hasn't been?
Albums are still important to most artists and most music fans still appreciate them and will buy them if they're good. In fact, for many artists the album is as important as it's ever been since alot of people don't bother buying singles any more. Whatever's happening with crappy commercial pop music at the moment with their young fans with the attention span of a goldfish doesn't really change that.