So, to me, the concept of albums will never go away. And I hope recording artists feel the same way. Ever go back and listen to some early sixties albums? It feels more like a collection of singles than an album. And most of those one-hit-wonder albums feel the same way, somehow, regardless of the relative quality of the rest of the tracks. But maybe that's just me.
No one knows what will happen in the future, but I wouldn't be suprised if the album format changes or disapears entirely.
Just think, in the 50's it was all singles. 1 song on each side of a 45 most often for popular music. Then bands started getting artsy and compiling a larger number of songs on an album. That's the stuff I like. I love when a band strives to make a collection of songs and make them all fit just perfectly, as opposed to what you describe as "a collection of singles". Led Zeppelin, of course, made great albums.
That's why I have difficulty listening to these albums in shuffle. When I get a CD, I'll listen to pretty much nothing but that CD for at least a week. I know, it's sad. But then the collection gets so ingrained, if I hear "Going to California", and it isn't followed by "When the Levee Breaks", I have to go play it.
But I will say that I've bought albums for singles. For some reason I bought that Smashmouth album with "Walkin' on the Sun" on it. I had no idea the rest of the album was so bad.
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Matt