Talk Hip-Hop
Since its inception, we have seen the music business take several twists and turns. Most of those are for good and even though that may be subjective, I think its safe to say that we have all grown within this industry of music.
There was a time when all of the music, was consumed the same way…vinyl. Now I know some of you may not remember that time and to be completely honest, I barely do. However for the sake of this conversation, humor me. As technology evolved, so did our consumption. From tapes to CDs, one thing was consistent; records were selling and at a large amount. Going platinum was the norm and if you had a gold album, it was somewhat laughable. Well we know all of that changed and now a days people are fighting tooth and nail to sell 250k, with “going gold” being a success.
Why am I bringing all of this up? Well I’m glad you asked. With so much music coming out daily (it still baffles me that I can post new music everyday), it’s hard to take the time to completely digest a full project. Some artist have resulted to dropping 4-5 track EPs or just singles to keep our attention. So what I want to know for our next Talk Hip-Hop series is “Do we have time to listen to albums?”.
Let me know how you feel. Do you still listen? Do you rather only hear singles? Or will quick EPs do the trick? Sound off in the comment section.
2 responses to “[Talk Hip-Hop] Albums: Do We Have Time To Listen?”
Shuffle is the new LP (long play) man. Ever since MP3 players came into our hands, we haven’t listened to whole albums since. Cats who critique, make music etc. will give albums their just due but in the end, shuffle button is life. We still have time to listen to new albums the way we used to because like then, not all the new music is good. We just have SO much new stuff being released that we try to hear it all or we ignore it all because the assumption is that it can’t all be good. Nowdays I still listen but only for a while. The music has to truly be CLASSIC. American Gangster was classic to me. Jay-Z knew its potential among music heads and his fans, which is why he kept it off iTunes. Jay wanted you to hear the album ALL the way through because in this culture now, we just pick out what we want. MCs gotta get creative again and study the albums we so loved years ago. That will give them staying power. No matter the lane, you have no choice but to create GOOD MUSIC if you want folks to pay attention to your whole project. I could go on but I think you get me.
I completely agree with you. That’s the thing. You really have to be a music head to appreciate full bodies of work. I love it when the major artist make it where you have to listen to the whole project. even if its on iTunes. What Beyonce, Cole and Drake did was genius. With little to no promo and a “surprise” drop of a project we force ourselves to listen to the whole thing just to form an opinion. Honestly I think all of the big wigs of the industry need to continue to do this and maybe others will follow suit.