When walking through USC’s campus, many students have their earbuds in, mindlessly listening to music. They shuffle playlists, skip song after song and maybe even use Spotify’s AI DJ.
With the use of streaming services today, people have forgotten the art of an album. Each album is carefully curated to tell the artist's story. We forget that music isn’t just background noise in our earbuds, but a piece of art.
Before today’s technology existed, people mainly used record players and cassette tapes to listen to music. These devices made skipping to a specific song difficult because one would have to find the exact track number and move the needle or fast-forward to that track. Records and cassettes were also sold by album, so it just made more sense to listen to it in its entirety.
Listeners at this time appreciated music as a form of art. They understood that an album was supposed to be listened to in order, and when it was, they understood the story the artist was trying to convey.
The Rock ’n’ Roll era is generally known as the birth of concept albums, albums that tell a story and have a consistent theme throughout. Artists such as Frank Sinatra, The Beatles and The Who popularized the idea of a concept album.
Pink Floyd’s "The Dark Side of the Moon," released in 1973, is very widely known for the story it tells about how everyday anxieties, such as time and money, can lead to mental illness. The songs blend together so well that it is difficult to tell when one track starts and the next begins, making the story flow. Although tracks such as "Breathe (In the Air)," "Time" and "The Great Gig In The Sky" are amazing on their own, it is difficult to understand the gravity of the album without listening to it the way it was intended.
Listening to a single song from an album has been compared to only looking at one corner of an extravagant painting. Although it may still be beautiful, its full purpose is not being achieved the way the artist intended. The entire story is still needed.
“And just as storylines make sense only when you have the context of the beginning and the end, listeners need to understand the impetus for why the album was even made,” according to Jose Valentino Ruiz of Big Think. Without the entire storyline, the plot is useless.
Adele has always been very publicly against streaming, as seen through her previous album "25," which she did not release on a streaming service until nearly seven months after the official release day. She buys her music and does not use streaming herself. For the release of her album "30," Adele requested that streaming platforms remove the shuffle feature from her album.
"We don't create albums with so much care and thought into our track listing for no reason. Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended,” Adele wrote. In response to Adele's request, Spotify changed its default from auto-shuffle to playing the songs in order when one presses on the play button for an album.
The order of the album is a huge part of the creative process. Producers and artists spend hours arranging the album for the best expression of the story.
Ordering an album is an art in itself. According to Big Think, if the songs are too intense in the beginning, the listener may stop listening due to sonic fatigue. Sonic fatigue is when a listener gets exhausted because of the constant intensity of the music. To avoid this, producers make sure the songs alongside each other vary in dynamics, instrumentation and harmony.
When people listen to music, they tend to forget that it isn’t just music, but the artist's heart, soul and experiences that they chose to share with the world.
So, next time you’re walking to class, consider listening to an album in its intended order instead of pressing shuffle. Only then can you fully appreciate it as the artist meant it to be experienced.
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