An album or record album is a collection of related audio or music tracks distributed to the public. The most common way is through commercial distribution, although smaller artists will often distribute directly to the public by selling their albums at live concerts or on their websites.
Contents |
Tracklisting
The tracks on an album may be related by subject, mood or sound, and may even be designed to express a unified message or tell a story (as in the case of a concept album), or the tracks may simply represent a convenient grouping of recordings made at one time or place, or recordings whose commercial rights are controlled by a single record label. A group of audio tracks is considered to be an album if it has a generally consistent track list (often with minor differences or bonus tracks in different territories, or if the album is "reissued" at different times). An album may be released in a single format, such as on compact disc, or in multiple media formats, ranging from physical ones such as CDs, DVD audio, cassettes and vinyl records, to digital ones such as MP3 and AAC files or streaming audio.
History
The term "record album" originated from the fact that 78-RPM phonograph disc records were kept in a bound container resembling a photogaph album. The first collection of records to be called an "album" was Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, released in April 1909 as a four-disc set by Odeon Records.[1][2] It retailed for 16 shillings (approximately £56 or US$101 in 2005 currency).
In 1948, Columbia produced the first 12-inch, 33⅓-RPM microgroove record made of vinyl.[1] With a running time of 23 minutes per side, these new records contained as much music as the old-style album of records and, thus, took on the name "album". For many years, the standard industry format for popular music was an album of twelve songs, originally the number related to payment of composer royalties.
Originally, albums ranged in duration from half an hour to an hour, depending on the genre and record label. American pop albums tended to be around a half hour; British pop albums were somewhat longer, often containing 14 songs instead of 11 or 12; jazz albums were longer still; and classical albums were the longest of all. From the dawn of the "album era" (in jazz, about 1954; in rock, about 1962) until about the mid-1960s, albums were often recorded as quickly as possible, sometimes in single sessions. (Prestige Records and Blue Note Records were famous for this; as well, The Beatles' first album and The Byrds' first four albums were all largely recorded in single sessions.)
Vinyl LP records had two sides, each comprising one half of the album. If a pop or rock album contained tracks released separately as commercial singles, these were often traditionally placed in particular positions on the album. A common configuration was to have the album led off by the second and third singles, followed by a ballad. The first single would lead off side 2. In the past, many singles (such as the Beatles' "Hey Jude") did not appear on albums, but others (such as the Beatles' "Come Together" and "Something") were also part of an album released concurrently. Today many commercial albums of music tracks feature one or more singles, which are released separately to radio, TV or the Internet as a way of promoting the album. Albums have also been issued that are compilations of older tracks not originally released together, such as singles not originally found on albums, b-sides of singles, or unfinished "demo" recordings.
Album sets of the past were arranged "in sequence" for phonographs equipped with record changers. In the case of a two-record set, for example, sides one and four would be printed on one record, and sides two and three on the other. The two records would then be stacked up on a spindle especially equipped to handle such albums, with side one on the bottom and side two on the top. The record containing side one would then automatically drop down on the turntable, and the tone arm containing the stylus needle would then automatically play the record. When that side was finished, the tone arm would swing back to allow the record containing side two to drop down on top of the record containing side one, and automatically begin to play.
Record changers persisted throughout the LP era, but were discontinued after it was discovered that the stacking up of records had the potential to warp them.
Today, with the vinyl record no longer being used as the primary form of distribution, the term "album" can still be applied to any sound recording collection, such as those on compact disc, MiniDisc, Compact audio cassette, and digital or MP3 albums. Cover art is also considered an integral part of the album. Many albums also come with liner notes and inserts giving background information or analysis of the recording, reprinted lyrics, images of the performers, or additional artwork and text. These are now often found in the form of CD booklets.
Length
Due to the large capacity of new media (compact discs originally ran to 74 minutes, later extended to 80 minutes) and the lack of any formal "side" divisions, the matter of how long an album should be is open to debate, although most albums today are at least 30 minutes long. Usually, rock albums with a particularly fast tempo, such as albums in punk rock and non-progressive thrash metal are the shortest, then albums in mainstream rock and pop; then hip hop albums are slightly longer. Progressive varieties of metal and rock, such as Dream Theater and Tool, may have songs around ten minutes long individually. Albums like these are usually around or over an hour. According to the rules of the UK Charts, a recording counts as an "album" if either it has more than four tracks or lasts more than 25 minutes.[3] Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as EPs, an abbreviation of extended play, "extended" meaning longer than a single but shorter than an LP. The term "mini-album" may also be used.
If an album becomes too long to fit this format, a recording artist may make the decision to release a double album where two vinyl LPs or compact discs are packaged together in a single case, or a triple album containing three LP's or compact discs.
Recording artists who have an extensive back catalogue will often re-release several CDs in one single box with a unified design, often containing one or more albums, or a compilation of previously unreleased recordings. These are known as box sets. Some musical artists have also released more than three compact discs or LP records of new recordings at once, in the form of boxed sets, although in that case the work is still usually considered to be an album.
See also
| Look up album in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Album cover
- Compact Disc
- Extended play
- Liner notes
- List of albums
- Long play
- Release (music)
- Single (music)
References
- ^ a b "Recording Technology History". http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/recording/notes.html.
- ^ "Chronomedia". http://www.terramedia.co.uk/Chronomedia/years/1909.htm.
- ^ "Rules For Chart Eligibility - Albums" (pdf). The Official UK Charts Company. January 2007. http://www.theofficialcharts.com/docs/NEW_Album_Chart_Rules_2007_2.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-04-20.
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Categories: Albums
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ue, 28 Jul 2009 19:24:17 GM
The Canadian pop singer tells Billboard.com that she's taking a more serious, stripped-down approach to her fourth studio . album. , tentatively slated for a November release on RCA. "A lot of the songs are mainly the acoustic and my vocal ...
Q. Ok, so I recently got my first ipod for Christmas and unlike everyone else my age, I'm completely illiterate about it. I purchased some songs from iTunes and downloaded some of my CDs. The album art from my CDs don't show up, but the ones that I bought did. Is there any way to fix it?
Asked by bandgeekandproud16 - Sun Dec 28 16:22:31 2008 - - 3 Answers - 0 Comments
A. There are a few things you can do. First thing to try is going to the Advanced menu in iTunes and clicking Get Album Artwork. This will scan your entire iTunes library and attempt to retrieve album artwork for all the albums that don't have it. If for some reason it can't match up the album with one of the albums it has artwork for you can manually add it in yourself. If the title of the album or the band name etc don't match up with what iTunes expects it won't be able to recognize the album. To add album artwork in yourself what you need to do is find the image you want to display - running searches on Amazon.com usually will generate the images you need. Right click on the image and select copy. Then in iTunes right click on the album… [cont.]
Answered by chicaespanola - Wed Dec 31 17:32:30 2008
