Saturday, December 6, 2008

Once an album, always an album

Commenting on my last post about whether our music is happy or sad, Leigh said of two of her favorite Cinder Bridge songs:
And yet both are not on the cd (which I initially typed as "album", showing my age :) ). *grumble*
OK, first, Leigh should be unashamed of her verbiage. Highways and Hiking Shoes IS an album. An album is simply a collection of musical tracks, released together in a certain order. The White Album by the Beatles is still The White Album. It is not, as one DJ rather appallingly called it, The White CD.

Second, Leigh is showing her age (mine too), but not for the reasons she thinks.

A friend of mine once told me that half of people under 16 have never bought a CD. A lot of those people will probably never buy a CD. They get all their music online.

So if you insist on associating the word "album" with vinyl, then you may have to call recent releases "MP3s." Except that MP3s are individual songs. You can download them separately, or you can buy a bunch of them together as the collection known as ... wait for it ... the album.

ALBUM ALBUM ALBUM! S'there. Also, get off my lawn!

4 comments:

thorn said...

I do still say "album". Though I also say "record".

thorn said...

I should clarify: I tend to use "album" for other people's stuff. "Hey, did you hear the new Joy Electric album?"

I tend to use "record" for projects I'm working on. "I'm hoping to finish the new Hybiscus Journals record this weekend."

Though it can also be largely mood influenced, and I may use the two interchangeably.

David Powell said...

I wholeheartedly agree with your definition of "album." The "album=vinyl LP" crowd drives me a little crazy. :)

Anonymous said...

I have a (fairly eccentric) friend who refers to all music that isn't SIDs (emusic composed for the sound chip of the old Commodore 64 computer) as MP3. Thus, all normal music is "MP3s" - even if it is played live...