The Album Vs The Single
Up until the invention of the iPod, music was experienced much differently than it is today. For the majority of the late 90’s and early 2000’s, buying music meant going down to a Planet M store with a pocket full of pocket money. Hours went by browsing shelves, putting on clunky headphones to sample potential purchases, and placing all selected items into a cart. Back then, add to cart literally meant add to cart– or a basket depending on how much pocket money you were awarded. It really was a Brimful of Asha on the 45.
Weekly trips to Planet M were a major part of my adolescence and so this made me part of the very last generation to experience purchasing music in any physical shape or form.
When music was sold in Vinyls, C.D’s and tapes, it was essential for artists to build entire albums. Song after song had to be meaningful, because not too many people would shell out money on a C.D for just two hit singles. This also meant that artists and listeners had a deeper connection. There was no choice but to listen to the entire album, because most walkmans would only accept one C.D at a time. No one would take multiple C.D’s out to the gym or the supermarket, so naturally, for better or worse, there was a deeper bond with the album for the listener because the listener had to experience the entire album.
Fast forward to today, where C.D’s only exist in hip thrift stores in Brooklyn and in AkbarAlly’s at Flora Fountain. C.D players? Those barely exist, and Planet M stores have now been replaced with cafes serving coffee, with foamy floral designs.
In so many ways music is easier to access today, most people will download or purchase only the songs they like for about a $1, or pay a flat monthly fee for a streaming app.
For artists now the best way to get noticed is to first penetrate the charts and then worry about the album. Current hip-hop sensation Cardi B’s career graph follows this exact pattern. With Bodak Yellow topping charts in 2017, she was an instant hit. Sure her reality TV fame, social media presence were catalysts; but the album Invasion of Privacy dropped a year after the single, making her a star even before her album debut. Drake’s Gods Plan and Nice For What will be occupying every Instagrammer’s caption box for the next two to three months and those singles released sans an album as well. Its safe to say the album has replaced the single; a trend that distinctly separates Rap stars from Rockstars.
While there are still artists like Beyonce (Lemonade), Jay Z (4:44) and Kendrick Lamar (Pulitzer winning DAMN) that put effort into ensuring each song on an album serves purpose, there are an increasing number of musicians only concentrating on making hit singles.
Race in Lyrics
Jim Morrison’s poetry was riddled with sexual references. Some of The Door’s greatest songs like Light My Fire and Back Door Man were so provocative for the time they were written in, that most people found his words offensive. The sexual freedom depicted in the work and lives of David Bowie, Mick Jagger and our very own Freddie Mercury set people on the edge. The Foundations’ Build Me Up Buttercup and The Beatles Please Please Me both contained imagery listeners were not used to, with lyrics that seemed unnecessarily provocative.
When you hold songs like Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda and Biggie’s Hypnotize to that same standard of sexual imagery, it’s not very far from the essence of their Rock n Roll counterparts, even if Rap version feels more blatant.
The wave of racial acceptance and the beginning of equal opportunity in the music industry has put artists in an interesting place where their culture can be celebrated and even their most visceral feelings expressed. So is Rap today what Rock n Roll was in the 60’s and 70’s? Or is Rap music the only outlet for people of color who never could find sufficient place for themselves in Rock n Roll? Rap music may have its roots in African American culture, but it has now been adopted in other cultures as well, from Japan to Punjab there are rappers everywhere.
Maybe Eminem is to Rap what Jimi Hendrix was to mainstream Rock n Roll. They have each created a place for themselves in their respective genres despite being obvious standouts. The two genres may seem very unlike each other, but they are hardly unlike each other.
What is on your playlist?
Music in many ways is like food. Sure pizza is great, but that doesn’t mean that dumplings aren’t great either. Mac n cheese is fantastic, but so are butter naans. Variety is the spice of life for food and music. In the 70’s and 80’s a person stocking up on Abba albums probably never ventured out to sample Led Zeppelin, as a result their tastes were focused and narrow.
Okay, but why is everyone listening to Rap?
Sex never goes out of style, and sexually charged lyrics will always find their way to playlists everywhere in the world; because that’s what the human mind has an affinity to. As rap verses get injected in pop songs and Rockstar’s start to feature on Hip Hop songs, there really isn’t any escaping Rap music. If you think about it, there isn’t really a need to escape it either, it’s just the same thing that’s always been around with a different type of seasoning.
