Early record "albums" were packages of 78
RPM records in book form, resembling
photograph albums
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.
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 photograph 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.
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.
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.) In the 1960s, many performers issued two or more albums of new material every year.
By the late 1960s, the growing importance of albums and advances in studio recording led many rock groups to spend more time on each release, and through the 1970s, an interval of one or two years between albums became the norm. With the advent of
compact discs, even longer periods between new recordings become common; however, in some genres such as
indie rock, groups often continue to produce albums at the rate of one a year.
Vinyl
LP records have 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. 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
