I know what I like, and I like what I know

I'm slowing down in posting a bit, which is strange since I've had the idea for this post for weeks. Parenthood is strange like that. Maybe I should let my wife know about this blog so she'll start nagging me to post things for her entertainment.

I'm quite capable of keeping secrets from my wife, but I don't like it. This shouldn't be confused with keeping other people's confidences/secrets. That's different. I'm talking about me concealing things from my wife when I'm not going to surprise her in an enjoyable way (parties, presents, etc).

Anyway, that wasn't the focus of this post. The focus is iTunes. Wonderful, beautiful iTunes. How I love thee.

Such a large collection to sample and explore. Its a great way to find old favorite songs, or to sample an artist. Or, if you're like me, you can get those one or two new songs that get released on a greatest hits album from an artist who's complete library you already have. That annoys me, I know why its done, but it still annoys me.

The medium its introduced has only gotten started though, and what I love is it paves the way to free artists from the oppressive yokes of their record companies. Now, to be fair, those yokes existed for good business reasons. You needed someone to publish the albums, get them on shelves, pay for the recording sessions, give you some seed money for a tour. That's a lot of cash for an uncertain return on the investment.

But the digital arena allows new artists that aren't Jessica Simpson clones to have a chance to get heard. Smaller, more agile and hungry record companies may be born. Record companies can test the waters on the digital side before putting them on store shelves. Word of mouth can help sell an artist as an e-mail link to a song is more likely to get heard then telling someone to go to the record store.

In fact, a new record company is trying something new. Instead of albums, do micro-releases of 3 songs. This allows a great deal of flexibility for artists & record companies alike. Less investment in recording sessions, and the greater ability to meet publishing schedules. It also means artists might produce more. Currently after an album, its usually 2-3 years before you see another album. Contrast that to 3o years ago where artists might come up with albums every year or so. Artists were constantly giving their fans new music, and tried a lot of different things. Some things worked, some things didn't. But it allowed the band to grow. Now the 2nd album has so much effort focused on it (and way too much engineering and tweeking) that artists usually play it safe. Which is why the idea of the softmore slump for artists persists. On the first album, it was new a fresh, the 2nd album is usually a rehash of the 1st, or whatever is popular at the time. If the artist makes it to the 3rd album, they usually begin to relax and let the creative juices flow.

The artists that buck that trend tend to be my favorites.

So what's wrong with this new world order? The title of this post. The ability to cherry pick songs could mean the death of the album. And I don't believe albums should die. First of all, the song that gets me into an album is almost never the song that keeps me there. Its usually the non-singles that shows the meat of the artist, and they usually grow to be my favorite songs. Now that's not to say that I never love the songs that become singles, but if I only bought the singles, my musical life would be much emptier.

Secondly, intentional or not, an album usually ties songs together in a unique way that makes the sum greater than the individual parts. Songs usually just sound better when played within the scope of their album.

Thirdly, if you know what you like, and you like what you know, when will you know anything new if you don't get a chance to experiment? Albums give us that chance, and gives artists a chance to put out something unexpected. "Drop in the Ocean" on Michelle Branch's debut, "All these thing's that I've done" on the Killer's debut, and "The one you have not seen" on Sophie B. Hawkins's 3rd album are great examples.

My drum teacher was a large voice in trying to break people out of liking what they knew. He belonged to a group called the New Music Circle which presented a lot of different stuff. Some cool, some very very very strange. I credit him for really opening my mind up to new horizions. I always thought my musical tastes were varied, but you never see the rut you're in. I don't think I would have given Patty Griffin a chance without that.

God that would have sucked.