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 Album length question

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Guilty/Forgiven
endlessfuneral2003
alldatndensum
dale434445
nazpastor
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nazpastor

nazpastor


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PostSubject: Album length question   Album length question I_icon_minitimeSat Nov 10, 2007 9:10 am

OK, I have been cataloging my CD collection and I realized just how short, time wise that is, albums used to be. A lot of the stuff from the 80's and 90's was 32-40 minutes for an album. It seems that now albums are typically much longer, 40+ minutes. I realized a lot of the change is due to the ability to include more music on a CD than a vinyl. Cassettes could add more than a CD, but wore more quickly if it was a 90 minute cassette.

Now, here is where the question came in. I can remember a ton of songs from the older releases, but don't really find much that is really that memorable these days. Here's my question; "Is the amount of music available on an album causing more "filler" songs and diluting albums overall"?

I don't mean that there aren't some great albums out there now, just that when you got 8-10 songs and listened to it over and over, they stuck with you. If I get a 60+ minute album now, I don't listen to it nearly as many times and then there are very few albums that grab my attention from start to finish. Your thoughts please.
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dale434445

dale434445


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PostSubject: Re: Album length question   Album length question I_icon_minitimeSat Nov 10, 2007 9:43 am

I like the shorter albums better. I would rather have 8-10 very good songs than 14-20 so so songs. It seems as some bands feel the need to fill the whole disc with songs regardless of quality. One example for me is Disciple "Back Again". I love some of the songs but after a while they all start sounding the same. If they would have taken the best 10 -12 songs it would have been a much greater CD.
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alldatndensum
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alldatndensum


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PostSubject: Re: Album length question   Album length question I_icon_minitimeSat Nov 10, 2007 9:43 am

That's pretty much how I feel, Naz. On older releases when artists were pretty much held to 10 songs, they would typically write 15 and cut out what the producer considered to be filler.

To help sell CDs, bands now are going 13-14 songs. That's all they've written, and they record it all for the CD. So, you do end up with a lot more filler.

Plus, factor in the MP3 generation. More focus is given to the writing of "the single". People don't, for the most part, listen to whole albums anymore. They listen to MP3s and just want the best 2 or 3 songs from an artist's new release. So, the labels are giving them what they want--2 or 3 great songs and a lot of mediocre to fill up the disc.

For those of us who still buy CDs, we kinda get penalized with medicrity if we buy the whole album.

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endlessfuneral2003

endlessfuneral2003


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PostSubject: Re: Album length question   Album length question I_icon_minitimeSat Nov 10, 2007 10:03 am

""Is the amount of music available on an album causing more "filler" songs and diluting albums overall"?"

Often, I'd say yes.
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Guilty/Forgiven

Guilty/Forgiven


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PostSubject: Re: Album length question   Album length question I_icon_minitimeSat Nov 10, 2007 10:19 am

Hey Tim Cool
we've discussed this very thing at work amongst a large age range. Even the 20 somethings agree with us 30s and 40s, that the music of the 70s and 80s had something that is missing today. The thing that kept coming up was, a new album today tends to sound the same from start to finish... which is one of the reasons there isn't anything memorable with newer music.
That's obviously not to say there aren't any memorable songs being made today at all. There just isn't as many catchy songs as there used to be.

Emo all sounds the same; if you've heard one scream metal band, you've heard them all; radio stuff ie Jeremy camp tend to recycle the exact same sound over and over just with new words.
Don't get me wrong, I listen to albums of all I just mentioned, I'm just telling my opinion of why there isn't anything attention grabbing.
Now, when it comes to rock and metal bands, there are a few attention grabbers, but not a whole lot that's outstanding.

My opinion is,
#1 I agree that there is a lot of "filler" today. It's not necessarily the bands faults as it is the industry and the writers.
I don't really think the album lengths have much to do with quality. A good, memorable album could be an EP or a double CD. Length isn't the issue. Creativity, passion and clever writing is more of what we need. Some bands have that today, but by and large it's missing from todays bands that turn out old recycled stuff.

#2 We're getting older. Smile It's true, when you're younger, the current music you like is burned into your brain as the greatest tunes ever. and throughout life we tend to go back to those sounds cuz they trigger good memories or feelings. (this is the case in any generation)
A perfect example is my son. He loves scream metal. He'll be playing it in his room and say "Dad, listen to this" (I'll rock out with him thru a song that he knows all the words to, and I can't understand one word at all !) then the next song will start and he'll say "awe man, I love this one"..... and I stand there thinking, this one sounds EXACTLY like the last one. How does he differentiate the songs ?? I don't know, but he does. Then I think back to when I was a teen and recall my mom telling me that my music not only sounded horrible, but it all sounded the same.

ok I'm rambling on now... gotta go to work, later !
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Guilty/Forgiven

Guilty/Forgiven


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PostSubject: Re: Album length question   Album length question I_icon_minitimeSat Nov 10, 2007 10:48 am

Ok one more thought before I go to work... Smile

I had a thought while I was sitting in the... well, let's just say I was reading the latest Christian Book Distributer Catalogue. If you think about it, there are 100s of books on the same subject from different writers. Many of these books are practically the same, and most only have a couple of good points that stand out from the rest. Yet they feel the need to make their book 400 pages...

follow me ? Or is that a silly comparison ?
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Staybrite

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PostSubject: Re: Album length question   Album length question I_icon_minitimeSat Nov 10, 2007 12:18 pm

I totally agree that the 70's and 80's 8-10 song albums tended to have much less filler than todays 13-18 song cds.

I agree with the whole "filler" idea that most seem to echo here (and most of the other comments as well). It is difficult to write that many good songs in just a year or two, especially if there is only one songwriter in the band. A little off topic but I think this is why the secular band Fleetwood Mac put out so many popular songs, they had three very prolific writers. It also seemed that the goal in the 70's and 80's was to write a song with a memorable hook in it. Today it seems that most artists write their songs to fit a formula.

I think another contributing factor of this "filler problem" is that there are many many more "signed" bands today then there were 15 to 20 years ago. Quite frankly some of these groups are not really up to the musical quality of some of the others, and their work is not going to hold up as well. For every really good modern rock band (Kutlass, Pillar, Disciple) there are literally hundreds of mediocre bands pushing out a "weaker" version of the same music. The same can be said for all of the popular genres (especially CCM).

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Fundy

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PostSubject: Re: Album length question   Album length question I_icon_minitimeSat Nov 10, 2007 12:44 pm

I agree. It does seem that there are quite a few filler songs in new albums. Back in the day the songs were shorter, but more catchy and there wasn't much filler stuff at all.

Of course there are many albums today that have lots of songs and they're all great. Take for instance Seventh Avenue, their Eternals album had 12 songs and the album lasted about 62 minutes, but there are absolutely no filler songs in that one!

However, Disciples "By God" had a couple of filler songs, in an otherwise brilliant album.

Fundy

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Guilty/Forgiven

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PostSubject: Re: Album length question   Album length question I_icon_minitimeSat Nov 10, 2007 4:59 pm

I just got the Unforsaken album and am very impressed with their versatility and talent. That's what makes an album memorable.
What makes a band memorable ? Like Van Halen of old, unique guitar whaling, (as well as the "lost" guitar solos you don't hear today)clever writing, a little humor (unlike today's focus on dark things), and a variety of sounds and experimentation... that's what made VH a success in their time.
This is my opinion
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topshot rhit




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PostSubject: Re: Album length question   Album length question I_icon_minitimeSat Nov 10, 2007 8:29 pm

Staybrite wrote:
It also seemed that the goal in the 70's and 80's was to write a song with a memorable hook in it. Today it seems that most artists write their songs to fit a formula.
Bingo! Give that man a prize.

IMO, there's just as much filler from 70's/80's as today. You just notice it more because there are more songs.

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"If you are not concerned about your neighbor's salvation,
you should be concerned about your own."
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nazpastor

nazpastor


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PostSubject: Re: Album length question   Album length question I_icon_minitimeSat Nov 10, 2007 10:04 pm

Great thoughts. I can still grab discs like Whitecross S/T or the early Bride discs and I can just crank them and enjoy all of the songs. A lot of newer albums, I find myself not even hearing a majority of the disc because it just drones on. Honestly there is so much similarity in some albums that I have to stop and ask myself it this is the same song that I was listening to a few minutes before. Maybe that is just age, I did hit 40 this year and sometimes I forget what is going on around me.
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Follower of Jesus

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PostSubject: Re: Album length question   Album length question I_icon_minitimeSat Nov 10, 2007 10:23 pm

Album length is not really an issue for me. There are brilliant albums that are very long (even two CD's), and there are clunker albums with only 10 songs. The bottom line for me is whether the album is good or not.

There are only a couple of exceptions to what I've just said:

Ken Tamplin - Wake The Nations
18 songs is just WAY too many for one album, and as a result, I had to create a playlist in my media player with only the songs on that album that I liked (about 12).

And no offense to Pastor Brad, but Shred was a bit too long as well. It had a similar guitar tone, and as a result by the 9th or so song, I'm ready to turn it off.
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alldatndensum
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alldatndensum


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PostSubject: Re: Album length question   Album length question I_icon_minitimeSun Nov 11, 2007 8:54 am

Quote :
Ken Tamplin - Wake The Nations
18 songs is just WAY too many for one album


I have to agree with that. There were about 5 songs that I would have cut from that CD. I think Ken really wanted to deliver a home rum disc to fans with so many songs since it had been such a long time since he'd put out a rock album. But, even as much as I like Ken's music, that disc is incredibly long with several snoozers.

Liberty N Justice is another great project that could learn the lesson of trimming the fat. There are just too many songs to catch the attention for the whole disc.

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I might have decided, or maybe not, that I should or shouldn't, depending on the issue or non-issue, to possibly share or not share, any thoughts, opinions, or facts (that might not be deemed factual by some), due to possible fear of any misinterpretation or retribution.

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PostSubject: Re: Album length question   Album length question I_icon_minitimeMon Nov 12, 2007 11:41 am

Quote :
that the music of the 70s and 80s had something that is missing today.

Personality...
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