Concept album

For a more comprehensive overview, see list of concept albums.

A concept album is a studio album where all musical or lyrical ideas contribute to a single overall theme or unified story.[1] In contrast, typical studio albums consist of a number of unconnected songs (lyrically and otherwise) performed by the artist. It has been argued that concept albums should refer only to albums that bring in themes or story lines from outside of music, given that a collection of love songs or songs from within a certain genre are not usually considered to be a "concept album."[2]

Definition

There is no clear definition of what constitutes a concept album. Fiona Sturges of The Independent stated that the concept album "was originally defined as a long-player where the songs were based on one dramatic idea – but the term is subjective."[3]

AllMusic writes, "A concept album could be a collection of songs by an individual songwriter or a particular theme -- these are the concept LPs that reigned in the '50s [...] the phrase "concept album" is inextricably tied to the late 1960s, when rock & rollers began stretching the limits of their art form."[4]

History

See also: Album Era

1940s–50s: origins

The Independent regards Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads (1940) as perhaps one of the first concept albums, consisting exclusively of semi-autobiographical songs about the hardships of American migrant labourers during the 1930s.[5] In the early 1950s, before the mainstream breakthrough of rock and roll, concept albums were mostly prevalent in jazz music.

Frank Sinatra, 1950

Singer Frank Sinatra recorded several concept albums prior to the 1960s rock era, including In the Wee Small Hours (1955; songs about loneliness, heartache, introspection, and nightlife), Where Are You? (1957; songs about heartache), Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely (1958; songs about loneliness and heartache), Come Fly with Me (1958; songs about world travel), and No One Cares (1959; songs about loneliness and depression).[6][7][8] Often credited as the innovator or originator of the concept album, Sinatra's The Voice of Frank Sinatra (1946), Songs for Young Lovers (1954), and In the Wee Small Hours (1955) are generally considered among the first, if not the first, concept albums.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15]

1960s: early rock concept albums

See also: Rock opera

In 1966, several albums were deemed as concept albums by their thematically-linked songs, and became inspiration for other artists to follow.[16] The author Carys Wyn Jones observes that the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (1966), the Beatles' Revolver (1966) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), and the Who's Tommy (1969) are variously cited as "the first concept album", usually for their "uniform excellence rather than some lyrical theme or underlying musical motif".[17] According to music critic Tim Riley, "Strictly speaking, the Mothers of Invention's Freak Out! has claims as the first 'concept album', but Sgt. Pepper was the record that made that idea convincing to most ears."[18][nb 1]

Popmatters' Sarah Zupko notes that while the Who's Tommy is "popularly thought of as the first rock opera, an extra-long concept album with characters, a consistent storyline, and a slight bit of pomposity", it is preceded by the shorter concept albums Ogden's Nut Gone Flake (Small Faces, 1968) and S.F. Sorrow (The Pretty Things, 1968).[22]

1960s–70s: progressive rock

Main article: Progressive rock

Author Bill Martin relates albums of the 1960s described as "concept albums" to progressive rock:

In discussions of progressive rock, the idea of the "concept album" in mentioned frequently. If this term refers to albums that have thematic unity and development throughout, then in reality there are probably fewer concept albums than one might first thing. Pet Sounds and Sergeant Pepper's do not qualify according to this criterion ... However, if we instead stretch the definition a bit, to where the album is the concept, then it is clear that progressive rock is entirely a music of concept albums—and this flows rather directly of Rubber Soul (December 1965) and then Revolver (1966), Pet Sounds, and Sergeant Pepper's. ... in the wake of these albums, many rock musicians took up "the complete album approach."[23]

According to author Edward Macan, concept albums as a recurrent theme in progressive rock was directly inspired by the counterculture associated with "the proto-progressive bands of the 1960s", observing: "the consistent use of lengthy forms such as the programmatic song cycle of the concept album and the multimovement suite underscores the hippies' new, drug-induced conception of time."[24]

1980s–present: decline and return to popularity

With the emergence of MTV as a music video network which valued single over album, concept albums became less dominant in the 1980s.[3] Some artists, however, still released concept albums and experienced success in the 1990s and 2000s.[3] Dorian Lynskey, writing for GQ, noted a resurgence of concept albums in the 2010s due to streaming: "This is happening not in spite of the rise of streaming and playlists, but because of it. Threatened with redundancy in the digital era, albums have fought back by becoming more album-like."[25]

Notes

  1. ↑ Zappa said that within Freak Out!, "It wasn't as if we had a hit single and we needed to build some filler around it. Each tune had a function."[19] The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson said of Pet Sounds: "It wasn't really a song concept album, or lyrically a concept album; it was really a production concept album."[20] The Beatles' John Lennon commented: "Sgt. Pepper is called the first concept album, but it doesn't go anywhere ... it works because we said it worked."[21]

References

  1. ↑ Shuker 2016, p. 5.
  2. ↑ Shute 2013, p. 13.
  3. 1 2 3 Sturges, Fiona (1 October 2009). "The return of concept album". The Independent. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  4. ↑ "AllMusic Loves Concept Albums". AllMusic. 10 February 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  5. ↑ "The return of concept album". The Independent. 2 October 2009. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
  6. ↑ Jim Cullen (1 June 2001). Restless in the promised land. Rowman & Littlefield, 2001. p. 98. ISBN 978-1-58051-093-6. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
  7. ↑ Grenata, Charles L. (2003). Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording. Chicago Review Press.
  8. ↑ Ross, Alex (2010). Listen To This. Macmillan.
  9. ↑ "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  10. ↑ Rojek, Chris (2004). Frank Sinatra. Polity.
  11. ↑ Sickles, Robert C. (2013). 100 Entertainers Who Changed America: An Encyclopedia of Pop Culture Luminaries: An Encyclopedia of Pop Culture Luminaries. ABC-CLIO. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  12. ↑ Leigh, Spencer (2015). Frank Sinatra: An Extraordinary Life. McNidder and Grace Limited.
  13. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (2001). All Music Guide: The Definitive Guide to Popular Music. Hal Leonard Corporation. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  14. ↑ Reich, Howard (2010). Let Freedom Swing: Collected Writings on Jazz, Blues, and Gospel. Northwestern University Press.
  15. ↑ Friedwald, Will (1995). Sinatra! the Song is You: A Singer's Art. Simon and Schuster.
  16. ↑ Tunbridge 2011, p. 173.
  17. ↑ Jones 2008, p. 49.
  18. ↑ Riley 1988, p. 11.
  19. ↑ Zappa & Occhiogrosso, 1989, pp. 65–80.
  20. ↑ Tunbridge 2010, p. 173.
  21. ↑ Sheff 1981, p. 197.
  22. ↑ "The Pretty Things: S.F. Sorrow – PopMatters Music Review". PopMatters. 6 January 2009. Archived from the original on 23 June 2008. Retrieved 18 January 2009.
  23. ↑ Martin 2015, p. 41.
  24. ↑ Macan 1997, p. 13.
  25. ↑ Lynskey, Dorian (13 July 2015). "Why everyone from Beyoncé to Daft Punk is releasing a concept album". GQ. Retrieved 25 April 2016.

Bibliography

Further reading

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