An interesting post over at The Vault got my mind juices flowing. The discussion was about albums and how there are some artists playing full album sets live to preserve the album as on art form. In today's iTunes enviroment albums have been replaced with single song downloads and playlists thus making the concept of a collection of connected songs become increasingly endangered.As I considered this I not only agreed with the writer but wondered if the album as an art form has already become extinct. While artists are still releasing material in the form of an album, rarely are the songs connected in content or theme. Because the length of time between releases has greatly increased over time for most artists the songs aren't even linked in regards to when they were recorded.
What would be the impact if in the future music was not released through an album but only through singles? Instead of going to the studio to crank out a full album, musicians would go to the studio to lay down one song at a time. Taking this a step further - is there any chance that with the convenience of iTunes and other music download providers that record lables may decide the cost for materials is not worth the expense for a single and then physical hard copies of music become extinct as well?
This further supports my theory that the human race will one day end up as nothing but mindless drones sitting on cushy seats living life through an online sim.
