By: Brielle Meyer
“Before we go any further, I’d like to show you all a game I made up. This game is called “Sounds of the Studio”, and it can be played with any record, including this one
You can play it, uh, with … you can even play it with your favorite record – you may be surprised. Now if you have a pair of headphones you better get ’em out and get ’em cranked up ’cause they’re really gonna help you on this one
Now I’m sure you all recognize this. (hissing noise) This is called hiss. It comes on records that were mastered lousy or mono reprocessed for stereo or any number of things
(humming noise) This of course is hum
P’s popping – This is the sound of bad editing
And here’s what happens when the machine gains control and mangles your tape. (machine noise) Punch … outs
Now all you have to do is find these sounds on the record, and whoever finds the most wins, of course. But don’t- (record scratch)”
-Todd Rundgren’s Something/Anything?
Todd Rundgren was a musician who released albums as an entire piece. He released music before it was digital, during a time where when people were listening to music they were most likely putting a needle down to vinyl. During this time, artists knew that if someone was going to listen to their album, they would be starting at side A and ending on side B. Start to finish. Because of this, an album had to be curated. From the art on the sleeves to the order of the songs, every choice mattered and made an album what it was.
Now, today, music exists in the digital space to be listened to at the listeners will. The shuffle button, a seemingly random algorithm that we trust to play us exactly what we want to hear, has replaced the months or years that an artist might spend curating an album to be listened to and experienced in a specific order. In Todd Rundren’s Something/Anything? monologue, he invites the listener on a journey. He asks them to sit down and experience not just his album as he curated it, but to listen for the noises one would find on vinyl, making the overall listening experience a game. When was the last time you sat down and listened to an album start to finish?
As the poll shown above proves, many listeners do still enjoy listening to an album as a whole from start to finish. Considering this and the fact that people who don’t listen to albums all the way through seem to be the minority, it would be really sad if the art of curating an album were to be lost.
If we take the curation out of the album, what do we have left? Just a bunch of music thrown together. Ariana Grande said in a 2018 Tweet: “i don’t really like “era’s”. i jus wanna make music and drop it whenever and perform it. i don’t want to conform to the like … ‘routine’ or like ‘formula’ anymore. i love music i ain’t waiting another 2 years to drop it. i want to share it w u when it’s freshhh.” While the wording Grande uses here makes it seem like this is a more raw/true form of receiving an artist’s music, it really just takes all of the art out of it. It simplifies the process of producing an album. If an artist just regurgitates every song they write and releases it to the public then where’s the art in that?
Taylor Swift is an artist who curates her albums, and always has. A unique thing about Swift’s music is the re-recording process she is going through right now in order to own masters of all of her songs. Along with these re-recorded albums, Swift has released what she calls “vault tracks.” Swift’s vault tracks are tracks that did not make the cut for the original albums, and so were tucked away into a metaphorical vault, never to be heard by the public. Until the re-recordings. The vault tracks can be appreciated for what they are, especially since there is a transparency that comes with acknowledging they didn’t necessarily fit the curated original album. Swift did this again with her latest release, Midnights. She released the album at midnight on October 21st earlier this year, then three hours later released the 3 am edition. While the 12 tracks on the initial release create a perfectly curated vibe, the additional 3 am tracks don’t quite fit. They’re good on their own, but they don’t blend with the overall feel of the Midnight’s album. There is something to be said for holding some tracks back in order to make sure an album works cohesively.
But why do some artists like Grande not care to take the time to curate an album? Many would say the demand that’s been created by streaming services is to blame. In a fast-paced society where new music is not only just a few clicks away but is being curated into playlists for us by streaming services, the demand for new music can be hard for artists to keep up with. Each week any spotify subscriber can go to their “Discover Weekly,” where they find a unique playlist curated just for them with a variety of artists and albums. When you factor in the time to come up with song ideas, write songs, pick which ones make the cut, record them and produce an album? An artist could be forgotten in that time.
Perhaps this is why artists like Grande opt for the regurgitation style of music release.
When artists opt for this regurgitation kind of style of music, however, they are effectively killing the album era. Historically, pop music seemed to be the home of curated album eras. From Michael Jackson’s Thriller to Katy Perry’s California Gurls, we could think of an album and name most of the songs and have a clear picture pop into our head such as Perry laying atop cotton candy clouds. From the art to the music, it was all cohesive. What do we lose when we lose the art of a curated album era? Well, firstly and obviously we lose the art and effort that goes into it. But with that loss of effort comes a loss of quality. While a well curated album might flood the charts with three to five tracks reaching top ten status, recent albums have been coming in more around one to three. That’s just what happens when you put out whatever you write instead of holding back and only releasing the best you’ve got.
Streaming services have also put the power of curation into the hands of the listener. Whereas artists used to decide what songs would sound best next to eachother, the listener now has the power to listen to whatever they want in whatever order. This freedom can be really cool if you want to create a mood playlist, such as a playlist of all the songs that you love to sing along to or songs that motivate you and would get you up and moving to get housework done. With this power, however, people are allowed to make some incredibly unhinged decisions. As mentioned earlier, Taylor Swift is a great example of an artist who curates albums. Swift’s discography is one that is best listened to in the order Swift intended, each album start to finish. There is an unspoken rule in the “Swiftie” community to never shuffle Swift’s entire discography. Making this unhinged decision could lead one to getting “ME!’d.” “ME!” is a song from Swift’s seventh album, Lover. An upbeat pop song that Swift fans love to hate, “ME!” is one of Swift’s less serious songs to put it simply. The experience of getting “ME!’d” would best be described as going from one of Swift’s more serious emotional songs like “Ronan,” a song about a young boy dying, and then having “ME!” come on right after. This assault of the ears is something only a streaming service could offer.
While streaming services come with their own benefits or affordances, it’s clear there is an art to producing an album that could be lost as streaming services take over. There are still musicians producing well curated albums that stand alone as unique pieces in their discography. The Weeknd produced an album that would fall into this description just earlier this year with Dawn FM. There are also many artists that wouldn’t fall into the typical pop genre such as The 1975 who are creating clearly curated album eras. Beyonce is another artist who maintains her albums as curated pieces meant to flow cohesively, her latest album RENAISSANCE does this as each song transitions into the next so smoothly you wouldn’t even notice the change in song. Artists who are still making the effort to curate an album era give hope to those of us who still enjoy the experience of sitting down and listening to an album from point A side to B.
Brielle Meyer 
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