Concept Albums, A Rant.
I must stop blagging soon enough, but I must ask the question before the day is out.
What happened to Concept Albums? Seriously, it seemed like every single mainstream band put out one of these puppies every 4-5 years, and now it's rarer than a decent Generation One Pokémon card.
Let's be honest, would you rather listen to 12 songs with barely any connection to each other, or 12 songs which tell a story of either love, hate, anger, passion, peace, war, anything? I mean, come on artists of the world. Nine Inch Nails/Trent Reznor's still doing it, and he's making good money.
Also, remember when Green Day made one in 2004? They made very good money. In fact, so good they're probably still living on the sales very comfortably.
Now granted, those bands who did it were very Classic Rock based, and the current generation has very little patience for story telling. It's one of the reasons we've got movies based on action and less talking. Now, this isn't to say a very -bad- thing, but I know for a fact it's not very good for those who enjoy reading a book or enjoying a lovely story being acted out, and not just guns blaring. And again, this isn't to say I hate guns blaring, and I'm losing track of focus here.
I'm pretty sure people wouldn't mind seeing Concept Albums anymore in a more widespread fashion. Imagine what kind of money could be made on it after the album's done. Roger Waters was, at last check, writing a Broadway musical based on The Wall, a very famous concept album. Trent Reznor once mentioned that he was going to make a sequel to Year Zero soon, and that he also wanted to bring the album to the big screen, taking another feather from the cap of Pink Floyd when they made The Wall with their music. 10 Bucks says they ask Bob Geldof to star in it.
I'm also pretty sure people would buy these albums and enjoy them. I mean, sure they buy singles and all that, which also bring in money, but which would get you more money, buying an album or buying a music download? That's the question before the board. Record Labels would call out Album, consumers (us) would ask Music Download. I'd gladly support Concept Albums coming back IF they were written in a way that it'd be awesome and could be converted into at least 2 forms of outside media afterwards, be it movies, a TV series, a book, a play/musical, or even a remix (Like Year Zero Remixed)
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