Album

A music album (also short album ) is in the music industry, the name given to an independent from soundtrack compilation of several pieces of music by an artist, a music group, a composer or topic. Other forms of presentation are the single and the transition between album and single forming EP.

According to the guidelines of the German music charts, a record shall be deemed album if it contains at least five pieces or a playing time of more than 23 minutes has. Remixes do not count for the purposes of the definition. A single song on the album, EP or single is also referred to by the term Title (English track). The contents of the phonogram means accordingly Title List (English tracklist ).

History

The use of the concept album in the recorded music business has its origin already in the early stages of the production of records. The concept album was actually initially intended for the empty binders, with the records ( or images: photo album) could be filled. Album as a synonym for LPs came on only when the Broadway Musical Gems From the Bandwagon was distributed to several cardboard bound Singles in October 1931 ( therefore album ), which ran at a speed of 33 1/3 rev / min and 10 minutes of playing time per had side. We sold this complete recordings that could consist of up to thirty records, in special book-like albums from sturdy cardboard, which were provided with separate pockets for each plate next to some text pages often contain information for each musical work. The first of these heavy and unwieldy " plate albums" that actually resembled photo albums at first glance, the record label Odeon has already brought to the market in 1905.

Among the first albums were the composition of several previously published singles of a certain deceased artists ( Bix Beiderbecke, † 1931 Bessie Smith, † 1937). The Billboard magazine began with a album charts since 24 March 1945. Original Cast albums began in the fifties with the summary of most Broadway musicals and were very popular. Alone Album My Fair Lady sold 13 million copies in April 1956. Albums were then made ​​up to 12 tracks. Shellac records albums, despite their obvious disadvantages - who wanted to enjoy a Wagner opera, had sixty times change the disk or turn around - more than fifty years for the panel industry is an important sales factor. The idea of the LP in 1948 promoted the sales of albums. Now a single record contained so much sound material as before a whole album - hence the term actually become meaningless transferred to the new medium; "Album" was colloquially synonymous with " LP "; later took over the word partly for Compact Discs with correspondingly long playing time. The best-selling music album is the 1982 published Thriller by Michael Jackson sold over 100 million records worldwide probably.

In 2003, the American music magazine Rolling Stone published a list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In the first decade of the 21st century, the number of albums has doubled, which were published each year in the United States.

Today's application

Today albums appear on a variety of possible storage media. Also, it is now possible to receive an album download over the Internet, obtaining only stored files and this is not an independent physical product more. However, in contrast to the Singles determine a rather conservative buying behavior, paragraphs of albums remained stable.

Special types

Debut album

The first album by an artist named debut album. As a successful debut album by a female artist in the United States was by the end of the 1990s, published under her name Album by Whitney Houston. It sold over 13 million copies of it. It was surpassed by Britney Spears by the singer sold in the U.S. alone over 14 million albums of her debut album ... Baby One More Time in 1999. This was replaced in 2008 by Lady Gaga. Their debut album, The Fame has sold 15 million times.

Most successful debut album of a band is Boston from the same band, of that in the U.S. 17 million units sold, followed by Business as Usual by Men at Work with six million. In some statistics nor the album Appetite for Destruction by Guns 'n ' Roses is called before Boston, from that in the U.S. 18 million copies were sold. This album can be considered a debut album when the EP Live? * @ Like a Suicide is not considered.

Original Cast Album

This format came up with dissemination of Broadway shows, especially musicals, starting in 1943. Then is heard the original lineup of the stage. Often the album from the Broadway production of Oklahoma! as the first original cast album called (6 plates with 78rpm ), for which Decca Records on December 2, 1943 to secure the copyright. The original cast album is regarded as an essential element of today's musicals.

More

An album that deals with a specific topic, ie a concept album. As a " greatest hits " album (also "best of" and "Compilation " ) is referred to an album that the most successful hits (usually mainly singles, if it is only to singles often under the name " Singles Collection " ) of an artist includes. Concert recordings are often sold as a live album. As a double album refers to a collection of two phonograms, which are published under a single cover. For more than two recordings one speaks of a box or a box set. For the original meaning of the term album now return to CD collections that are offered in a single package. Often contain certain requirements of an album regionally or temporally limited one or more bonus tracks. Some albums are marketed as limited edition with only a very limited number of copies in the trade.

Album cover

Music album is historically regarded as a unit between the recordings and the associated record covers. The size of a record album format ( 31.5 x 31.5 cm ) allowed on the front of a cover design, while were housed on the back of most liner notes and / or the tracklist. The design function is in music albums in the format of compact disc or even the MusiCasette of subordinate importance.

Music Sociological demarcation

While in the sociology of music, the music is classified as oriented inexpensive, commercially and volatile, the music album represents attributes as artistically valuable, complex and viable.