Playlists are great, but …
In defense of the album.
Lately, I've been listening to The Friendship Onion, the podcast by Dom Monaghan and Billy Boyd. Yes, Merri and Pippin from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Besides being hilarious, they often talk about music and which records they're listening to while being prepped for the shoot.
I realized once again how dramatically the way we listen to music has changed in the last 20 years. And it made me a bit sad.
The Downfall of the Album
I was born in 1990 when the music business was still flourishing. Everybody threw out their vinyl collections and bought everything on these shiny new compact discs. What a time to be alive.
Albums still made a lot of money and defined the listening experience. I've described in a previous episode how certain records like Eric Clapton's Unplugged or Paul Simon's stunning Graceland somewhat coined my taste and personality.