Concept album

A concept album loosely describes a studio album unified by a larger purpose or meaning to the album collectively than to its songs individually. This may be achieved through a single central narrative or theme, or through a sense of artistic cohesiveness. There is no clear definition.

The format originates with folk singer Woody Guthrie's Dustbowl Ballads (1940) and subsequently popularized by traditional pop singer Frank Sinatra's 1940s–50s string of albums, but the term is more often associated with rock music. In the 1960s, several well-regarded concept albums were released by various rock bands, which eventually led to the invention of progressive rock and the rock opera. Since then, many concept albums have been released across many different musical genres.

Definition

There is no clear definition of what constitutes a concept album. Fiona Sturges of The Independent stated that the concept album "was originally defined as a long-player where the songs were based on one dramatic idea – but the term is subjective."[2] A precursor to this type of album can be found in the 19th century song cycle.[1]

AllMusic writes, "A concept album could be a collection of songs by an individual songwriter or a particular theme -- these are the concept LPs that reigned in the '50s ... the phrase 'concept album' is inextricably tied to the late 1960s, when rock & rollers began stretching the limits of their art form."[3] Author Jim Cullen describes it: "a collection of discrete but thematically unified songs whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts ... sometimes [erroneously] assumed to be a product of the rock era."[4] Author Roy Shuker defines concept albums and rock operas as albums that are "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical. ... In this form, the album changed from a collection of heterogeneous songs into a narrative work with a single theme, in which individual songs segue into one another."[5]

History

See also: Album Era

1940s–50s: Origins

Woody Guthrie, 1943

Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman considers the first concept album to be Woody Guthrie's 1940 album Dust Bowl Ballads.[6] The Independent regards it as perhaps one of the first concept albums, consisting exclusively of semi-autobiographical songs about the hardships of American migrant labourers during the 1930s.[7]

Frank Sinatra, 1950

Singer Frank Sinatra recorded several concept albums prior to the 1960s rock era, including In the Wee Small Hours (1955) and Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely (1958).[4] Sinatra is sometimes credited as the inventor of the concept album,[8] beginning with The Voice of Frank Sinatra (1946), which led to similar work by Bing Crosby. According to biographer Will Friedwald: "Sinatra sequenced the songs so that the lyrics created a flow from track to track, affording an impression of a narrative, as in musical comedy or opera. ... [He was the] first pop singer to bring a consciously artistic attitude to recording."[9][nb 1]

1960s–70s: Emergence in rock music

See also: Rock opera

The author Carys Wyn Jones writes that the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (May 1966), the Beatles' Revolver (August 1966) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), and the Who's Tommy (1969) are variously cited as "the first concept album", usually for their "uniform excellence rather than some lyrical theme or underlying musical motif".[11] Commentators and historians frequently cite Pet Sounds as the first concept album of rock music.[12][nb 2] According to music critic Tim Riley, "Strictly speaking, the Mothers of Invention's Freak Out! [June 1966] has claims as the first 'concept album', but Sgt. Pepper was the record that made that idea convincing to most ears."[14][nb 3] Musicologist Allan Moore says that "Even though previous albums had set a unified mood, it was on the basis of the influence of Sgt. Pepper that the penchant for the concept album was born."[17][nb 4]

The 100 Greatest Bands of All Time (2015) states that the Ventures "pioneered the idea of the rock concept album years before the genre is generally acknowledged to have been born".[18] Ultimate Guitar's Matt Springer says that the Beach Boys' Little Deuce Coupe (1963) is "considered to be one of the earliest examples of a rock concept album".[19] Brian Boyd of The Irish Times lists the Kinks' Face to Face (October 1966) as the first concept album: "Written entirely by Ray Davies, the songs were supposed to be linked by pieces of music, so that the album would play without gaps, but the record company baulked at such radicalism. It’s not one of the band’s finest works, but it did have an impact."[20]

Pink Floyd performing their concept album The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

Popmatters' Sarah Zupko notes that while the Who's Tommy is "popularly thought of as the first rock opera, an extra-long concept album with characters, a consistent storyline, and a slight bit of pomposity", it is preceded by the shorter concept albums Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake (Small Faces, 1968) and S.F. Sorrow (The Pretty Things, 1968).[21] Author Jim Cullen states: "The concept album reached its apogee in the 1970s in ambitious records like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and the Eagles' Hotel California (1977)."[4]

Progressive rock

Main article: Progressive rock

Author Bill Martin relates the assumed concept albums of the 1960s to progressive rock:

In discussions of progressive rock, the idea of the "concept album" is mentioned frequently. If this term refers to albums that have thematic unity and development throughout, then in reality there are probably fewer concept albums than one might first think. Pet Sounds and Sergeant Pepper's do not qualify according to this criterion ... However, if we instead stretch the definition a bit, to where the album is the concept, then it is clear that progressive rock is entirely a music of concept albums—and this flows rather directly of Rubber Soul (December 1965) and then Revolver (1966), Pet Sounds, and Sergeant Pepper's. ... in the wake of these albums, many rock musicians took up "the complete album approach."[22]

According to author Edward Macan, concept albums as a recurrent theme in progressive rock was directly inspired by the counterculture associated with "the proto-progressive bands of the 1960s", observing: "the consistent use of lengthy forms such as the programmatic song cycle of the concept album and the multimovement suite underscores the hippies' new, drug-induced conception of time."[23]

1980s–present: Decline and return to popularity

With the emergence of MTV as a music video network which valued single over album, concept albums became less dominant in the 1980s.[4][2] Some artists, however, still released concept albums and experienced success in the 1990s and 2000s.[2] Dorian Lynskey, writing for GQ, noted a resurgence of concept albums in the 2010s due to streaming: "This is happening not in spite of the rise of streaming and playlists, but because of it. Threatened with redundancy in the digital era, albums have fought back by becoming more album-like."[24] Cucchiara argues that "concept albums" should also describe "this new generation of concept albums, for one key reasons. This is because the unison between the songs on a particular album has now been expanded into a broader field of visual and artistic design and marketing strategies that play into the themes and stories that form the album."[1]

Notes

  1. ↑ In the late 1940s, Boogie-Woogie and Stride pianist Pete Johnson recorded an early concept album, House Rent Party (1946), in which he starts out playing alone, supposedly in a new empty house, and is joined there by other players. Each has a solo single backed by Johnson, and then the whole group plays a jam session together.[10]
  2. ↑ The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson said of Pet Sounds: "It wasn't really a song concept album, or lyrically a concept album; it was really a production concept album."[13]
  3. ↑ Frank Zappa said that within Freak Out!, "It wasn't as if we had a hit single and we needed to build some filler around it. Each tune had a function."[15] The Beatles' John Lennon commented: "Sgt. Pepper is called the first concept album, but it doesn't go anywhere ... it works because we said it worked."[16]
  4. ↑ He continues that: "Things might have looked different had Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys managed to complete the album Smile at the time. ... it would have suggested an entirely different possible line of development for the concept album, wherein parts of tracks reappeared in others producing a form frankly far more sophisticated than any of its contemporaries."[17]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Cucchiara, Romina (November 10, 2014). "The Concept Album As a Performative Genre". PopMatters.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Sturges, Fiona (1 October 2009). "The return of concept album". The Independent. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  3. ↑ "AllMusic Loves Concept Albums". AllMusic. 10 February 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Cullen 2001, p. 98.
  5. ↑ Shuker 2012, p. 5.
  6. ↑ Rick Wakeman (narrator) (6 May 2016). When Pop When Epic: The crazy world of the Concept Album (BBC documentary).
  7. ↑ "The return of concept album". The Independent. 2 October 2009. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
  8. ↑ Rojek 2004.
  9. ↑ Friedwald 1995.
  10. ↑ Silvester, Peter, A Left Hand Like God, A Study of Boogie-Woogie, pp. 98-99
  11. ↑ Jones 2008, p. 49.
  12. ↑ Lambert 2007, p. 249.
  13. ↑ Tunbridge 2010, p. 173.
  14. ↑ Riley 1988, p. 11.
  15. ↑ Zappa & Occhiogrosso, 1989, pp. 65–80.
  16. ↑ Sheff 1981, p. 197.
  17. 1 2 Moore 2016.
  18. ↑ Moskowitz 2015, p. 689.
  19. ↑ Springer, Matt (October 7, 2015). "52 Years Ago: The Beach Boys Release a Concept Album About Cars, 'Little Deuce Coupe'". Ultimate Guitar.
  20. ↑ Boyd, Brian (Jun 4, 2016). "The Beatles, Bob Dylan and The Beach Boys: 12 months that changed music". The Irish Times.
  21. ↑ "The Pretty Things: S.F. Sorrow – PopMatters Music Review". PopMatters. 6 January 2009. Archived from the original on 23 June 2008. Retrieved 18 January 2009.
  22. ↑ Martin 2015, p. 41.
  23. ↑ Macan 1997, p. 13.
  24. ↑ Lynskey, Dorian (13 July 2015). "Why everyone from Beyoncé to Daft Punk is releasing a concept album". GQ. Retrieved 25 April 2016.

Bibliography

Further reading

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