Are albums still compositions or are they more a collection of singles?

[OddBeMe]

(Old man hat) Back in my day albums were composed under a theme that was told throughout all the songs. Is that still a thing these days?

Yeah mostly

Sometimes

Not really

[WindAtMyBack]

I'd say they've always been a collection of singles. Although singles isn't really the right word. A single is typically one song that they plan on pushing hard.

Even something like Sgt Pepper was a collection of singles. They were mostly written separately and not directly tied to each other. For example Harrison's songs were just Harrison songs, more in common with his songs before and after Sgt Pepper than with anything else on Sgt Pepper. I'd say the most common "theme" in Sgt Pepper is experimentation with a lot of styles, both old and new.

Albums in general have really become less popular. People download singles now and don't listen to albums. That's kinda sad since it's common for the best songs to not be the single that are pushed and downloaded.

There have been some true concept albums with a common theme. Thick as a Brick is a good example. But those kind of albums are rare in the larger scheme of things.

[exitseven]

Albums often reflected the mindset of the artist during a particular period of time. If they were going through a painful divorce, their music may be sad or bitter. Bob Dylan had many different moods in his albums.

[exitseven]

Thanks for the MHO😎

[Nikki1989]

Great albums are released every week. You just have to look for them and stop accepting any old manufactured garbage that is fed to you.

[exitseven]

@Nikki1989 I have really tried to find some new artists that I like. There are a few that I like but the body of work that came out in the 60s and 70s are still in a class by themselves.

[Anonymous]

I've been looking for that in albums nowadays. I don't see correlation between most of the songs anymore.

[MysticDevice]

They're not so common anymore but they do exist.

Dream Theater's "The Astonishing" comes to mind. A 2-disc concept album

Linkin Park's "A Thousand Suns" is another.

Ayreon "The Source"

Just a few that I can think off hand.

[Sevenpointfive]

thematic bullshit is just that... bullshit. there might be some albums with themes, but people buy their songs from songwriters and what's in the songs isn't gonna fall into a theme.