Unpopular views about music

The concept of "albums" outside of concept albums need to die a horrid death.
Albums only existed initially as a compilation of an artist/band's singles, hence "album". Like an album of photos. So you didn't have to buy every single release they made.

Then, for some fucking reason, around the '60s this shifted to mean "group of singles produced during similar studio sessions that no-one has heard before", and the record labels decided they should each be 40 minutes long. Then cassette tapes came along and this rose to 60, with CDs it became ~70, and now with streaming we're in an era where every album has about 5 - 10 digital exclusive tracks, totalling upwards of 85 minutes long, if not more.

Albums kill an act's creativity by foisting them with incredible amounts of pressure which simply didn't exist 50 - 60 years ago. Instead of 1, 2, or a few songs every couple months, they're now forced to come up with 15 every 18 months or they fall out of relevancy. The Beatles were able to get 1 or 2 albums out every single year they existed because of the fact albums were half the length they are now and most of the pressures subsequent acts felt simply didn't exist. It was them, The Stones, and The Beach Boys with the occasional Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley to disrupt things. From a period of 1964 - about 1967, they had the whole industry to themselves, which we'll most likely never see again.

In this present era of streaming, we have no more need for albums. Let the artists' creativity flow and go back to releasing individual singles again. If you want to make an album, then come up with a good concept. Otherwise there's literally no reason for it.
 
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Midnight Marauders is better than Low End Theory, and A Tribe Called Quest is the best rap group. Their music far surpasses the Wu Tang Clan, NWA and Public Enemy.

Tupac is better than Biggy.

Gangster rap is to blame for the current state of black American culture, but metal music isn't to blame for white school shooters.
Pop country is also partly to blame for the state of the vapid, rural American culture, and a combination of mumble rap and pop is partly to blame for the current university culture.

Brutal death metal is absolutely autistic and retarded. As are slasher films and torture-porn films like Hostel, although A Serbian Film was actually okay.

Extreme metal by its nature will never be mainstream, and even though bands like Cannibal Corpse exist, it will never have enough influence to actually dictate and degrade our culture. Historically I would say the same for punk, but this past decade has brought us a level of commercialized hardcore that is negatively influencing white culture. I know a lot of people in this thread hate punk, but Minor Threat does and will always slay.

Given the criteria set forth by Tolstoy in What is Art? Because Extreme Metal will never be mainstream, it'll always be the most authentic musical genre and will always be the superior musical artform. At least until I get to bring back the spiritus of Holy Rome, then I will purge all music aside from classical and farm Viennese children until they drive a stake through my heart.
 
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- Greg Ginn was the real creative glue that held Black Flag together and the more abstract, atonal free jazz tinged stuff they did (ie the Process of Weeding Out) is very underrated. My War is their best overall tho

- The best White Zombie album is Soul Crusher.

- Alice in Chains > Nirvana

- Gluey Porch Treatments is the best Melvins album.

- Portrait of An American Family is the best Marilyn Manson album.

- Misfits' Earth AD/Wolfs Blood > Static Age > Legacy of Brutality > Walk Among Us

- Similarly, Danzig IV is the best Danzig album.

- ICP's first four albums (especially Riddlebox) are actually pretty great production wise.

- DJ Sound was the best OG memphis rap producer, and Vol. 10 Hatred is the best memphis tape.

- Houses of the Holy is the best Zep album.

- Sabotage is second only to Paranoid in the Sabbath canon.

- GG Allin was actually talented af and was musically versatile.

- Stooges Funhouse > Raw Power

- I agree 110% with the guy above who said Midnight Marauders is the best Tribe album.

- Punk rock started in Cleveland, Ohio, not NYC.

- The Damned > Sex Pistols

- A Kiss in the Dreamhouse is the best Siouxsie & the Banshees album.

- Jesus & Mary Chain's Darklands > Psychocandy

- Flipper's Gone Fishin' > Generic

- Hawkwind > Pink Floyd

- Syd era Floyd runs circles around the Gilmour era stuff (and everything Waters did after The Wall is kinda lame)

- Ghostface Killah is the best member of Wu Tang

- Playa Fly's "Triple Bitch Mafia" is the best diss track (although Three 6's response "Gotcha Shakin" was pretty fire too)

- Kingpin Skinny Pimp's King of Da Playaz Ball is the best Prophet Ent./Hypnotize Minds camp release

- Burning Hell is the best Brainbombs album

- The Gun Club's Miami > Fire of Love

- The Kinks > The Beatles
 
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Becky McDonald said:
The concept of "albums" outside of concept albums need to die a horrid death.
Albums only existed initially as a compilation of an artist/band's singles, hence "album". Like an album of photos. So you didn't have to buy every single release they made.

Then, for some fucking reason, around the '60s this shifted to mean "group of singles produced during similar studio sessions that no-one has heard before", and the record labels decided they should each be 40 minutes long. Then cassette tapes came along and this rose to 60, with CDs it became ~70, and now with streaming we're in an era where every album has about 5 - 10 digital exclusive tracks, totalling upwards of 85 minutes long, if not more.

Albums kill an act's creativity by foisting them with incredible amounts of pressure which simply didn't exist 50 - 60 years ago. Instead of 1, 2, or a few songs every couple months, they're now forced to come up with 15 every 18 months or they fall out of relevancy. The Beatles were able to get 1 or 2 albums out every single year they existed because of the fact albums were half the length they are now and most of the pressures subsequent acts felt simply didn't exist. It was them, The Stones, and The Beach Boys with the occasional Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley to disrupt things. From a period of 1964 - about 1967, they had the whole industry to themselves, which we'll most likely never see again.

In this present era of streaming, we have no more need for albums. Let the artists' creativity flow and go back to releasing individual singles again. If you want to make an album, then come up with a good concept. Otherwise there's literally no reason for it.
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If only there was a word for a short album, maybe we could call it an EP

Listening to a solid album from start to finish is an amazing way to enjoy the art. It's how it was intended.
Daft Punk Random Access Memories, Pure Heroine, Invaders Must Die, etc, are examples where the sum is better than its parts.
 
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Hack for crack said:
If only there was a word for a short album, maybe we could call it an EP

Listening to a solid album from start to finish is an amazing way to enjoy the art. It's how it was intended.
Daft Punk Random Access Memories, Pure Heroine, Invaders Must Die, etc, are examples where the sum is better than its parts.
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I can say from a musician's perspective (albeit a terribly untalented one), you kind of write from the album or EP perspective too. Although that may be very genre dependent. In most metal, and especially doom/stoner/sludge, it's less about a song in particular, and more about a song in its place and context in an album. I mean Electric Wizard's Satanic Rites of Drugula is a good song, but when listened to in context during the full album of of Witchcult Today, it's a fucking amazing song. Although I guess at a stretch you could consider most doom albums concept albums as the songs are pretty much all thematically linked. But it's one of those things, I never really want to listen to a Pallbearer song, but I always want to listen to a Pallbearer album.

But for a lot of genres, haven't albums already fallen by the wayside? Do like pop or rap bands even focus on albums any more? I guess @Becky McDonald is right in the sense that it is a bit surprising that more artists don't just release a series of singles. Then again, I have no idea how music is sold any more since it's been like a decade since I've bought anything but name your price (donate) albums on bandcamp.
 
Kendrick Lamar fans in a nutshell:
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SkiHawk said:
To Pimp A Butterfly is an overrated album, Kendrick is so outclassed by other rappers in terms of the subjects he touches upon and people only hype him and this album up because he's the most popular rapper to do something like this.
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Update on this, I've changed my mind by a lot lmao. I was very "anything remotely mainstream is bad!!!!111" back then.

Anyways, hyperpop sucks ass and nothing can change my mind about it
 
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The last two Iron Maiden albums - The Book of Souls and Senjutsu - are every bit as great as Powerslave, The Number of the Beast, and Piece of Mind. They are motherfucking back after many albums which were not that great.
 
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JohnnyFive said:
doom is my favorite rapper and i think mm food and madvillainy are overrated. madvillainly is dope but i dont care for the second half of mm food that much. i think vaudeville villain is his best album and born like this is top 3 for me.
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I really like Born Like This. I think it's very underrated and I'd put it in my top 3 as well.
Tax: BASTARD is one of Tyler, The Creator's best albums. I really love the weird, almost alien sound the instrumentals have to them. I also really like the raw emotion on display from Tyler, along with just how edgy and angsty the lyrics are. It's my 2nd favorite Tyler album, ahead of IGOR and behind WOLF.
 
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Hyperpoop is the worst genre of music hands down. Not a single nanosecond of it has ever been interesting or enjoyable. It's music made by people who have 9 computer screens going with sissy porn and it reflects in the music, which can only be described as the musical equivalence of a shit covered dick. Hyperpop sucks and I hope to never hear a single note of that awful "music" ever again.

P.S. While writing this critique of hyperslop, the Gods decided to spawn a tornado in my vicinity. I do not care, if it takes my life it needed to be said.
 
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