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The Lost Art of Album Rollouts


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I came across this video today discussing how albums/eras in the modern streaming age have lost the rollouts that can make an album/era so intriguing and engaging. Just FYI, he tends to discuss a lot of hip hop artists, but also discusses some major pop stars like The Weeknd, Beyonce, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, and Kanye West.

Personally, I agree with him that these type of rollouts where the entire era is an experience and pulls you in and keeps you begging for the next thing have been on their way out lately. It’s part of the reason I’m so mad The Weeknd didn’t get any Grammy nominations. Not only was his After Hours album my favorite album of 2020 and my favorite album he’s done, he created a whole new world and era with a new character that he stayed in character for for a year. I wish more artists would do this again, especially newer artists.

What are your thoughts on this?

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Ok, he’s super annoying I could only watch a little! I get what he’s saying, but at the same time I don’t necessarily like when eras are super themed like he uses the example of an artist creating a character for an era, that can get boring and seems inauthentic. It’s a double edged sword for me, I love getting everything quicker but at the same time there’s less of a build up of excitement and albums/eras seem to be over so quickly for example Ariana’s Thank U Next era. She released all 3 singles so close to one another and then there was no 4th single to close the era out. 

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I wonder why bigger artists such as Ariana and Taylor don’t make a conceptual era anymore, they just throw an album, push for one single or two and then that’s it. Miley and Lana, too. Plastic Hearts is a great body of work and I can’t deal with the fact that she abandoned the project like that! 

The problem is the streaming era and the hip hop genre taking over pop. I can’t deal with the way how fraudulent the content curators are, the ones who do the playlisting. It’s literally a bunch of irrelevant men who get to chose what ‘deserve’ to be played and what not. 
 

Also, Atlantic Records are the herpes of the music industry. They pay millions on millions for their artist to be played on streaming services, radios, etc. Why is Cardi B getting all this crazy amount of playlisting when she barely knows how to speak properly or write a line correctly, let alone WRITE A RAP on a song? I don’t care about her, but the songs are trash, forgettable, basic, generic, made to last a trend and then disappear on the bottom of the Bermuda Triangle. Actually, the last part includes knot only Cardi B but this whole era of mumble rappers. :girlbye_walking_away_leave_get_out_leaving_chair_okay:

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While  I miss iconic album rollouts, I find albums to be so irrelevant these days. I think artists are better off just releasing singles and making playlists on streaming sites, especially since most popular albums these days only have a few objectively good songs while the rest are  fillers.

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I miss this too. 1989 era was an event and now we have Folklore/Evermore with only 2 singles.
 

17 hours ago, Stefani said:

While  I miss iconic album rollouts, I find albums to be so irrelevant these days. I think artists are better off just releasing singles and making playlists on streaming sites, especially since most popular albums these days only have a few objectively good songs while the rest are  fillers.

I hope albums stay. I rather hear a full album with fillers than singles that have no theme or thought.

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Well we live in a singles culture and sadly it's only the veterans that can still make albums with cohesive themes, as they make it for one thing, touring, since they know that's how you make money. 

 

Nobody makes money off the recorded side, which is a reason why tickets are expensive so they get whatever profit they'd agreed with the touring giant Live nation. 

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1 hour ago, DearBritney00 said:

I miss this too. 1989 era was an event and now we have Folklore/Evermore with only 2 singles.
 

I hope albums stay. I rather hear a full album with fillers than singles that have no theme or thought.

Lover had a good era set up. Secret collab until day of release, multiple videos and singles, easter eggs, etc. I think Folklore and Evermore were viewed and created a little differently in mind.

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I prefer the K-Pop formula - tease an album three weeks or a month before its release with some photo and video teasers, then release the album and its only single on the same day. I hate long album rollouts with a million singles. In fact, I don't care about singles at all. I just want an album to listen to. I don't need a whole-azz era / cinematic universe supporting it.

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