What is an album? Do they still exist?
If you are following SMM, you probably don't need a lesson about "albums", as out-dated as they are. A concept from the past - before iTunes and $0.99 singles online.
I started buying music for myself with my allowance at about age 12, and naturally I could only afford 45's. ( that's a vinyl disk that spins at 45 RPM (er ... rotations per minute). Your typtical teen had a leather covered "album" filled with these disks. 45s had an :A: side and a :B: side -with the big hit on the A, the lesser on the B.
True "albums" were collections of hits and lessers that spun at 33 1/3 RPMs. And they cost more than 45s - you had to save up to buy an album, and so you considered if it was worth it (45@ $1.25... album @ $%8.00...?)
But a 33 1/3 RPM album gave you 30-40 minutes of the band's music. More or less non-stop (you had to flip the platter half way through...) but often, there were 3 or more :hits: on an album
My first album was likely a Motown album. I'm no longer sure: that was going on 50 years ago (1966?)
However, the first album that came with my own/personal "stereo" (purchased with my own money) was Who's Next - and *that* I remember well because I nigh on wore out the grooves of the album, playing it again and again.
It was - and still is- an album incomparable: there's not a single bad song in the entire package. An album you could listen to from start to end without lifting the needle (no electronic skip - only manual)
And although Daltry and Townsend aren't what they used to be, it's not for nothing that they were the half-time NFL show back in 2010. OK...OK, nowhere near their prime, but - all things considered - a "primo" production. And the NFL half-time show is mostly made up of songs from Who's Next.
Who's Next 40 years later - the NFL half-time show:
