{"id":425877,"date":"2010-03-14T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-14T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/2010\/03\/14\/2603821\/for-album-fans-the-british-high.html#mi_rss=Opinion"},"modified":"2010-03-14T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-14T09:00:00","slug":"editorial-for-album-fans-the-british-high-court-rocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/425877","title":{"rendered":"Editorial: For album fans, the British High Court rocks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t<\/a>
\n\t
\n\tClassics:
\nPink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” left, and The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This may be hard to believe for anyone under 40, but back in the day people really did listen to albums all the way through – and liked it. <\/p>\n

Until not so long ago, listeners immersed themselves in the experience that many musicians crafted for their fans. Bands and producers carefully constructed their albums as a cohesive whole – not just a collection of singles. They wanted to stress themes in the lyrics, or they sought interesting segues or contrasts musically. <\/p>\n

Last week, the British High Court showed that it is hip to album rock (even though it no longer wears those funny wigs.) The court backed up Pink Floyd, which was in a legal tussle with its recording label over control of its work. The court ruled Thursday that without the band’s permission, EMI Group Ltd. can’t sell Pink Floyd tracks individually, either as physical recordings or online. <\/p>\n

Pink Floyd is best known for high-concept electronica such as “Dark Side of the Moon” and “The Wall.” Instead of clear breaks between songs, these albums are knitted by clock chimes, screams and mind-bending riffs that made use of what was a novel instrument, the synthesizer. <\/p>\n

Some of the greatest rock and pop classics are the same way. The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Abbey Road” are examples. So are Carole King’s “Tapestry” or Van Morrison’s “Moondance.” And who can ignore the arc of albums such as the Rolling Stones’ “Sticky Fingers,” Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” or “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen?<\/p>\n

If you’re of that generation, you can probably name a dozen more of your favorites. The album helped separate the real bands whose music would last from the one-hit wonders. <\/p>\n

In recent years, some of these old-timers have tried to keep the tradition alive, by playing entire albums live in concert. <\/p>\n

During her 2007 tour, alt-country’s Lucinda Williams played five nights each in New York and Los Angeles and in each concert sang one of her most popular albums in its entirety. <\/p>\n

Springsteen did something similar in his shows last fall, first as an experiment, but then regularly due to fan demand. <\/p>\n

Alas, Springsteen and others may be fighting a losing battle. The concept of the concept album has faded as videos and MTV became popular and as artists focused on singles that could top the charts and be turned into extended mixes. While bands such as Green Day have come out with albums such as “American Idiot,” the trend is clear: CD sales are plunging while digital downloads, often of individual songs, are surging. <\/p>\n

Don’t get us wrong: There’s nothing wrong with empowering people to create their own personal soundtracks. The new technology allows digital downloaders to become mini record producers, assembling albums of their own. <\/p>\n

Yet there is no substitute for hearing music the way an artist intended. While the ruling of the British High Court may not have wide application and is based on narrow legal precepts, it has helped highlight that fading notion. <\/p>\n

To that, we say, hear, hear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Classics: Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” left, and The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” This may be hard to believe for anyone under 40, but back in the day people really did listen to albums all the way through – and liked it. Until not so long ago, listeners immersed themselves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4325,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-425877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}