How the Album Got Played Out - Essay Example

How the album got played out?” By Gerald Marzorati An analysis of agreement and disagreement with his views Gerald Marzorati became the editorial director of The New York Times Magazine in April 1998, he already has experience of writing articles for the same magazine. In this article “How the album got played out?”, he seems to have contributed an exhausted knowledge on rock music and the present trends that are followed in the album culture. He proves himself as a lexicon of western music, the facts which he has provided concerning the changes and development in the world of music and the listeners’ responses gives me the opinion that he has gone deep into this discipline.

Right from the year where “rock music”seemed to have had its beats every where in the radio FM station and other shows and in terms of the top sales and bulk of listener response he has covered almost 85% of the music history tracing back to previous years. He seems to make a comparison with the present album tradition with that of the previous rock music in every point he includes for discussion. He starts with the information carrying the nominees for the 40th Grammy awards such as Radioheads’ “Ok Computer” [1] and Bob Dylan’s “Time out of Mind”[2].

He regrets that these albums needed to be listened just because it had a “thematic unity to the lyrics” [3] . He seemed to have a strong support for these two albums. One reason makes me disagree with this point. Gerald Marzorati actually goes in terms of full appreciation for these two albums but he himself seems to act in such a way that he enhances the quality of this album by talking more on it than other albums which he refers in a very little fashion. He says “If you’re someone who grew upwith Dylan in the 60’s , as I did , you would have probably bought the album [It actually managed to sneak into the Billboard Top 10 for week last fall]”[4]He goes on analyzing the concept of digital revolution with that of records of the previous ages.

I would agree with his statement that “Listening to album is ultimately a matter of giving yourself over to somebody’s choices –this song, then this one. The digital revolution promises precisely the opposite . What do you want, want right now?”[5]. It is true that the digital; revolution has increased the interest among the young ones who could also play and jump over to their favorite song as quickly as possible, there options that are prevalent are operating with the help of a remote which was absent in the old CD system or FM station [ which had been concentrating in enhancing only rock music not upto the choice of the majority listeners], now even the FM station is directed towards this digital revolution giving more choice for the listeners.

He says “At their best the FM stations brought their loyal listeners together in a kind of long –playing republic, where rock and roll’s founders were cherished and its most interesting young examples encouraged”[6]. One more factor of Marzorati which I agree with is that of how to improve the rock companies to compete with the digital revolution found in albums. He says instead of the rock companies spending to meet atleast their marginal profits they could concentrate on picking p the singles and the most favorite and developing and promoting the most wanted albums among the music listeners.

He says “Technological advances in this do –it-yourself-album-making could spell an end to the way rock music has been sent out into the world an end, perhaps, to the very notion on an album of music thorough fully composed and assemble by a song writer or a group”[7]. On the whole Gerald Marzorati has done some justice by providing the exact and prevailing condition of the changes that has taken place in the world of western music,, he is also right in his judgment on how the effects of technology on album listeners have taken the place of rock listeners but missed the aspect of looking at how the musicians would have got affected due to this digital revolution.

Reference:Marzorati, Gerald. “How the Album Got Played Out ?”. February 1998 The New York Times. Online http://www.beatlesagain.com/archive/art.html