YouTube.

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redsock
The REM album with soundcheck recordings is New Adventures In Hi-Fi.

Ah, thank you. Love that album. Ties Monster for my favorite R.E.M. album. Back in the days before CD-R's (or at least widespread usage) it always used to confuse people a lot. Because it just looked like a blank silver CD, except the title was in small letters on the hub. They'd always be "What the hell is this?".

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vudicus
I think the only thing that really affected the live album was the introduction of the home video. Instead of just an audio document, you got to see the show too in the comfort of your own home. The live album was bound to lose some of it's appeal after this.

Agreed. I know quite a few younger people, teens and early 20s, who I engage in conversations about music; and when I try to get them interested in live bootlegs of "classic" bands, Yes, Zeppelin, Stones etc. they all want video....totally not interested in audio, but if there's video, they will want that..... They also say really clueless things like, "why didn't Zeppelin film ALL their shows?" or "how come the footage of Woodstock is so grainy?" but I definitely agree. People want to nowadays want to SEE live shows as well as hear them. I'm kind of a fan of Zeppelin as well as the Stones, and when new audio of Zep shows surfaces, it gets a smattering of polite appreciation, but new video gets ten times the response and enthusiasm from the younger people who are into the band.

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loog droog

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treaclefingers
How does he not even mention Frampton Comes Alive? Isn't that still the biggest selling live album of all time, or did something else eclipse it?

Check paragraph 6.

Every time I recall this album I have to laugh. I like the roots of musics and their connections. According to a documentary on recording this album spawned....are you ready......disco? The theary is that this album was suggested as a project by record producers who made the killing finacialy on it. They sat down to ponder the ingredients of their success and conducted studies. The studies identified beats as the biggest selling features of marketable music....so these guys set out to "make" bands with beats.....sadly inventing disco bands, probably the main reason it diesd out, music for profit only.

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loog droog

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treaclefingers
How does he not even mention Frampton Comes Alive? Isn't that still the biggest selling live album of all time, or did something else eclipse it?

Check paragraph 6.

thanks!

They didn't actually expect us to read the entire article did they?

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treaclefingers

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loog droog

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treaclefingers
How does he not even mention Frampton Comes Alive? Isn't that still the biggest selling live album of all time, or did something else eclipse it?

Check paragraph 6.

thanks!

They didn't actually expect us to read the entire article did they?

I think reading is dying too. I typed a 4 sentence message on YouTube the other day and got the response "I'm not reading all of that".

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NoCode0680

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treaclefingers

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loog droog

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treaclefingers
How does he not even mention Frampton Comes Alive? Isn't that still the biggest selling live album of all time, or did something else eclipse it?

Check paragraph 6.

thanks!

They didn't actually expect us to read the entire article did they?

I think reading is dying too. I typed a 4 sentence message on YouTube the other day and got the response "I'm not reading all of that".

Thanks, and while I agree with you I appreciate your brevity.

For a while the live album was a good format for a one-off reunited act to update their songs for fans.







Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2013-10-02 02:06 by stonehearted.

Didn't the Stones release several live albums last year? Doesn't seem dead to me.

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Des

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loog droog

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treaclefingers
How does he not even mention Frampton Comes Alive? Isn't that still the biggest selling live album of all time, or did something else eclipse it?

Check paragraph 6.

Every time I recall this album I have to laugh. I like the roots of musics and their connections. According to a documentary on recording this album spawned....are you ready......disco? The theary is that this album was suggested as a project by record producers who made the killing finacialy on it. They sat down to ponder the ingredients of their success and conducted studies. The studies identified beats as the biggest selling features of marketable music....so these guys set out to "make" bands with beats.....sadly inventing disco bands, probably the main reason it diesd out, music for profit only.

Interesting theory, except there was disco music years before Frampton Comes Alive. Songs like 'Keep On Trucking', 1973, 'Pick Up The Pieces' 1974, and 'The Hustle' 1975 had already established disco prior to 1976's 'Frampton Comes Alive'.

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treaclefingers
How does he not even mention Frampton Comes Alive? Isn't that still the biggest selling live album of all time, or did something else eclipse it?

He did mention Frampton Comes Alive.

.....everybody say YEAH .... I can't hear you ....



ROCKMAN

It´s more the death of the album as a concept. How many will buy an album in the future? The cd format is dying, there aren´t enough vinyl enthusiasts. I´m surprised that artists still produces albums when most people nowadays either listen to songs on Spotify or buy them on itunes.

Yeah, I think Svartmer is on it.
With downloading and virtually no space constraints, live shows are more easily distributed in complete form. Now artists can shove out whole tours in soundboard quality.

It's not a bad evolution, IMHO. Most of would agree that LA Friday is better than Live You Live (at least if you wanna hear a '75 live show), and Hampton is better than Still Life. Mott The Hoople's Live album from '74 is much better in its deluxe form, as are David Bowie's "Live" from the same year. Live At Leeds by the Who is classic, but the 20-track version is top notch all the way through.

As for Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out, I think it's perhaps the world's best 40 minute live "album", but Satisfaction and Under My Thumb/I'm Free are definitely worth listening to.

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LieB
Yeah, I think Svartmer is on it.
With downloading and virtually no space constraints, live shows are more easily distributed in complete form. Now artists can shove out whole tours in soundboard quality.

It's not a bad evolution, IMHO. Most of would agree that LA Friday is better than Live You Live (at least if you wanna hear a '75 live show), and Hampton is better than Still Life. Mott The Hoople's Live album from '74 is much better in its deluxe form, as are David Bowie's "Live" from the same year. Live At Leeds by the Who is classic, but the 20-track version is top notch all the way through.

As for Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out, I think it's perhaps the world's best 40 minute live "album", but Satisfaction and Under My Thumb/I'm Free are definitely worth listening to.

There are definitely give and takes to how live albums are done these days. How would Ya Yas be if they just decided to release the whole show as opposed to taking time to create an album? Thats pretty much how a live album should be. However, you also get live albums that would then either have never happened or probably sounded much different. Kiss' Alive is such a mish mash of live and studio touch ups, but listening to it as a "live album" it sounds fantastic. You couldn't get that if they just released a straight live record from one of their shows. There are also perfect live albums like Lou Reed's Rock N Roll Animal. Between that album and Lou Reed Live, the whole show is released on CD, but you can't beat the conciseness of the Rock N Roll Animal album, even though thats not how the show actually happened.

I also think live albums are so differently produced these days and its not something I like that much. On one side, you get a more "real" product, as I don't think artists take as much time with their release and it sounds more realistic as to what you'd hear at an actual show. But I miss the "sound" of a live album. There was a time when artist cared to make a record with their live album. Pick almost any of them from the 70s. It was usually this definitive source, this perfectly crafted offering of what an artist sounded like live. As much as I love someone like Pearl Jam who release all of their shows in soundboard quality, you don't quite get that feel of a live record. The live albums of today always sound hollow to me or don't have the emotion older albums used to.

I've never been a big fan of live albums per se. But the more I learned about overdubbing and touched up recordings the more I've lost interest into them.

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RollingFreak
There are definitely give and takes to how live albums are done these days. How would Ya Yas be if they just decided to release the whole show as opposed to taking time to create an album? Thats pretty much how a live album should be. However, you also get live albums that would then either have never happened or probably sounded much different. Kiss' Alive is such a mish mash of live and studio touch ups, but listening to it as a "live album" it sounds fantastic. You couldn't get that if they just released a straight live record from one of their shows. There are also perfect live albums like Lou Reed's Rock N Roll Animal. Between that album and Lou Reed Live, the whole show is released on CD, but you can't beat the conciseness of the Rock N Roll Animal album, even though thats not how the show actually happened.

I also think live albums are so differently produced these days and its not something I like that much. On one side, you get a more "real" product, as I don't think artists take as much time with their release and it sounds more realistic as to what you'd hear at an actual show. But I miss the "sound" of a live album. There was a time when artist cared to make a record with their live album. Pick almost any of them from the 70s. It was usually this definitive source, this perfectly crafted offering of what an artist sounded like live. As much as I love someone like Pearl Jam who release all of their shows in soundboard quality, you don't quite get that feel of a live record. The live albums of today always sound hollow to me or don't have the emotion older albums used to.

Yeah, I do agree with you to some degree. I suppose it's safe to say that live albums in the 70s were almost like a slight variation of a studio album, in which the basic takes (if not everything) were taken from a live concert but possible overdubs, edits, song selection, artwork, promotion, etc. was released as an artist's (or record company's!) statement. I suppose the inability to realistically showcase a live show on record was often overcome by making a semi-(live)album. Frank Zappa, for example, loved to really mix and match live and studio recordings and sell it merely as albums.

However, it wasn't always (I know you said "usually") this perfectly crafted offering. Sometimes the artists could have done better from an outside (or fan's) perspective and that's when slightly inferior stuff like Mott's Live or the Stones Love You Live appeared. Sometimes there's just a lot of great additional material that begs to be released. The original Live At Leeds by The Who is probably a dear old friend to many old fans, but I've only listened to the remastered version and love it.

In the Stones case, as someone wrote in another thread, their live albums, except Ya-Ya's, have been a bit disappointing, which was partly "corrected" with the archive series. Sometimes it was contractual problems (as with the '72 non-release), perhaps sometimes it was just lame judgement from the Stones themselves.

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Svartmer
It´s more the death of the album as a concept. How many will buy an album in the future? The cd format is dying, there aren´t enough vinyl enthusiasts. I´m surprised that artists still produces albums when most people nowadays either listen to songs on Spotify or buy them on itunes.

I'm not sure what you mean. Albums as a concept do include digital albums as well as the physical product. Do you mean physical media is dying, or that bands are going to stop producing an albums worth of songs in favor of releasing singles or just no studio material at all?

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NoCode0680

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Svartmer
It´s more the death of the album as a concept. How many will buy an album in the future? The cd format is dying, there aren´t enough vinyl enthusiasts. I´m surprised that artists still produces albums when most people nowadays either listen to songs on Spotify or buy them on itunes.

I'm not sure what you mean. Albums as a concept do include digital albums as well as the physical product. Do you mean physical media is dying, or that bands are going to stop producing an albums worth of songs in favor of releasing singles or just no studio material at all?

As I said, as a concept or idea. It´s a big difference between a physical product, like a vinyl album or a CD, and a digital product where you can choose to buy the songs that you like (and skip the fillers). Of course artists will continue to produce music, but not in the form of an album. Besides, I think people listen more and more to their own compilations these days, which makes the album even more uninteresting as a format.

I guess at 32 I'm already too old to judge, but it seems to me that the album format is surviving so far. Myself, I prefer to listen to 40 minutes of music which is fairly coherent and held together in more or less the same style rather than mix stuff from many artists (or albums) which I think gets tiring for my head. Listening to several albums from the same artist in a row also gets tiring. Yes, I'm easily fed up with things.

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Svartmer

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NoCode0680

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Svartmer
It´s more the death of the album as a concept. How many will buy an album in the future? The cd format is dying, there aren´t enough vinyl enthusiasts. I´m surprised that artists still produces albums when most people nowadays either listen to songs on Spotify or buy them on itunes.

I'm not sure what you mean. Albums as a concept do include digital albums as well as the physical product. Do you mean physical media is dying, or that bands are going to stop producing an albums worth of songs in favor of releasing singles or just no studio material at all?

As I said, as a concept or idea. It´s a big difference between a physical product, like a vinyl album or a CD, and a digital product where you can choose to buy the songs that you like (and skip the fillers). Of course artists will continue to produce music, but not in the form of an album. Besides, I think people listen more and more to their own compilations these days, which makes the album even more uninteresting as a format.

But they'd still release the music as an album right? In that it's a collection of recordings. Yes you'll get a lot of people who only buy the non-filler tracks, but for each band you'd have a fan base buying the whole thing. I don't see all musicians ever just going to singles or anything. Not listening to the music the way the artist intended is nothing new and hasn't stopped them from releasing whole albums. The number of albums I had that I only listened to one or two songs on, or after the release of CD burners, just added to a mix CD and never picked up again, is endless. As I'm sure it is for many. It's never killed the concept though. The album is still there for the fans who choose to take it in as a whole, even though some choose to listen to certain songs.

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NoCode0680

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Svartmer

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NoCode0680

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Svartmer
It´s more the death of the album as a concept. How many will buy an album in the future? The cd format is dying, there aren´t enough vinyl enthusiasts. I´m surprised that artists still produces albums when most people nowadays either listen to songs on Spotify or buy them on itunes.

I'm not sure what you mean. Albums as a concept do include digital albums as well as the physical product. Do you mean physical media is dying, or that bands are going to stop producing an albums worth of songs in favor of releasing singles or just no studio material at all?

As I said, as a concept or idea. It´s a big difference between a physical product, like a vinyl album or a CD, and a digital product where you can choose to buy the songs that you like (and skip the fillers). Of course artists will continue to produce music, but not in the form of an album. Besides, I think people listen more and more to their own compilations these days, which makes the album even more uninteresting as a format.

But they'd still release the music as an album right? In that it's a collection of recordings. Yes you'll get a lot of people who only buy the non-filler tracks, but for each band you'd have a fan base buying the whole thing. I don't see all musicians ever just going to singles or anything. Not listening to the music the way the artist intended is nothing new and hasn't stopped them from releasing whole albums. The number of albums I had that I only listened to one or two songs on, or after the release of CD burners, just added to a mix CD and never picked up again, is endless. As I'm sure it is for many. It's never killed the concept though. The album is still there for the fans who choose to take it in as a whole, even though some choose to listen to certain songs.

Well, you said it yourself. You don´t listen to whole albums anymore, so why should artists put them out? To please the most rabid fans who buy everything? Before the Beatles arrived people didn´t buy albums, they bought singles. I think that´s the way it´s going to be again. The album concept isn´t a holy entity. I´ve read that many artists already get more money from Spotify than from record sales.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-10-02 17:29 by Svartmer.

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Svartmer

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NoCode0680

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Svartmer

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NoCode0680

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Svartmer
It´s more the death of the album as a concept. How many will buy an album in the future? The cd format is dying, there aren´t enough vinyl enthusiasts. I´m surprised that artists still produces albums when most people nowadays either listen to songs on Spotify or buy them on itunes.

I'm not sure what you mean. Albums as a concept do include digital albums as well as the physical product. Do you mean physical media is dying, or that bands are going to stop producing an albums worth of songs in favor of releasing singles or just no studio material at all?

As I said, as a concept or idea. It´s a big difference between a physical product, like a vinyl album or a CD, and a digital product where you can choose to buy the songs that you like (and skip the fillers). Of course artists will continue to produce music, but not in the form of an album. Besides, I think people listen more and more to their own compilations these days, which makes the album even more uninteresting as a format.

But they'd still release the music as an album right? In that it's a collection of recordings. Yes you'll get a lot of people who only buy the non-filler tracks, but for each band you'd have a fan base buying the whole thing. I don't see all musicians ever just going to singles or anything. Not listening to the music the way the artist intended is nothing new and hasn't stopped them from releasing whole albums. The number of albums I had that I only listened to one or two songs on, or after the release of CD burners, just added to a mix CD and never picked up again, is endless. As I'm sure it is for many. It's never killed the concept though. The album is still there for the fans who choose to take it in as a whole, even though some choose to listen to certain songs.

Well, you said it yourself. You don´t listen to whole albums anymore, so why should artists put them out? To please the most rabid fans who buy everything? Before the Beatles arrived people didn´t buy albums, they bought singles. I think that´s the way it´s going to be again. The album concept isn´t a holy entity. I´ve read that many artists already get more money from Spotify than from record sales.

I still listen to albums. I just said over the years there have been many albums that I bought and only listened to a couple of songs on. But my favorite artists I still listen to their whole albums. I don't think artists would release albums just to please fans. From an artistic standpoint I'm sure most artists, except for maybe pop stars, have more ambition than just singles. Have more than just one song in the chamber. So they'd release whatever songs they have at once as an album, and the general public might buy just certain songs and the "rabid fans" would buy the whole thing. And maybe the people who bought single songs later buy more, or the whole thing if they liked them. Just works like CD singles. Put out a good song at a cheap price which hopefully entices them to checking out the whole album. I know that before the Beatles people didn't buy albums, but I don't think it's going to completely go back to that. The reason it was only singles is because the old men running the business didn't think kids had the attention span to listen to more than 3 minutes of music at a time. They also wouldn't let songs go past a certain length, but I don't think we're going back to that either.

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24FPS
Every time I recall this album I have to laugh. I like the roots of musics and their connections. According to a documentary on recording this album spawned....are you ready......disco? The theary is that this album was suggested as a project by record producers who made the killing finacialy on it. They sat down to ponder the ingredients of their success and conducted studies. The studies identified beats as the biggest selling features of marketable music....so these guys set out to "make" bands with beats.....sadly inventing disco bands, probably the main reason it diesd out, music for profit only.

Interesting theory, except there was disco music years before Frampton Comes Alive. Songs like 'Keep On Trucking', 1973, 'Pick Up The Pieces' 1974, and 'The Hustle' 1975 had already established disco prior to 1976's 'Frampton Comes Alive'.[/quote]

Also, the popularity of Frampton Comes Alive being about "the beats" doesn't sound quite right. The tuneful/romantic songs, the musical performances - hell, even Frampton's long curly hair - one would think that was the greater appeal.

As for live music today: there are more visually-oriented performers (Madonna, Gaga, teenybop senations like Bieber, Taylor Swift, One Direction) and sadly fewer musically complex bands that would make an interesting live album. The most recent live album I got was Neko Case's excellent "Live in Austin, TX" - haven't seen the video yet but there is one

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Claire_M

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24FPS
Every time I recall this album I have to laugh. I like the roots of musics and their connections. According to a documentary on recording this album spawned....are you ready......disco? The theary is that this album was suggested as a project by record producers who made the killing finacialy on it. They sat down to ponder the ingredients of their success and conducted studies. The studies identified beats as the biggest selling features of marketable music....so these guys set out to "make" bands with beats.....sadly inventing disco bands, probably the main reason it diesd out, music for profit only.

Interesting theory, except there was disco music years before Frampton Comes Alive. Songs like 'Keep On Trucking', 1973, 'Pick Up The Pieces' 1974, and 'The Hustle' 1975 had already established disco prior to 1976's 'Frampton Comes Alive'.

Also, the popularity of Frampton Comes Alive being about "the beats" doesn't sound quite right. The tuneful/romantic songs, the musical performances - hell, even Frampton's long curly hair - one would think that was the greater appeal.

As for live music today: there are more visually-oriented performers (Madonna, Gaga, teenybop senations like Bieber, Taylor Swift, One Direction) and sadly fewer musically complex bands that would make an interesting live album. The most recent live album I got was Neko Case's excellent "Live in Austin, TX" - haven't seen the video yet but there is one [/quote]


I love semantics. To clarify. First I did not mention anything about Frampton's album having anything to do with actual disco music or similar beats, pretty hard to make that link (lol). What I should have made more clear was that it was 'the concept' of the producers making so much cash on Framptons back they wanted to make more money, on others backs, they conduct research and it falls back to music similar to early renditions of disco style tunes. Yes the Disco argument goes back to about 71 however the music was not popularized (by producers) until the late seventies.

24FPS - "Interesting theory, except there was disco music years before Frampton Comes Alive. Songs like 'Keep On Trucking', 1973, 'Pick Up The Pieces' 1974, and 'The Hustle' 1975 had already established disco prior to 1976's 'Frampton Comes Alive'."

DES: love semantics. To clarify. First I did not mention anything about Frampton's album having anything to do with actual disco music or similar beats, pretty hard to make that link (lol). What I should have made more clear was that it was 'the concept' of the producers making so much cash on Framptons back they wanted to make more money, on others backs, they conduct research and it falls back to music similar to early renditions of disco style tunes. Yes the Disco argument goes back to about 71 however the music was not popularized (by producers) until the late seventies." (quote)

Des, I didn't say you came up with that theory, so it's nothing personal. And I still say the music was popularized long before the late seventies. KC and the Sunshine Band were big long before then. I can see though where you could say it broke beyond Disco and seeped into popular music with latecomers like The Rolling Stones (Miss You 1978), reaching its nadir in late '78 with Rod Stewart (Do Ya Think I'm Sexy).

Stoneage wrote: "I think the downloading era killed the album format as such and the live album format even more."

Exactly. Because live album have always been less necessary than studio album for the so called general public. The exceptions are few. On the current week, #1 album of the Global Chart (Jack Johnson's album) have sold only 184,000 copies worldwide... Under these conditions, what do we expect for live albums?

It's the downloading era. And the Youtube + itunes (etc) era. People have many options before they visit a store. And, thanks to Internet, they can select among different versions of many songs which have been played during a tour. No the particular 10- 20 songs/versions af an official live album.