This was already the case, well before digital music streaming: go look at music albums from the 90s and before that, and they’re overwhelmingly 2 or 3 good tracks and the rest filler.
Only a few of the greatest artists would mainly escape this trend and often only in a few of their albums, and there are plenty of one-hit-wonders who only ever produced one successful album with only one popular track in it and the rest pretty much filler.
It’s not by chance that even in the music disc days, there was the LP (i.e. an album) and the Single that only had a couple of the best tracks.
You’re right, the tendency for catchy singles did exist already. But still, I’d argue it used to make more sense to put work in a 30-/45-minute album worth listening to than it does now.
This was already the case, well before digital music streaming: go look at music albums from the 90s and before that, and they’re overwhelmingly 2 or 3 good tracks and the rest filler.
Only a few of the greatest artists would mainly escape this trend and often only in a few of their albums, and there are plenty of one-hit-wonders who only ever produced one successful album with only one popular track in it and the rest pretty much filler.
It’s not by chance that even in the music disc days, there was the LP (i.e. an album) and the Single that only had a couple of the best tracks.
You’re right, the tendency for catchy singles did exist already. But still, I’d argue it used to make more sense to put work in a 30-/45-minute album worth listening to than it does now.
Anywho… *proceeds to yell at clouds*