Take Tim McGraw’s new album for example. Granted, its first single was a complete throwaway. But the album has only been out five days (as of this publication) and the album is already on its third single.
Posted by: Cobra Artists have been putting out singles a lot faster than they used to. It used to be that a single would be released in anticipation of a new album and it would take some time to garner airplay. Now, a single from an artist will climb the charts and hit number one before the album is even released. Sometimes a second single will be released even before the album is released. Take Tim McGraw’s new album for example. Granted, its first single was a complete throwaway. But the album has only been out five days (as of this publication) and the album is already on its third single. Similarly, Blake Shelton’s last album Based on a True Story… released five singles between January of 2013 and April of 2014. Almost half of the album was released as singles. Luke Bryan’s Crash My Party (*cringe*) released two singles before it was even released as an album and has to date, released five singles (and since the album has been out only just over a year, it’s likely Bryan will milk it for at least one more single before releasing a new collection). Kenny Chesney released Life on a Rock less than a year after Welcome to the Fishbowl. Brad Paisley has been relatively consistent, usually with around two years between albums. Play his instrumental based album, was a notable exception, coming out a year and a half after 5th Gear and only seven months before American Saturday Night. And Moonshine in the Trunk came out only sixteen months after the underperforming Wheelhouse. I’ll refer back to Tim McGraw, largely because he has a long-spanning career with room for some analysis. In the early part of his career, there was frequently a year-and-a-half to two-year gap between album releases (we can’t accurately analyze his last years with Curb given the circumstances behind it), but his last album with Curb followed by his first two albums with Big Machine have come out over a span of 32 months. . (I’ve been critical of a few McGraw songs, but largely he still manages to put out solid albums and he is one of the few artists out of the 1990s who still retains a large popularity and manages to get consistent airplay). Part of this change probably has to do with a changing landscape where music is instantly available. Charts are calculated in numerous different ways, including downloads, which with ultra-popular acts, will shoot their releases to higher numbers on the chart much quicker. As Miranda Lambert noted in “Automatic,” “it seems like only yesterday I’d get a blank cassette, record the country countdown ‘cause I couldn’t buy it yet.” Music didn’t used to have the ready availability that it has now. Which means music doesn’t have the same chance to set that it used to have. Instead of the need to experience a growing popularity, a huge number of songs get flash-in-the-pan exposure, shoot to number one, and then disappear after a couple more singles are released. You’ll rarely hear anything but an artist’s two or three most recent single releases on radio. When was the last time your local station played Blake Shelton’s “Austin”? Or Brad Paisley’s “We Danced”? Or Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying”? As the avenues for music consumption continue to evolve and move more towards streaming, and as new means of charting songs’ popularity are developed, this trend will only continue to increase. Singles will chart faster and faster. Artists like Weird Al Yankovic are even moving towards releasing singles only and not full albums. Artists who continue to release albums (there’s no indication yet that releasing singles only is set to be a widespread trend) will probably be releasing them more and more quickly as the singles from them chart more and more quickly.
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LINKS
Here are some links to other pop culture websites and blogs worth checking out:
- Saving Country Music - Country Perspective - Farce the Music - Country Exclusive - This Is Country Music - Country Music Minds - Matt Lynn Digital Pop Culture Potpourri Writers
Cobra is a Human Resources professional from the Greater Cleveland Area with a love of good country music and a disdain for pop, rock, and rap mislabeled as country music. His favorite artists include (but are not limited to) Wade Bowen, Randy Rogers Band, George Strait, Alan Jackson, Turnpike Troubadours, Hayes Carll, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Trisha Yearwood, Dwight Yoakam, and Johnny Cash Archives
December 2017
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