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Day Two Hundred Twenty One (Year Four)

Today was interesting. 

Mom left this afternoon, but we all went to Goodwill before she took off for a bit of random shopping.  I found 12 45's (at a quarter each).  It got me thinking about singles, and how so much about the music industry has changed, but so much has stayed the same.

When The Beatles were making records in the 60's, the songs selected as singles weren't ever included on the records that were released around the same time.  It made "Greatest Hits" compilations a big deal, and it allowed for the existence of things like "Red (1962-66)" and "Blue (1967-70)," collections of singles, to be released.

Somewhere along the same timeline (and also thanks, in large part, to the Fab Four), the album went from being a collection of songs to having the ability to be a statement.  That idea stuck into the 70's and 80's, by which time the single was being included in the album, as a way to increase album sales, and discourage the purchase of '45s.  CD's were born out of this idea in the late 80's (as were cassettes before them), out of which came first the cassette (and later the CD) single.  Then, somewhere in the mid to late 90's, the idea of the CD single faded away, as record companies wanted listeners to reinvest in a full album experience.

It was out of this model that the idea of file sharing, and subsequently iTunes were born, bringing the single (or at least the idea of buying a single song, or what almost amounted to a digital 45) back to the forefront.  Much like a record, the cycle just keeps on spinning around, vacillating back and forth between one and the other.

That process brought me around to the album-in-a-month project, which in its own way was a little bit of both.  The songs are supposed to hold together as a complete project, but they also got worked on individually first, which was very much a process of "okay, so how do I make the current idea as cool as possible before moving onto the next one?"  I get that all songs are written individually, and that the sense of theme only emerges as each idea come to fruition, but in their own way, each new idea that I liked well enough to include was considered on its own as well as a part of the larger project (i.e. as a "single," and then as part of the record as a whole).  

People talk about technology changing the music industry this way or that way, saying that between iTunes and the internet, it just isn't what it used to be, but ultimately one thing has always remained the same: the simple fact that, at the end of the day, everything else comes down to the strength of the songs.  Without good songs, all the YouTube views or potential downloads don't mean a thing.

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