Most things written about music examine what we listen to: an up and coming producer doing something interesting, or maybe a new remix that improves upon the original song. Let’s instead take a moment to think about how we listen to our music collection. My knowledge of music history doesn’t go back much farther than the 20th century, so let’s start around there. First, there was the album: ten to twenty songs in a pre-determined order, usually lasting betweent 40 and 80 minutes. There are two ways to view the album:

a) The album itself is a work of art.  The album should be listened to start to finish and evaluated holistically.

b) The album is just a way of grouping songs together.  The songs are works of art, but the album is just a way of bundling them together (the way a museum “bundles” paintings into a larger collection.)

I think a) is the proper way to think about an album. After all, artists do put some thought into the order of the songs. And the album has its own name and cover art, so on some level it stands alone. Besides, a great album is more than just a bunch of great songs in a row. The argument that an album can be broken down doesn’t hold. We can just as easily break down a song into a bundling: the melody, the drums, the vocals. An album can be evaluated on its own.

There’s been a trend towards b) lately, probably because most albums are no longer listened to straight through.  For a long time, a listener would choose an album, press play, and wait until it came time to flip over the vinyl or rewind the audiocassette. But out of the album comes the “hit single,” one of the best songs that can be listened to again and again. Eventually, the song became detached from the album.  Look at the rise of one-hit wonders, or the fact that iTunes sells the vast majority of its music as individual songs, not albums. What happened to the album?

I think it’s been replaced by the “mix.”  I use that term in quotations on purpose. I’ve been listening to a lot of DJ mixes lately, and I’m struggling to come up with a precise definition.  It’s basically the thing that every DJ pumps out of his or her speakers at a performance.  More specifically, it has the following features:
 

• Like the album, its a collection of songs in a specific order.
• There’s a steady BMP; the tempo changes throughout, but never in a way to disorient the listener.

The second bullet is the kicker here. A mix can (and probably should) be listened to start to finish. Of course, the line between album and mix is becoming blurred. For example, MSTRKRFT‘s Fist of God can be played straight through without missing a beat. Listen to how the end of “1,000 Cigarettes” leads into “Bounce,” or how “Click Click” leads into “Word Up.”  Or take a listen to Cut Copy‘s 2008 album In Ghost Colours. There’s a steady flow to the songs, each leading into the next.

So what? For those of you still with me, here comes the conclusion. The same way that a great album is more than just a collection of great songs, a great DJ mix is more than just great songs.  If itwasn’t, dance clubs would just make a playlist of what’s popular and hit the shuffle button. Lucky for all of us, they don’t. A great DJ mix has the right songs in the right order and makes them overlap in such a way that it’s a steady stream of music that’s enjoyable to listen to.

I’m curious what the readers have to say about their own listening habits, mainly because the last few weeks I’ve been listening to mostly DJ mixes rather than individual songs. How do you usually listen to music? Are you a “shuffled playlist of my favorite songs” person?  An “every album start to finish” person? Leave your responses in the comments.

I can’t end this post without giving you something to listen to. If you’ve ever wanted an excuse to yell curse words during a party, here it is. Turn the bass up and tell the kids to cover their ears. Partyshank turned a Yo Majesty sample into a thumping dance song. Is it a mash-up or a remix? I’m not quite sure; just listen below and get ready to move.

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Partyshank vs. Yo Majesty (Shanks Bootleg Mix)

If any of the tunes contained in this post happen to suit your taste, the artist would probably be thrilled if you considered buying them on iTunes, Beatport, or Amazon. Share
by Nick DiLallo

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 7:21 pm and is filed under Disco Daily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.