Lost in the Stream: Concept Album in the Age of Streaming

Concept album is a peculiar kind of format that designates an organic musical opus, especially within certain genres of popular music. Born with Zappa and The Beatles, it was widely exploited by progressive rock and has being used by different kinds of artists ever since (from Prince to Radiohead, from Grimes to Ulver). Such an album-format came out of a context in which music was inseparable by its physical support, but since such an identification has disappeared in the age of streaming, the atomization of songs seems to undermine the very possibility of such musical works. Playlists (algorithmic or not) suggest music to us without caring for the discontinuity of the conceptual experience, and so the wider meaning behind the music must be sacrificed. Nevertheless, concept albums continue to exist, and it can be interesting to give a look to how artists strive to have their songs recognized as part of a wider conceptual frame. This paper briefly addresses four ways to do so: 1. the intermedial way – e.g. Steven Wilson’s online expansions of concepts, or Ghost’s lore based on the stage performances by their masked personas and short films; 2. the intertextual way – e.g. Billie Eilish’s debut album, a peculiar mainstream case full of cross-references between songs; 3. the interactive way – e.g. album apps like Björk’s Biophilia; 4. the interstylistic way – e. g. Scandinavian bands Pain of Salvation and Ulver radically revise their sound with every new release, so that stylistic features might suggest what is meant to stay together and what is not. Moreover, we should ask ourselves whether the listeners do still care for concept albums or not. How does a wide narrative form persist in an age characterized by speed and dispersion, and why is it still important to someone (if that’s the case)?