Thirty years ago, there was no such thing as digital music. Between vinyl and CDs, all musical consumption came through a physical medium.  

Not only did this require fans to intentionally go out and buy the art they wished to own, but they also had to make an effort to put the CD into the player or drop the needle on the vinyl. 

These consumers of physical media had to buy music through the album package in which artists presented. The act of analyzing the cover art or reading the liner notes allowed people to connect with the project on a deeper level than just hearing the hit single that played on the radio. 

While streaming services allow us to listen to a greater variety of music than physical media ever allowed for, they certainly come with their pitfalls. 

Being able to play any song you want simply by typing it into a search bar diminishes the appreciation of the album and creates a transactional relationship between the artist and the listener. When this happens, the song isn’t heard in the context of the tracks around it, and it’s not listened to while having the artist’s vision or circumstances in mind. 

You don’t just watch a compilation of different movie scenes without watching the whole film, so why do songs get a different treatment? 

But, through no fault of their own, Gen Z wasn’t raised to appreciate the album as a cohesive project. 

The rise of social media and short-form content has decreased attention spans and the ability to focus on a single piece of content. In an interview with the American Psychological Association, Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at UC Irvine, said, “back in 2004, we found the average attention span on any screen to be two-and-a-half minutes on average. Throughout the years it became shorter. So around 2012, we found it to be 75 seconds.”

Given Gen Z’s shorter attention spans, listeners today are less likely to stomach a 40-minute LP than their parents. This trend has also changed the way artists think about music. In an effort to cater to these easily distracted listeners, song lengths have dropped from an average of four minutes and 19 seconds in 1990 to three minutes and 17 seconds in 2020.

Algorithm-based platforms, such as TikTok, Instagram and Spotify, have also incentivized a change in what constitutes a hit. Chorus-fronted and lyrically catchy songs are prime for maximizing streams and views.

If songs are simply checklists of algorithm-satisfying tropes instead of genuine forms of artistic expression, their respective albums wouldn’t deserve a cohesive analysis or active listening. Some artists, like Drake, are conscious of this, as his 2017 project “More Life” was marketed as a playlist instead of an album, making shuffle play its preferred method of listening. 

Modern albums aren’t thought of as often as cohesive projects as they are an opportunity to throw a handful of darts towards the bullseye of being playlisted on Spotify or blowing up on TikTok. This is evident in bloated tracklists such as Lil Uzi Vert’s 2023 effort “Pink Tape,” which consists of more than 20 songs and runs for well over an hour without any unifying narrative between tracks. 

However, while this phenomenon of hit-seeking is an overarching trend in the sphere of popular music, many artists still treat the album with the same respect as their predecessors. Critically acclaimed conceptually-bound albums like Mk.gee’s “Two Star & The Dream Police” and JID’s “The Forever Story” have honored the album as a unified vessel for creativity. 

If listeners once again start to value the album as a collective project, then so will the music industry. 

You don’t have to go all in by deleting your streaming apps and exclusively consuming music via a vinyl player or Walkman. Instead of listening to a copious amount of archaic playlists, opt for a classic album from one of your favorite artists to be the soundtrack of your day.

If an artist is interesting enough to land a few songs on your playlist, then you owe it to them to hear their work in the context of its entire project. If listeners make an effort to value the true artistry that’s put into music rather than just its earworm potential, then artists will be inspired to create music that’s true to themselves, not just Spotify algorithms.