I Hate Beatles Fans

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@RTFirefly

I think it’s time to say something quantifiable about music in the 1960s. For whatever reasons (I’m guessing pressure from their record labels) artists and groups during that time tended to release an album or two each year. The Beatles are at the top of the distribution, with their 14 albums in, what, 7 years, but they weren’t an outlier. Between 1965 and 1970, Eric Clapton released 8 studio albums - 4 with Cream, and 1 each with the Yardbirds, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Blind Faith, and Derek and the Dominoes. The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St. (1972) was their 10th UK studio album and their 12th US studio album. And so forth.

…

What’s happening now? Things seem to be slowing down each decade. Pearl Jam had 7 studio albums between 1991 and 2002 (plus 2 since); Green Day had 6 studio albums between 1990 and 2000, plus 2 since. More recently, Coldplay has had 5 studio albums beginning in 2000; Arcade Fire has had 3 beginning in 2004.

Quite simply, the most talented artists and groups of more recent eras are producing less music over a longer stretch of time than in the 1960s.

I think this phenomenon deserves its own thread, but something to bear in mind is that modern records are far longer than those released in the 1960s and 70s.

My Generation was 36 minutes long. Sgt. Pepper’s was 39 minutes long.

Nobody except punk and post-punk bands release records that short now. *Both *of Guns and Roses’ Use Your Illusion albums clocked in at over 75 minutes. The much more raw Appetite for Destruction was itself 53 minutes. The Black Album/Metallica is 62 minutes.

Maybe the easiest way to look at the phenomenon is to look at albums released by bands who recorded then and now. The Rolling Stones’ self-titled album was 33 minutes long. A Bigger Bang and Bridges to Babylon are both more than 60 minutes long. The Who’s Endless Wire is 52 minutes.