# Where did the term "album drop" originate?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-term-album-drop-originate/514893>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 23, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-term-album-drop-originate/514893 "2009-10-23T19:39:02Z")\
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**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2017, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-term-album-drop-originate/514893/18 "2017-12-29T19:05:46Z")

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Not the earliest, but in 2001 Macy Gray famously (pretty well covered by the existing media of the time) wore a dress to the MTV VMAs (MTV was still heavily playing videos at this time) that said “My album drops Sept 18, 2001” That was 16 years ago. I recall rappers saying “buy my album when it drops” or “my album drops (such and such date)” around this time and earlier. I would assume, but could be wrong, that a lot of pre-release hype in general came after Soundscan in 1991 when first week album sales became more important.

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