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A concept album is a musical album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Alternatively, the term may signify an album that lacks any explicit musical or lyrical motif, but is considered to be of "uniform excellence". music criticism remain divided on the precise definition of a concept album.
The format originates with folk music singer Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads (1940) and was subsequently popularized by traditional pop singer Frank Sinatra's 1940s–50s string of albums, though the term is most closely associated with rock music. In the 1960s, various rock bands released several well-regarded concept albums, eventually leading to the birth of the rock opera.
The most common definitions refer to an expanded approach to a rock album (as a story, play, or opus), or a project that either revolves around a specific theme or a collection of related materials. AllMusic writes, "A concept album could be a collection of songs by an individual songwriter or a particular theme – these are the concept LPs that reigned in the '50s ... the phrase 'concept album' is inextricably tied to the late 1960s, when rock & rollers began stretching the limits of their art form." Author Jim Cullen describes it as "a collection of discrete but thematically unified songs whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts ... sometimes erroneously assumed to be a product of the rock era." Author Roy Shuker defines concept albums and rock operas as albums that are "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical. ... In this form, the album changed from a collection of heterogeneous songs into a narrative work with a single theme, in which individual songs segue into one another."
Speaking of concepts in albums during the 1970s, Robert Christgau wrote in (1981), because "overall impression" of an album matters, "concept intensifies the impact" of certain albums "in more or less the way Sgt. Pepper intended", as well as "a species of concept that pushes a rhythmically unrelenting album like The Wild Magnolias or a vocally irresistible one like Shirley Brown's Woman to Woman, to a deeper level of significance."
Singer Frank Sinatra recorded several concept albums prior to the 1960s rock era, including In the Wee Small Hours (1955) and Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely (1958). Sinatra is occasionally credited as the inventor of the concept album, beginning with The Voice of Frank Sinatra (1946), which led to similar work by Bing Crosby. According to biographer Will Friedwald, Sinatra "sequenced the songs so that the lyrics created a flow from track to track, affording an impression of a narrative, as in musical comedy or opera. ... He first pop singer to bring a consciously artistic attitude to recording."
Singer/pianist Nat "King" Cole (who, along with Sinatra, often collaborated with arranger Nelson Riddle during this era) was also an early pioneer of concept albums,"Cole developed the art of the concept album, a song collection consciously built on a single theme..." John Swenson (1999). The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide, University of California Press, , p. 1957 as with his Wild Is Love (1960), a suite of original songs about a man's search for love.Will Friedwald (2020). Straighten Up and Fly Right: The Life and Music of Nat King Cole, Oxford University Press, , p. 305
Other records have been claimed as "early" or "first" concept albums. The Beach Boys' first six albums, released over 1962–64, featured collections of songs unified respectively by a central concept, such as cars, surfing, and teenage lifestyles. Writing in 101 Albums That Changed Popular Music, Chris Smith commented: "Though albums such as Frank Sinatra's 1955 In the Wee Small Hours and Marty Robbins' 1959 Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs had already introduced concept albums, the Little Deuce Coupe was the first to comprise almost all original material rather than standard covers." Music historian Larry Starr, who identifies the Beach Boys' 1964 releases Shut Down Volume 2 and All Summer Long as heralding the album era, cites Pet Sounds as the first rock concept album on the basis that it had been "conceived as an integrated whole, with interrelated songs arranged in a deliberate sequence."
The 100 Greatest Bands of All Time (2015) states that the Ventures "pioneered the idea of the rock concept album years before the genre is generally acknowledged to have been born". Writing in his Concise Dictionary of Popular Culture, Marcel Danesi identifies the Beatles' Rubber Soul (1965) and the Who's The Who Sell Out (1967) as other examples of early concept albums. Brian Boyd of The Irish Times names the Kinks' Face to Face (1966) as the first concept album: "Written entirely by Ray Davies, the songs were supposed to be linked by pieces of music, so that the album would play without gaps, but the record company baulked at such radicalism. It's not one of the band's finest works, but it did have an impact." "Popular consensus" for the first rock concept album, according to AllMusic, favours Sgt. Pepper. According to music criticism Tim Riley, "Strictly speaking, the Mothers of Invention's Freak Out! 1966 has claims as the first 'concept album', but Sgt. Pepper was the record that made that idea convincing to most ears." Musicologist Allan Moore says that "Even though previous albums had set a unified mood (notably Sinatra's Songs for Swingin' Lovers!), it was on the basis of the influence of Sgt. Pepper that the penchant for the concept album was born." Adding to Sgt. Peppers claim, the artwork reinforced its central theme by depicting the four Beatles in uniform as members of the Sgt. Pepper band, while the record omitted the gaps that usually separated album tracks. Available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required). Music critic and journalist Neil Slaven stated that Frank Zappa's Absolutely Free, released the same day as Sgt. Pepper, was "very much a concept album, but The Beatles effortlessly stole his thunder", and subsequently Sgt. Pepper was hailed as "perhaps the first 'concept album' even though the songs were unrelated."
Popmatters Sarah Zupko notes that while the Who's Tommy is "popularly thought of as the first rock opera, an extra-long concept album with characters, a consistent storyline, and a slight bit of pomposity", it is preceded by the shorter concept albums Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake (Small Faces, 1968) and S.F. Sorrow (The Pretty Things, 1968). Author Jim Cullen states: "The concept album reached its apogee in the 1970s in ambitious records like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and the Eagles' Hotel California (1976)." In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked Dark Side of the Moon at number one among the 50 greatest progressive rock albums of all time, also noting the LP's stature as the second-best-selling album of all time. Pink Floyd's The Wall (1979), a semi-autobiographical story modeled after the band's Roger Waters and former member Syd Barrett, is one of the most famous concept albums by any artist. In addition to The Wall, Danesi highlights Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974) and Frank Zappa's Joe's Garage (1979) as other culturally significant concept albums.
According to author Edward Macan, concept albums as a recurrent theme in progressive rock was directly inspired by the counterculture associated with "the proto-progressive bands of the 1960s", observing: "the consistent use of lengthy forms such as the programmatic song cycle of the concept album and the multimovement suite underscores the hippies' new, drug-induced conception of time."
Progressive soul musicians inspired by this approach conceived concept albums during this era reflecting themes and concerns of the African-American experience, including Marvin Gaye (1971's What's Going On), George Clinton (the 1975 Parliament album Mothership Connection), and Stevie Wonder's Innervisions (1973) and Songs in the Key of Life (1976).
By the mid-1970s, concept albums extended to Disco artists. Examples include Phylicia Rashad's 1978 album Josephine Superstar, which details the life of film star and activist Josephine Baker; Parliament's Mothership Connection (1975) featuring space disco elements such as Science fiction, UFOs, galactic exploration, and spaceflight; The Undisputed Truth's Method to the Madness (1976) which is Frame story by the group's abduction by aliens and performance for "the Space Gods"; and Dee D. Jackson's space disco album Cosmic Curves (1978).
In the country realm, Willie Nelson recorded the most prominent concept albums, releasing Phases and Stages in 1974 and Red Headed Stranger in 1975. The latter went double platinum in the United States, launching him from being merely a noted songwriter and regional success to worldwide superstardom.
Towards the end of the 80s, however, as heavy metal suited a fairly niche crowd, a few heavy metal artists began producing concept albums, particularly among the more progressive groups. King Diamond's Abigail and Savatage Hall of the Mountain King, both released in 1987, stand some of the earliest examples of concept albums produced by a heavy metal artist. A year later, Iron Maiden, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, released in 1988, would become one of the most notable examples of a heavy metal concept album at the time. Around this time, progressive metal began taking form with artists such as Queensrÿche, Fates Warning, and Savatage. Shortly later in 1988, Queensrÿche would release , which would be considered one of the first progressive metal albums, and was also a concept album. Thus it could be argued that from the genre's inception, progressive metal has been a hotspot for concept albums, like its rock counterpart. Other notable progressive metal concept albums are Dream Theater's , Opeth's Still Life, and Orphaned Land's Mabool.
In the 21st century, the field of classical music has adopted the idea of the concept album, citing such historical examples as Franz Schubert Winterreise and Robert Schumann Liederkreis as prototypes for contemporary composers and musicians. Classical composers and performers increasingly adopt production and marketing strategies that unify otherwise disparate works into concept albums or concerts. Since 2019, the classical music magazine Gramophone has included a special category for "concept album" in its annual recordings of the year awards, to celebrate "albums where a creative mind has curated something visionary, a programme whose whole speaks more powerfully than its parts. A thought-through journey, which compels to be heard in one sitting."
In a year-ending essay on the album in 2019, Ann Powers wrote for Slate that the year found the medium in a state of flux. In her observation, many recording artists revitalized the concept album around autobiographical narratives and personal themes, such as intimacy, intersectionality, African-American life, boundaries among women, and grief associated with death. She cited such albums as Brittany Howard's Jaime, Raphael Saadiq's Jimmy Lee, Jamila Woods' Legacy! Legacy!, Rapsody's Eve, Jenny Lewis' On the Line, Julia Jacklin's Crushing, Joe Henry's The Gospel According to Water, and Nick Cave's Ghosteen. , a series of concept albums retelling Odyssey, arose to massive popularity, with its first release in January 2023 surpassing three million streams within its first week of release and the musical remaining popular as subsequent "saga" albums were released, the last one being released in December 2024.
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