By Jim McCarthy Sep 10, 2009 0 comments

A Great Idea: Perform the Album

Here’s an excellent idea from Bob Lefsetz that I’d like to inject directly into the bloodstream of the live entertainment community:

“It could be in a polo field, like Coachella.

Or in one city, a three day event, like Lollapalooza in Chicago.

Or even a month long event in a metropolis that wanted to drive tourist business.

The rage in concerts these days is the performance of complete albums.  Bruce Springsteen is even going to do “Born To Run” in Nashville. Why don’t we have a festival where every act performs a complete album?”

I understand that it’s already happening on some level, but here’s why I think it’s so great.  It brings a coherence and a total experience to a musical performance.

And while the album as a unified musical artisitic expression is dying, the importance of story line in a live performance is not.

In fact, isn’t it just possible that musical careers could be built on bucking the trend and developing music with a through-line, intended to be listened to and then eventually performed all in one go?

I think it could.  It would be a powerful differentiator in the marketplace if someone could do it in a way that really jazzed a group of fans.

So obviously, the oldies are going to juice this particular lemon as much as they can because people already know and love certain albums.  It’s kinda easy money for them at a time when concert sales are less than stellar.

But beyond that, creating an album with a “story” (literal or not so literal) is a great way to be special and to encourage people to listen to more of your music.  It also makes for a good reason to go see a show live.

I’d love to see more of this.

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