Ongoing History of New Music

Ongoing History Daily: The shortest album in the world

How long must a collection of songs be before it can be called an “album.” That’s a tricky question.

Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells has just two, one for each side of a single album. Other double and triple collections have a couple of dozen.

Or maybe we should look at running time. But if that’s the case, how do you differentiate between an album and an EP?

England’s Pocket Gods don’t bother with such trifle, especially when it comes to their statements on streaming payments to artists. They’ve just released an album that is a mere 26 seconds long. Each of the ten songs is a shade over two seconds long and contains just one lyric. String them all together and you get this message: “HELLO PLEASE PAY US A FAIR AMOUNT FOR OUR MUSIC.” Cool.

Yesterday’s post was on some, er, unorthodox crowd control by the Stone Temple Pilots.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 39682 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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