Got A Music Question? Ask Away

[HarleyQuinn]

Didn't know where to put this but as it pertained to music, I figured I'd just do the TRTSM thing and start a brand new topic about it in a thinly veiled overreaching "official" thread instead.

Question: What is the most common track length for a CD format?

For some reason, I've always thought that most albums were aimed to be 12 tracks long but the more I'm looking, it seems that 10 was a bit of a standard for a while (especially in metal) whereas punk and rap tend to go 13-16 tracks. The following well known albums were all 12 tracks long.

Beach Boys - Surfin' USA
Beach Boys - Today
Beatles - Meet the Beatles
Bjork - Vespertine
Garbage - Garbage
Metallica - Metallica [The Black Album]
Motorhead - Ace of Spades
Nirvana - In Utero
Nirvana - Nevermind
Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory
Pearl Jam - Vs.
Radiohead - The Bends
Radiohead - OK Computer

 

[bps21]

So was Appetite for Destruction. Thus it is the standard that I grew up expecting.

 

[Lord of The Curry]

How did the Cam'ron/Rock-A-Fella beef start?

 

[Smartly Pretty]

What exactly is the point of a double flat/double sharp?

 

[Czech]

I suppose maybe if you're playing something in the key of B-flat and you encounter an E and an E-flat in a measure, the engraver thinks it works better to render the E as a D-double-sharp rather than putting a natural in front of the E and then flatting it again before the natural cancels out at the end of the bar. This way you're modifying one note instead of two. That's the only example I can come with. I never encountered double-accidentals.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

How did the Cam'ron/Rock-A-Fella beef start?

As a calf!

 

[Incandenza]

Full-length albums didn't become the standard for pop/rock music until the mid 60's—they were usually reserved for jazz and classical recordings. Even then, the number of tracks per album wasn't an issue so much as album length. To use some well-known examples, it was rare when a Beatles or a Rolling Stones or a Beach Boys album exceeded 35 - 45 minutes in length (some Beatles and Beach Boys records rarely exceeded 30 minutes). The number of songs per album wasn't as important as how long the album was, as the more music that was put into a single LP, the lower the sound quality. The same applies for CDs, though the digital format holds more information comfortably than the analog format.

Straying a bit from your question, but Todd Rundgren holds the unofficial honor of having released the longest single LP in music history. Check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initiation_(album)

The album is one of the longest single LPs of all time, totaling almost 68 minutes of playing time. Due to the length of "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire", the recording's dynamic range was compressed to fit the entire song onto one side of the vinyl. It was noted on the album's original inner sleeve that the sound needed to be compressed in order to fit the songs on the album and as a result, it could easily be damaged if played with a worn needle and the sound volume might be low. It was recommended that a person record the album to tape to preserve the sound. The CD version avoids this issue.

This album's a turd, by the way, and I love Rundgren's 70's work.

 

[Red Baron]

Something was longer than Thick as a Brick?

 

[Incandenza]

Well, Thick As a Brick consisted of only one 45-minute song, which was split up across two sides. No single track on Rundgren's Initiation runs as long as that—"A Treatise on Cosmic Fire" runs for 35:22—but you still have 68 minutes crammed into a single LP. Normally, this lengthy running time would justify a two-LP set, but either Rundgren didn't want to split up "Treatise" or he wanted to keep the album's price down (double albums costing more than single albums) or possibly a bit of both.

Also, I thought I quoted Harley in my original post, but it should be clear to anyone that I was responding to him.

 

[the max]

How did the Cam'ron/Rock-A-Fella beef start?

As a calf!

 

[alfdogg]

 

[FroGG_NeaL]

Dame Dash and Jay-Z were co-creaters and owners of Rockafella Records. Jay was out of town for a few weeks and Dame made Cam'ron, his childhood friend, the president of Rockafella while he was gone.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

New article at Culture Crossfire covers whether Grunge Music did kill off Hair Metal in the 1990s.