Thanks to the gift of streaming, music is being pushed out at a violent speed every Friday. Almost at the same space, reviews and reactions are released within a couple of days to a few hours. This rapid consumption and production of art and content, however, may not be as pleasant as it seems.
Think about how long it takes to create a piece of art, much less an album. The process for most albums is months to years to fit the vision of the artists. When putting it in perspective, it seems almost ridiculous to have a full review with concise thoughts in one day. However, this is done every weekend by publications like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone to content creators on Tiktok and Youtube. Though it is not a knock on their work, sometimes these hasty reviews do not give the work enough time to breathe.
For instance, look at Playboi Carti’s “Whole Lotta Red” which was heavily scrutinized the day it dropped. Many fans were expecting a sequel to Carti's previous work like "Die Lit" or his self-titled album and were more than surprised when they got the king vamp project. Two years later, fans consider it a classic and the album has influenced a whole new generation of artists.
Another recent example is A$AP Rocky’s “Testing” which followed his beloved album “AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP” three years later. Even longtime fans considered this album a disappointment and were uncomfortable with A$AP trying out a new sound. Now, it is not the most favored album, but without a doubt, songs like “A$AP Forever”, “Praise The Lord” and other tracks are in many listener's rotations.
Even recently, albums like “Mr.Morale and the Big Steppers”, “Honestly Nevermind” and “Dawn FM” have slowly grown on fans day by day.
With overconsumption and the constant release of music becoming more common, more issues will sprout up. This is nowhere near the fan's fault there is just too much music to sit and listen to.
2022 alone has included projects from Beyonce, The Weeknd, Mitski, Kendrick Lamar, Ari Lennox, Burna Boy, Future, and much more.
Though it is difficult to give albums time with how fast-paced the world is, allowing a project time to simmer in your mind will allow listeners to enjoy music in a more in-depth way.
