The Concept Album:

The concept album is a glorious thing. It takes rock and roll and its associated genres to another level of high art. Not that this is necessary, there's nothing wrong with non-concept albums, but an album that acts as a cohesive whole rather than a juxtaposition of random thoughts is something that is very difficult to do. And when these albums are strong musically as well as conceptually, well then, we've got something special don't we? The answer... is yes. We will start with the origin on the concept album, starting with the pioneer who developed the idea. I bet you would never guess who started the idea. We'll get to that. Then we will trace the concept album using the best examples from the fifties until modern day. If you think I have omitted an important album, then it is either not a concept album, you are wrong about it being a good concept album, or the artist is already represented, and I didn't want to waste space. The concept albums here illustrate a fundamental truth about who we are as people, good and bad. Needless to say, I highly recommend that you add each and every one of these albums to your library, if they are not already there. Without further ado, let us begin.

What is a concept album?

A concept album is an album by a group that is unified in some manner. It can tell a story, as in a Rock opera (The Who's Tommy), or it could be several meditations on the same theme, such as insanity (Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon). I do not count crappy nu-metal such as Linkin Park, because even though their albums seem to be all about pain and suffering, Linkin Park does not deserve the dignity of being mentioned in the same breath as bands like Pink Floyd or The Who. You may be saying to yourself, "But you just did that!" Well, you're wrong, because I took a deep breath in the middle of that sentence. I also do not count things such as symphonies, or works such as Mozart's Requiem, because technically it is based around a concept, it was not designed to be an album, because no one then knew what an album was.