Introduced in 1948 by Columbia Records, the LP playing at 33⅓ revolutions per minute (RPM), allowed about twenty minutes of playing time on each side and was thus suited to classical music and musical soundtracks. Their vinyl composition also made them less liable to break than the existing shellac, 78 RPM records.
Prior to the introduction of the LP, pop music had been pretty much confined to singles which consisted of two songs (one per side) of about two or three minutes duration, making them ideal for radio play. The development of the LP allowed such singles to be gathered together and fleshed out with other 'filler' songs to form an album. However by the mid 1960's, more forward thinking artists began to develop the idea of the album as an art form in itself. This led to a very creative period when the long playing record reached it's zenith and sales even began to outstrip those of the shorter and cheaper single record.
Consequently we were to experience concept albums, double albums and even triple albums! The cover art and photography became almost as sought after as the musical content and listeners could add to the aural experience by immersing themselves in the liner notes and eventually the song lyrics.
I intend in the course of this blog to focus on one period which I believe was the absolute pinnacle of creativity as far as the pop/rock album was concerned. The Beatles had led the charge in the early 1960's and with the 1965 release of 'Rubber Soul' had begun to stretch the concept of the 'pop song'. Bob Dylan dared in 1965 to include on 'Bringing It All Back Home' a song 'It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) which was over seven minutes long and then he topped that later the same year when the closing track from 'Highway 61 Revisited' ('Desolation Row') clocked in at over eleven minutes. However, it was in May 1966 that I believe the bar was raised to new heights.
The album in question was The Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds'.
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