Aconcept album is a musicalalbum whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually.[2][3] This is typically achieved through a single centralnarrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical.[4] Alternatively, the term may signify an album that lacks any explicit musical or lyrical motif, but is considered to be of "uniform excellence".[5]Music critics remain divided on the precise definition of a concept album.[3][6]
The format originates withfolk singerWoody Guthrie'sDust Bowl Ballads (1940) and was subsequently popularized bytraditional pop singerFrank Sinatra's 1940s–50s string of albums, though the term is most closely associated withrock music.[7] In the 1960s, various rock bands released several well-regarded concept albums, eventually leading to the birth of therock opera.
There is no clear definition of a "concept album".[6][8] Fiona Sturges ofThe Independent stated that the concept album "was originally defined as a long-player where the songs were based on one dramatic idea – but the term is subjective."[6] A precursor to this type of album can be found in the 19th-centurysong cycle,[9] which ran into similar difficulties in classification.[10] The extremely broad definitions of a "concept album" could potentially encompass allsoundtracks,compilations,cast recordings,greatest hits albums,tribute albums,Christmas albums, andlive albums.[10]
The most common definitions refer to an expanded approach to a rock album (as a story, play, or opus), or a project that either revolves around a specific theme or a collection of related materials.[10]AllMusic writes, "A concept album could be a collection of songs by an individual songwriter or a particular theme – these are the concept LPs that reigned in the '50s ... the phrase 'concept album' is inextricably tied to the late 1960s, whenrock & rollers began stretching the limits of their art form."[11] Author Jim Cullen describes it as "a collection of discrete but thematically unified songs whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts ... sometimes [erroneously] assumed to be a product of the rock era."[2] Author Roy Shuker defines concept albums androck operas as albums that are "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical. ... In this form, the album changed from a collection of heterogeneous songs into a narrative work with a single theme, in which individual songs segue into one another."[4]
Speaking of concepts in albums during the 1970s,Robert Christgau wrote inChristgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), because "overall impression" of an album matters, "concept intensifies the impact" of certain albums "in more or less the waySgt. Pepper intended", as well as "a species of concept that pushes a rhythmically unrelenting album likeThe Wild Magnolias or a vocally irresistible one likeShirley Brown'sWoman to Woman, to a deeper level of significance."[12]
In the 2016BBC documentaryWhen Pop Went Epic: The Crazy World of the Concept Album, it is suggested that the first concept album isWoody Guthrie's 1940 albumDust Bowl Ballads.[13]The Independent regards it as "perhaps" one of the first concept albums, consisting exclusively of semi-autobiographical songs about the hardships of American migrant labourers during the 1930s.[14] In the late 1940s, theLP record was introduced, withspace age pop composers producing concept albums soon after. Themes included exploring wild life and dealing with emotions, with some albums meant to be played while dining or relaxing. This was accompanied in the mid-1950s with the invention of thegatefold, which allowed room forliner notes to explain the concept.[15]
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SingerFrank Sinatra recorded several concept albums prior to the 1960s rock era, includingIn the Wee Small Hours (1955)[16] andFrank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely (1958).[2] Sinatra is occasionally credited as the inventor of the concept album,[17] beginning withThe Voice of Frank Sinatra (1946), which led to similar work byBing Crosby. According to biographer Will Friedwald, Sinatra "sequenced the songs so that the lyrics created a flow from track to track, affording an impression of a narrative, as inmusical comedy oropera. ... [He was the] first pop singer to bring a consciously artistic attitude to recording."[18][nb 1]
Singer/pianistNat "King" Cole (who, along with Sinatra, often collaborated with arrangerNelson Riddle during this era) was also an early pioneer of concept albums,[20] as with hisWild Is Love (1960), a suite of original songs about a man's search for love.[21]
In the early 1960s, concept albums became highly featured in Americancountry music, but the fact went largely unacknowledged by rock/pop fans and critics, who would only begin noting "concept albums" as a phenomenon later in the decade,[22] when albums became closely aligned with countercultural ideology, resulting in a recognised "album era" and the introduction of the rock concept album.[23] The author Carys Wyn Jones writes thatthe Beach Boys'Pet Sounds (1966),the Beatles'Revolver (1966) andSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), andthe Who'sTommy (1969) are variously cited as "the first concept album", usually for their "uniform excellence rather than some lyrical theme or underlying musical motif".[24]
Other records have been claimed as "early" or "first" concept albums. The Beach Boys' first six albums, released over 1962–64, featured collections of songs unified respectively by a central concept, such as cars, surfing, and teenage lifestyles.[25] Writing in101 Albums That Changed Popular Music, Chris Smith commented: "Though albums such as Frank Sinatra's 1955In the Wee Small Hours andMarty Robbins' 1959Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs had already introduced concept albums, [the Beach Boys' 1963 album]Little Deuce Coupe was the first to comprise almost all original material rather than standard covers."[26] Music historianLarry Starr, who identifies the Beach Boys' 1964 releasesShut Down Volume 2 andAll Summer Long as heralding the album era, citesPet Sounds as the first rock concept album on the basis that it had been "conceived as an integrated whole, with interrelated songs arranged in a deliberate sequence."[27]
The 100 Greatest Bands of All Time (2015) states thatthe Ventures "pioneered the idea of the rock concept album years before the genre is generally acknowledged to have been born".[28] Writing in hisConcise Dictionary of Popular Culture,Marcel Danesi identifies the Beatles'Rubber Soul (1965) and the Who'sThe Who Sell Out (1967) as other examples of early concept albums.[29]Brian Boyd ofThe Irish Times namesthe Kinks'Face to Face (1966) as the first concept album: "Written entirely byRay Davies, the songs were supposed to be linked by pieces of music, so that the album would play without gaps, but the record company baulked at such radicalism. It's not one of the band's finest works, but it did have an impact."[30]
"Popular consensus" for the first rock concept album, according to AllMusic, favoursSgt. Pepper.[11][16] According tomusic criticTim Riley, "Strictly speaking,the Mothers of Invention'sFreak Out! [1966] has claims as the first 'concept album', butSgt. Pepper was the record that made that idea convincing to most ears."[31][nb 2] Musicologist Allan Moore says that "Even though previous albums had set a unified mood (notably Sinatra'sSongs for Swingin' Lovers!), it was on the basis of the influence ofSgt. Pepper that the penchant for the concept album was born."[34][nb 3] Adding toSgt. Pepper's claim, the artwork reinforced its central theme by depicting the four Beatles in uniform as members of the Sgt. Pepper band, while the record omitted the gaps that usually separated album tracks.[35] Music critic and journalist Neil Slaven stated thatFrank Zappa'sAbsolutely Free, released the same day asSgt. Pepper, was "very much a concept album, but The Beatles effortlessly stole his thunder", and subsequentlySgt. Pepper was hailed as "perhaps the first 'concept album' even though the songs were unrelated."[36]
Author Bill Martin relates the assumed concept albums of the 1960s toprogressive rock:
In discussions of progressive rock, the idea of the "concept album" is mentioned frequently. If this term refers to albums that have thematic unity and development throughout, then in reality there are probably fewer concept albums than one might first think.Pet Sounds andSergeant Pepper's do not qualify according to this criterion ... However, if we instead stretch the definition a bit, to where the albumis the concept, then it is clear that progressive rock is entirely a music of concept albums—and this flows rather directly ofRubber Soul (December 1965) and thenRevolver (1966),Pet Sounds, andSergeant Pepper's. ... in the wake of these albums, many rock musicians took up "the complete album approach."[37]
Popmatters' Sarah Zupko notes that while the Who'sTommy is "popularly thought of as the first rock opera, an extra-long concept album with characters, a consistent storyline, and a slight bit of pomposity", it is preceded by the shorter concept albumsOgdens' Nut Gone Flake (Small Faces, 1968) andS.F. Sorrow (The Pretty Things, 1968).[38] Author Jim Cullen states: "The concept album reached its apogee in the 1970s in ambitious records likePink Floyd'sDark Side of the Moon (1973) and theEagles'Hotel California (1976)."[2] In 2015,Rolling Stone rankedDark Side of the Moon at number one among the 50 greatest progressive rock albums of all time, also noting the LP's stature as the second-best-selling album of all time.[39] Pink Floyd'sThe Wall (1979), a semi-autobiographical story modeled after the band'sRoger Waters and former memberSyd Barrett, is one of the most famous concept albums by any artist.[1] In addition toThe Wall, Danesi highlightsGenesis'The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974) andFrank Zappa'sJoe's Garage (1979) as other culturally significant concept albums.[29]
According to author Edward Macan, concept albums as a recurrent theme in progressive rock was directly inspired by the counterculture associated with "theproto-progressive bands of the 1960s", observing: "the consistent use of lengthy forms such as the programmaticsong cycle of the concept album and the multimovement suite underscores the hippies' new, drug-induced conception of time."[40]
Progressive soul musicians inspired by this approach conceived concept albums during this era reflecting themes and concerns ofthe African-American experience, includingMarvin Gaye (1971'sWhat's Going On),George Clinton (the 1975Parliament albumMothership Connection),[41][42] andStevie Wonder'sInnervisions (1973) andSongs in the Key of Life (1976).[43][44]
By the mid-1970s, concept albums extended todisco music artists.[45] Examples includePhylicia Rashad's 1978 albumJosephine Superstar, which details the life of film star and activistJosephine Baker;[46] Parliament'sMothership Connection (1975) featuringspace disco elements such assci-fi,UFOs,galactic exploration, andspaceflight;[47]The Undisputed Truth'sMethod to the Madness (1976) which isframed by the group's abduction by aliens and performance for "the Space Gods";[48] andDee D. Jackson's space disco albumCosmic Curves (1978).[49]
In the country realm,Willie Nelson recorded the most prominent concept albums, releasingPhases and Stages in 1974 andRed Headed Stranger in 1975. The latter went double platinum in the United States, launching him from being merely a noted songwriter and regional success to worldwide superstardom.[50]
With the emergence ofMTV as amusic videonetwork which valuedsingles over albums, concept albums became less dominant in the 1980s.[2][6] Some artists, however, still released concept albums and experienced success in the 1990s and 2000s.[6][16]NME's Emily Barker citesGreen Day'sAmerican Idiot (2004) as one of the "more notable" examples,[1] having brought the concept album back to high-charting positions.[51]My Chemical Romance’sThe Black Parade (2006) is another example of a modern concept album.Dorian Lynskey [Wikidata], writing forGQ, noted a resurgence of concept albums in the 2010s due tostreaming: "This is happening not in spite of the rise of streaming and playlists, but because of it. Threatened with redundancy in the digital era, albums have fought back by becoming more album-like."[52] Cucchiara argues that concept albums should also describe "this new generation of concept albums, for one key reason. This is because the unison between the songs on a particular album has now been expanded into a broader field of visual and artistic design and marketing strategies that play into the themes and stories that form the album."[9] Albums likeTwenty One Pilots'Blurryface (2015) andTrench (2018) are a very unique example of concept albums from the 2010's.[53] As well as presenting individual themes and stories, they follow eachother in a progressing storyline, as part of a universe that spans over the course of multiple albums includingClancy (2024) andBreach (2025), which is the final installation of the story.[54]
Towards the end of the 80s, however, asheavy metal suited a fairly niche crowd, a few heavy metal artists began producing concept albums, particularly among the more progressive groups.King Diamond'sAbigail andSavatage'sHall of the Mountain King, both released in 1987, stand some of the earliest examples of concept albums produced by a heavy metal artist.[55][56] A year later,Iron Maiden's,Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, released in 1988, would become one of the most notable examples of a heavy metal concept album at the time.[55] Around this time,progressive metal began taking form with artists such asQueensrÿche,Fates Warning, and Savatage. Shortly later[vague] in 1988, Queensrÿche would releaseOperation: Mindcrime, which would be considered one of the first progressive metal albums, and was also a concept album.[55][57][58] Thus it could be argued that from the genre's inception, progressive metal has been a hotspot for concept albums, like its rock counterpart. Other notable progressive metal concept albums areDream Theater'sMetropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory,Opeth'sStill Life,[57] andOrphaned Land'sMabool.[59][60]
In the 21st century, the field of classical music has adopted the idea of the concept album, citing such historical examples asSchubert'sWinterreise andSchumann'sLiederkreis as prototypes for contemporary composers and musicians.[61] Classical composers and performers increasingly adopt production and marketing strategies that unify otherwise disparate works into concept albums or concerts.[62] Since 2019, the classical music magazineGramophone has included a special category for "concept album" in its annualrecordings of the year awards, to celebrate "albums where a creative mind has curated something visionary, a programme whose whole speaks more powerfully than its parts. A thought-through journey, which compels to be heard in one sitting."[63][64][independent source needed]
In a year-ending essay on the album in 2019,Ann Powers wrote forSlate that the year found the medium in a state of flux. In her observation, many recording artists revitalized the concept album around autobiographical narratives and personal themes, such as intimacy,intersectionality, African-American life, boundaries among women, and grief associated with death. She cited such albums asBrittany Howard'sJaime,Raphael Saadiq'sJimmy Lee,Jamila Woods'Legacy! Legacy!,Rapsody'sEve,Jenny Lewis'On the Line,Julia Jacklin'sCrushing,Joe Henry'sThe Gospel According to Water, andNick Cave'sGhosteen.[65]Epic: The Musical, a series of concept albums retellingThe Odyssey, arose to massive popularity, with its first release in January 2023 surpassing three million streams within its first week of release[66] and the musical remaining popular as subsequent "saga" albums were released, the last one being released in December 2024.[67]
Phylicia Allen's (Victor Willis's wife and the future Mrs. Huxtable on The Cosby Show) Josephine Baker concept album, Josephine Superstar
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