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The Fundamental Units of Music: Tracks, Albums, and Artists

Methodology

Music is typically categorized under three fundamental units: tracks, albums, and artists. Typically, a track is one relatively cohesive and unified musical train of thought, which typically lasts around 4 minutes but is frequently known to take anywhere between 2 and 20 minutes. An album is a collection of tracks, and a good album often has a natural slope or progression so that, over its course, the album "tells a story" or takes the listener "on an emotional journey." The artist is the creative genius behind a piece of music and ultimately it is the artist's vision which produces any music. Artists produce albums that are divided into a number of tracks as to clarify the artist's vision and make the album easier to listen to for the listener.

Pros and Cons

The three fundamental units of music - tracks, albums, and artists, each are important and valuable in defining one's musical preferences. The track is the smallest and most unified of the three fundamental units of music and is therefore the easiest to analyze. However, examining music by track can be problematic because the track is taken out of its context in the album as a whole, which often serves as an interpretive framework for understanding the tracks present. Many music purists consider the album to be the primary true unit of music, because the album is the artist's canvas on which to paint a whole, broad tapestry of music. However, an album can also be extremely inconsistent, and a listener might appreciate a few tracks on an album or the creative vision of the artist behind the album without liking the album itself. Knowing the artist who created a track or album is also essential to understanding any music; however, good artists tend to evolve greatly over the course of their careers, and therefore recommending music by artist is often misleading. For these reasons, understanding all three of the fundamental units of music that relate to any music is important to describing what music you enjoy.