Talk:Album era/GA2

GA Review
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Reviewer: Vaticidalprophet (talk · contribs) 00:11, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

Overall, this is solid work and a good, comprehensive article. However, there are a few points and omissions that need to be addressed before promotion.

The biggest omission I see is that while concept albums are rightfully discussed as foundational to the idea of the album itself, and the term is bluelinked when it's introduced, very little is discussed on what a concept album is in the article proper. A reader ctrl+F-ing for a definition will find the closest to one in "In her observation, many recording artists had 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", which only discusses a subset of the concept. While linking other articles is important, it can't provide context alone -- two-thirds of links on Wikipedia receive zero clicks in any given year, and the "intuitively open any given link in a new tab" common amongst editors seems rarer for readers who don't edit. In addition, some non-trivial subset of readers will be reading in a context where following links is minimized or impossible, such as those with poor internet connections or who are reading text that's been copied to a non-Wikipedia site. For an idea as foundational to the article as this, the concept album needs to be more clearly defined and discussed (possibly even as a full subsection of the 1970s section).

There's also, as brought up on the talk page, a number of issues with US-centric (and Western-centric) writing. The cassette issue mentioned is big here -- casettes were only displaced immediately in very limited corners of the world, and remained the primary form of music for over a decade longer in most of it. The very pattern of when singles started returning also varies quite heavily by country, and more needs to be discussed about that.

Overall, though, this is on the right track. Vaticidalprophet (talk) 00:55, 19 February 2021 (UTC)


 * Hi. I have added more content on the concept album into the 1960s section. isento (talk) 03:10, 19 February 2021 (UTC)


 * I could not find anything in reliable sources connecting the album era to developments outside the US or the UK, or the cassette. But I did find this Quartz article on the endurance of CD albums and singles in Japan in the 2010s. isento (talk) 03:34, 19 February 2021 (UTC)


 * I reworded the part about the cassette being "effectively displaced" to being "eventually displaced", per your concern. isento (talk) 03:37, 19 February 2021 (UTC)
 * I made a few more notes and revisions on the cassette in that paragraph. isento (talk) 12:57, 20 February 2021 (UTC)


 * WP:GACR links "the main aspects" of its broad coverage criteria to WP:OOS, which says the scope of an article is defined by reliable sources. In the spirit of WP:STICKTOSOURCE, the best sources available on the topic should be researched and summarized, the topic being the album era, and to no go beyond what they say. Apart from notes on economic trends in countries outside the West on album sales, such as in the article I linked earlier, the sources on the album era seem to imply it is a largely Western phenomenon, in both economics and creativity. And even the aforementioned source does not refer to the album era. I can add adjectives like "American" and "British" to subjects in the lead to imply this to readers. But I do not see what more I can do that would be of substance to your concern. isento (talk) 03:46, 19 February 2021 (UTC)


 * This list of worldwide music sales shows the dominance of the US, and the West, with the exception of Japan, which is now noted in the article. isento (talk) 05:49, 19 February 2021 (UTC)


 * I have now added a subsection on international trends in the 2010s, with a focus on Japan. isento (talk) 05:11, 19 February 2021 (UTC)


 * In response to the image query, I think the smartphone image at the start of that decade makes it more relevant to its placement in the section. isento (talk) 09:18, 20 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Also, it is the best illustration of Spotify on a smartphone from the available pics. isento (talk) 09:20, 20 February 2021 (UTC)
 * You might want to mention the user; it seems to me like they have probably not seen your response. --K. Peake 21:45, 21 February 2021 (UTC)
 * , I have the page watchlisted and we've also discussed on my personal talk page. I'm spread a little thin, but I'm attending to this still; I've been looking on my own time for sources on the album era outside the West to see if there's anything of interest. Vaticidalprophet (talk) 23:25, 21 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I did not know that due to you not having commented for a while but I understand now. Good of you to be researching to check this article! --K. Peake 06:58, 22 February 2021 (UTC)

Comment - I think the layout of the article is contradicting the article's definition per opening sentence ("from the mid 1960s to the mid 2000s"), especially the section 2020–present: pandemic era, which implies that the "album era" is still ongoing, while in reality it's not. We currently lived in streaming-relied "singles era". Maybe the 2020s section should be merged to the "Post-album era" or retitled something else (maybe like "Aftermath"). Bluesatellite (talk) 05:50, 22 February 2021 (UTC)


 * Good point. Done. isento (talk) 05:59, 22 February 2021 (UTC)

Any updates? Also, any thoughts on my section title changes? Wondering if they might be a bit too long. isento (talk) 11:45, 27 February 2021 (UTC)

I also added another paragraph on international trends. isento (talk) 12:37, 27 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Sorry for not getting back to you, I've fallen ill. The article looks good, and I'm happy to pass it. Vaticidalprophet (talk) 22:02, 27 February 2021 (UTC)