What Makes an Album "Classic"?
I’m always thinking about what makes an album a classic in this generation. Among other subjective criteria, I think no matter what, the album has to be timeless. And I don’t believe that “timeless” is a particular sound. Additionally, I think being able to listen to a given album in any time period and it not sounding old may be a tad bit too lofty but that’s a post for another day lol
To me, what makes an album timeless is simply the quality of the content. Was the producer able to capture the popular sound of a given time in a way that was unique to that particular artist? Bonus points if the producer was able to develop a sound that is completely unique to that particular artist. Was the artist actually singing/rapping about something substantial or just filling space? Does the content reflect a time in an artists life or the age they were living in in a distinct way? I feel like a classic album will make the person who is listening to it, regardless of the year, think to themselves, “wow, I remember how I felt when I first heard this album” or “wow, I wish I was around when this album was made.”
With all the music out there these days, I feel like classic albums are becoming more and more subjective. With the decentralization of the media and the decreasing amounts of people who subscribe to traditional forms of news, radio, magazines, etc. there doesn’t seem to be a main source for music knowledge that everyone could agree on. This is cool to me though because blogs, magazines, entities, etc etc can decide what is classic to their particular group of people instead of everyone conforming to one master list (more bonus points if an album is on multiple classic lists). There is no longer a need for a small group of people figuring things out for the masses because music is more accessible and more people are equipped to do that themselves and for their context. Of course all this comes with its cons too but again, that’s a post for another day AND we got to take the good with the bad sometimes, right?
With that criteria, these are a few albums of my generation that I would call classics. I’ve also included some older albums that have shaped my views of what “timeless” means.
Take Care - Drake
Good Thing - Leon Bridges
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye West
All Sons and Daughters - All Sons and Daughters
Like Water for Chocolate - Common
Below the Heavens - Blu & Exile
Kind of Blue - Miles Davis
What would you say makes an album a “classic”?