While Beyoncé dropped two at a time, Dua Lipa gave her fans access to three. Swift Taylor? She kept all of this private.
Billie Eilish has announced that she would be releasing The Tortured Poets Department without any singles ahead of schedule starting next month. The album was published last week.
Commentators have been saying for years that singles are more important than albums and that albums are obsolete.
This is partially due to streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify, which enable users to create custom playlists and select their favorite songs from musicians.
But might the decision by two of the biggest stars in the world to forgo singles revitalize albums?
Upon releasing Hit Me Hard and Soft, Billie expressed her desire for her fans to listen to the album all at once.
She also gave an explanation of why in a Rolling Stone interview.”Every single time an artist I love puts out a single without the context of the album, I’m just already prone to hating on it,” she stated.“I find it quite annoying when things are taken out of context. I don’t want a single young child to be by themselves in the midst of the room; this record is like a family.”
Chief executive of the Official Charts Company Martin Talbot acknowledges that he prefers albums above singles even though he is in charge of the weekly Official Singles Chart.
“It’s fantastic that Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift are doing what appears to be something designed to push music fans back to the concept of an album,” he told BBC Newsbeat.
“There is a danger that music fans lose sight of what an album is and what an album represents.”The album is a kind of pinnacle of a certain artist’s creative vision.
“And it’s really important for the creative health of music and the cultural environment we preserve that.”