LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Concept Album
built 385 days ago
Sufjan Stevens has released two majorly successful concept albums over the past four years and many others in between. ‘Michigan‘ in 2003 included songs referencing cities and people in the state of Michigan and ‘Illinois’ in 2005 covering stories from that state. The latter placed Sufjan on the map of classic albums with songs such as the melodic ‘Chicago,’ the melancholy ‘Casimir Pulaski Day,’ and the haunting ‘John Wayne Gacy Jr.’ and several other musical gems with odd titles such as:
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[M]any were cut simply because they didn't fit the concept of a particular album. On most of the second disc, Cash is backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and he works with three members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on Young's "Heart of Gold."
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Though the progressive rock genre was beginning to disappear, concept albums had become a medium that continued. The progressive bands that were still around were still having major successes with concept albums. Styx had multiplatinum albums with 1981's, Paradise Theater (a concept album about a decaying theater in Chicago which became a metaphor for childhood and American culture) and 1983's Kilroy Was Here (a science fiction rock opera about a future where moralists imprison rockers).
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The new NIN release seems to be a conceptual album, includes an almost frighteningly real depiction of the future and an elaborate conceptual project for art let alone a rock band. Previous NIN albums aren’t necessarily conceptual albums depending on your viewpoint, but they definitely can be interpreted that way if you choose. The new one is definitely seems like a conceptual project no matter what way you look at it though, which may alienate some, but fascinate others.
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Assembled in 1988 by Los Angeles writers/producers Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy (both former Club Nouveau), the female quartet En Vogue rejuvinated the concept of the "girl group" for the video age with their second album Funky Divas (1992). (1992). They, in turn, inspired Houston's Destiny's Child (featuring the rising star of Beyonce Knowles), who came to dominate the charts at the turn of the century.
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The eighties ... brought back an earlier form of the concept genre - albums with unifying themes, not necessarily coherent stories. An example is Journey's Escape in which all of the songs had to do with rebellion and escaping from one's present situation.
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Concept Album