With mainstream artists releasing more and more singles rather than putting their efforts into a fully developed album, the more I feel like the art of albums are dying in our modern days of media consumption. While many still do indulge and enjoy listening to new projects by their favorite artists, it seems as if said artists keep releasing singles to test the water and please their label companies quota rather than putting their efforts into a quality project. These songs are the ones that always end up on the radio, from weeks to months on end. Many regular music listeners tend to stray away from anything that isn’t in the top charts of their favorite genres, and this single culture almost enforces the same rotation of artists to be in the top after each consecutive release. It’s a more profitable way of making music, especially if you’re in the mainstream. Objectively, single is a lot less to handle, it’s just a one off track that you can judge based on its own merit, not needing to relate it to a bigger picture, or relate the message to anything prior. It’s a very smart way for artists to put their music out there to get people talking about a possibility of a new project, but you’re seeing more and more artists making a living off of only releasing singles. The thing is, this practice doesn’t help or promote music listening and exploration, especially how formulaic and unoriginal most the top-20 has been in the past ten years. Artists such as 6ix9ine released 11 singles (including remixes) in the span of 2018 alone with 4 of them making a significant cut on the Billboard Top 100, with the song FEFE staying on the chart for the past 12 weeks – peaking at the number three spot. Marshmello released 23 singles alone (remixes included) this year, and appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 3 times. Tons of mainstream artists are indulging in this way of releasing their music, and while I don’t think getting more content from an artist is bad in any way, it’s definitely stagnating the top charts.