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Since 1999, the album has been declared dead more times than we can count—yet it refuses to disappear. Body of Work traces its turbulent journey through the digital era and asks why listening in forty-minute chunks still matters.
Weaving insider accounts with cultural history and personal reflection, Jopling tells the story of the album’s unlikely survival. From bloated CD culture to Napster’s atomization, from Apple’s unbundling to Spotify’s shuffle wars (and Adele’s famous intervention), the album has not only endured, it has re-emerged stronger than ever.
Body of Work makes the case that the album remains the perfect vessel for the art of song—the format every artist aspires to, even after decades of digital disruption. As producer and artist Jack Antonoff (Bleachers) put it: “the album is God.” It is the defining artform of popular music, and it always will be.
“The internet can scale just about anything but it can’t scale the intimacy of exploring an artist’s body of work, and the album’s resilience is captured in this remarkable book”
“Is the album dead? It isn’t and it is. We can therefore approach Body Of Work as a thought experiment: let’s call it Schrödinger’s catalogue. Jopling explores why the album is the historical anomaly that battled through multiple format shifts to (mostly) endure artistically, culturally and economically. Body Of Work is part eulogy for the album’s past glories and part electioneering for the album’s future relevance”
“Why does the album endure in the streaming age? Keith Jopling’s neat treatise on the album as an artistic format provides the answer, taking in the history of the album, the technological changes of the music industry, the artistic drive that the LP format fulfils and some personal reflections along the way. A clear headed summation of the album’s evergreen appeal”
“Keith Jopling, at once advocate and analyst, has written an affectionate and insightful account of the album’s survival in a hostile age of streaming and algorithms.”
“This book made me fall in love with the art of the album again, and I’m sure it will do the same for you. A must read for any true music fan”
