The album vs the playlist

Before beginning this post, I want to say that this is not to pin the two mediums of music in the title against each other, but to analyze how society interacts with the two. To further clarify, my observation isn’t strictly about the traditional vinyl album, though it includes it. Rather, it focuses on the concept of releasing music in album format. Therefore, my topic also concerns playlists as a whole, not just user-curated playlists or algorithmically generated playlists.

To start, many have believed in today’s society that the album has essientially died out while playlists on streaming services have become the main source of listening to music. To play devil’s advocate would be a complete lie. This has led many artists to follow the trend of short-form content by releasing songs individually as a singler rather than creating a full album. While short-form has had an exponential growth within the last ten years of content making, the album is not dead in the water yet—it’s treading.

The album is the artist’s way of deeply expressing their emotions, identity, and story in many ways for listeners to interpret. On the other hand, the playlist is the listener’s way of deeply expressing their indentity and emotions towards different musicians’s music. In an essence, the album is the original playlist for listeners that is curated by the artists. With vinyl and cassettes, each side told their own stories. Although a listener can still select the song they want to hear off the album, it is easier with those mediums to let the music play through each side in full. After vinyls and casettes, CDs arrived that allowed individual selection of songs. By the early 2000’s, Apple released the online music store, iTunes.

That’s when the listener curated playlist began.

People could now easily switch between artists with ease, and create their own playlists. Along with this, the concept of “burning” CDs which allowed songs from iTunes to be transmitted to blank CDs. After iTunes came the iPod which made the listeners curated playlist grow exponentially. This included products such as the iPod Shuffle which I will discuss later. By the late 2000’s, the introduction to smarphones and the release of Spotify alonside its algorithmically generated playlists curated for the individual listener had led to the playlist taking the throne over society’s predominant choice of music listening habits.

The iPod Shuffle had an interesting duality between the album and the playlist that has translated into many people’s listening habits since. Songs on the device were normally downloaded from iTunes which still promoted common practice of buying albums as a whole. Regardless of the artist, many people will listen to multiple songs off of certain albums, and this was the case of the iPod Shuffle. When the iPod Shuffle was released in the mid-2000’s, one may find multiple songs from Green Day’s American Idiot or the Gorillaz big album Demon Days within their shuffled playlist. Most of my Spotify playlists contain multiple songs form multiple albums to create an expression of certain emotions or genres.

Spotify playlists are also algorithmically made at times to allow listeners to discover similar artists or B-sides of their favorite songs off of albums. Without the curated playlist Spotify makes, I may have never been a fan of B-list artists from the 90s such as Mudhoney or the Screaming Trees. I may have also never taken the time to listen to the B-side of multiple Bob Dylan albums. The release of albums allow listeners to further explore an artist's work, and is a timestamp for an artist in their life. While a short, three-minute single release could help algorithms work for an artist to gain traction, a quality album gives more content for listeners to here. Here are the benefits of both the album and the playlist:

The Album

• The artist’s curated playlist

• A portfolio of work for a given amount of time

• In most cases, a combination of similar timbres and feelings.

• Fans can listen to their desired artist at once.

• Often tells a story

• If explicit, clean versions are often made for radio play

• Can set the mood

  • Set the tone, express certain emotions

The Playlist

• A listener’s curated album (or double album, or triple)

  • Limitless amount of music

• Rarely ever restrictions or guidelines

  • Work playlists are often censored

• Multiple albums or artists.

• Can set the mood as well

There is no right or wrong way to listen to music. There never has been. The entire world of music has been centered around creativity outside of the box, and this is not limited to an artist or a listener. I may listen to album sometimes, or I may listen to a playlist containing three songs from a certain album I like alonside other artists’ music. Either way, the album is not dead, it has just been repurposed in the way we as a society listen to music today.

geese: How ‘getting killed’ has brought rock back to life

This past weekend, I used my time to learn a few songs from my new favorite band at the moment. The world of music has proven to be an ever-changing place, moving with the vibrations that artists have carefully constructed to incite emotion from the listener for centuries. In the 1950’s, artists like Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, and Buddy Holly among others brought the genre of Rock to the forefront of music. By the end of the 1960’s, Rock had flourished into several different sub-genres such as Psychadelic Rock, Surf Rock, and the early foundations of Metal that would soon explode into the underground music world the next decade alonside genres such as punk rock. Although classified as a psychadelic rock band, The Velvet Underground’s set the stage for one of the most prominent rock genres of the 21st century—Indie Rock.

The Velvet Underground would soon be a major influence to the rise of counter-culture Indie Rock in the 80’s with bands like The Pixies and R.E.M. before its most prominent peak in the 90’s and early 2000’s with bands like Pavement, The Strokes, and the newest Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame inductees, The White Stripes. While artists such as Mac DeMarco, and Tame Impala managed to gain appeal from music lovers in the 2010’s, Indie Rock, alongisde other forms of rock, have since retreated back to the underground of music. Almost a quarter-century after the Manhattan Indie Rock band The Strokes released their critically acclaimed debut album, Is This It, a band from across the East River in Brooklyn has become the face of Indie Rock and may just have what it takes to bring Rock music back to the mainstream—Geese.

The differences between Geese and The Strokes are not hard to find. The latter had immediate fame and recognition while Geese has been around for nearly a decade, having been formed in 2016. The Strokes, like many other Indie bands, are known for their simplistic and stoic stage-precenes that coincide with their music, but Geese might be the most complex Indie Rock band yet. Led by frontman Cameron Winter, the band has become a staple in not only the Indie scene, but the experimental scene as well, drawing comparisons to music icons such as Radiohead and David Bowie. The group gained nationwide attraction with the 2023 release of their 3rd album, 3D Country, but their 4th and most recent album released on September 26th, 2025 Getting Killed, has sent the band into a whole new direction of stardom.

The flowers Geese has recieved is no surprise to the fans who have been listening. As someone who discovered them after the release of 3D Country, songs like I See Myself and Cowboy Nudes have been a constant in several playlists I listen to throughout my daily life. While underground artists fanatics already knew of the Brooklyn-based group, their exposure skyrocketed when frontman Cameron Winter released his solo album, Heavy Metal. Winter’s droning vocals never seemed to waver between his solo album and Geese’s new album. My personal favorite on the band’s new album, Cobra, is a build up that gives listeners the sense of nostalgia. Getting Killed is formed through buildups, from the increasing tempos of tracks like Taxes, to the increasing intensity of Long Island City Here I Come, Geese finds a way to keep listeners on their toes. These tracks perfectly offset slow, yet powerful grooves such as Au pays du Cocaine and Islands Of Men. My favorite riff to play right now is from 100 Horses as Winter’s beautiful Gretsch guitar riff is simplistic, yet catchy. From the band’s unconventional opening track, Trinidad to the insane cowbell and cymbal-dominated drumming performance of drummer Dominic DiGesu on the last track, Long Island City Here I Come, Geese has become the next big name in the Indie Rock world.

Although, I sadly was unable to attend Geese’s Chicago shows on their Getting Killed world tour, I hope to keep watching videos of their impressive live performances of their new material as they finish up their American leg at the end of 2025, and being their European leg of the tour in

My first blog post!

Hello all! My name is Stevie Moris, and I would like to tell you all about what was going on in my life last weekend!

If you have read my about page, you know by now that I am an avid music listener. Whenever a band or artist I like comes to the Chicago area, I try my best to be at their show. On a rare occasion, lightning struck twice last weekend. My roommate and I found out that a friend had extra tickets to see the rapidly-growing hardcore punk band Turnstile last Friday at Huntington Bank Pavilion in Chicago. Since Turnstile released their latest album—Never Enough on June 6th this past summer, the band has been getting critical acclaim. The show was nothing short of magical. Their three openers helped get the crowd alive, active, and energetic as moshing was not withheld to just the front pit. The first opener, Jane Remover brought the amplitude up immediately on their 22nd birthday. It’s one of the few times I have witnessed someone my age perform on a big stage live, but none-the-less Jane Remover impressed.

The next act, Speed, is an Australian hardcore band that fueled the crowd’s rage behind a strong ‘Free Palestine’ speech. The coolest part of their set for me, besides the bruises I would have the next day from the crowd, was the lead singer pulling out his flute Jethro Tull style and absolutely rocking on-stage. What I thought couldn’t be topped for their political movements were soon diminished when the band, Mannequin Pussy took the stage.

Mannequin Pussy absolutely killed it. The lead singer, Missy Dabice, held the crowd in the palm of her hand with ripping, up-beat punk songs followed by anti-facist, anti-racist, anti-misogynist speeches that could have lead the entire crowd to battle. I had never heard of the band before, but they gained a fan for life on Friday Night.

Soon, the sky went dark, the smell of the lake was succombed to a sweaty, punk-rock crowd that had just survived three intense openers, and just when one may think the show was over, Turnstile’s song Never Enough brought an energy to the crowd that would not simmer until the clock struck 11pm. By the time the band played the song, Pushing Me Away, the barricades had been knocked over several times, voices were lost, and memories had been made for a lifetime.

While Friday night was certainly an adventure, Saturday held another concert that indie rock musicians would die for. At the 312 Beer Fest at the Goose Island Beer Co. in Fulton Market, the midwest-emo cult band American Football performed a free show. American Football got their start while at college at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign in the late 90’s, producing one album before splitting. The band reunited about a decade ago, where they have occassionally played shows and recorded two more albums. To be an Illinois kid who has grown up on the band, seeing American Football for no money at a place so local was a fever dream. By the time Never Meant ended the band left the stage, my heart had palpatated numerous times. To clarify, this was due to the band’s haunting performance and not the delicious dark brew the beer fest offerred at a very reasonable $5 price.

Before leaving, a few of my friends and I snapped a picture with a giant stuffed bear. That’s the bear hug that my buddies and I are getting in the cover for this blog! An absolute awesome weekend!