My Music: Why Debut Albums Seem to be Superior

Think about your favorite, most established artist or band in the music industry. Now pick your top 3 favorite albums that they have released, I’d bet anything that their debut album is on your list.

I mean think about it:

Kanye West: The College Dropout

Jay-Z: Reasonable Doubt

Notorious B.I.G.: Ready to Die

Frank Ocean: Channel Orange

Chance The Rapper: Acid Rap

50 Cent: Get Rich or Die Tryin’

Eminem: Slim Shady LP

So why is this such a trend? Well I believe it’s because of two major factors;

1. The period of time artists have to work on it is more less regulated
2. The Pre-Fame authenticity and relatable themes

When artists really start to become fixtures in the music industry label executives often impose deadlines that give artists usually around a year and a half to create, mix, master, and release their albums, barring them from truly cycling through their individual creative process.

For knew artists, however, this is different. Think about it, while they do have deadlines they have also pretty much have had their whole lives to start working on their albums.

Take for example Kanye West’s “The College Dropout”, he had thousands of beats stockpiled just waiting to be used by the artists he worked for, and when the time came around in which he wanted to release his own album he was able to use a handful of the untouched ones for himself.

The second reason may be a little more anecdotal but I still believe it to be just as much of a factor.

Think about the first songs that blow up with a substantive artist, it is often one that is deeply emotional as well as relatable. Take for example Frank Oceans “Thinkin Bout You”. I think you may be a sociopath if you hear that song and not think of someone.

The point is, before artists achieve their peak fame they are often just as attached with reality as you and I. As time rolls along, however, they tend to burn out and spiral seemingly into the maddening, eccentric, reclusive land of the famous.

This is why Garth Brooks Facebook is such an eerie wasteland of the most off-putting attempts of the hollow shell where a country boy once lived, trying to be relatable.