Editing Concept album (section)

==Definitions==
There is no clear definition of a "concept album".<ref name="independent"/>{{sfn|Elicker|2001|p=227}} Fiona Sturges of ''[[The Independent]]'' stated that the concept album "was originally defined as a long-player where the songs were based on one dramatic idea – but the term is subjective."<ref name="independent">{{ cite web | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-return-of-concept-album-1796064.html | title=The return of concept album | first=Fiona | last=Sturges | work=[[The Independent]] | date=1 October 2009 | access-date=25 April 2016 }}</ref> A precursor to this type of album can be found in the 19th-century [[song cycle]],<ref name="PMperf">{{cite web|last1=Cucchiara|first1=Romina|title=The Concept Album As a Performative Genre|url=https://www.popmatters.com/feature/186925-the-concept-album-as-a-performative-genre/|website=[[PopMatters]]|date=10 November 2014}}</ref> which ran into similar difficulties in classification.{{sfn|Elicker|2001|p=228}} The extremely broad definitions of a "concept album" could potentially encompass all [[soundtrack albums|soundtracks]], [[compilation albums|compilations]], [[cast recording]]s, [[greatest hits album]]s, [[tribute album]]s, [[Christmas album]]s, and [[live album]]s.{{sfn|Elicker|2001|p=228}}

The most common definitions refer to an expanded approach to a rock album (as a story, play, or opus), or a project that either revolves around a specific theme or a collection of related materials.{{sfn|Elicker|2001|p=228}} [[AllMusic]] writes, "A concept album could be a collection of songs by an individual songwriter or a particular theme – these are the concept LPs that reigned in the '50s ... the phrase 'concept album' is inextricably tied to the late 1960s, when [[rock and roll|rock & rollers]] began stretching the limits of their art form."<ref name="AllMusic/Concept albums">{{cite web |author=| url=https://www.allmusic.com/blog/post/allmusic-loves-concept-albums | title= AllMusic Loves Concept Albums | website=[[AllMusic]] | date=10 February 2014 | access-date=25 April 2016 }}</ref> Author Jim Cullen describes it as "a collection of discrete but thematically unified songs whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts ... sometimes [erroneously] assumed to be a product of the rock era."{{sfn|Cullen|2001|p=98}} Author Roy Shuker defines concept albums and [[rock operas]] as albums that are "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical. ...  In this form, the album changed from a collection of heterogeneous songs into a narrative work with a single theme, in which individual songs segue into one another."{{sfn|Shuker|2012|p=5}}

Speaking of concepts in albums during the 1970s, [[Robert Christgau]] wrote in ''[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies]]'' (1981), because "overall impression" of an album matters, "concept intensifies the impact" of certain albums "in more or less the way ''[[Sgt. Pepper]]'' intended", as well as "a species of concept that pushes a rhythmically unrelenting album like ''[[The Wild Magnolias]]'' or a vocally irresistible one like [[Shirley Brown]]'s ''Woman to Woman'', to a deeper level of significance."<ref name="CG">{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies]]|publisher=[[Ticknor & Fields]]|isbn=0899190251|chapter=The Criteria|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg70/criteria.php|via=robertchristgau.com|access-date=6 April 2019}}</ref>