headphones by Philippe Put used under a CC-BY-ND-2.0 licence.

12 Questions to Ask About Music Albums

With the advent of downloads, music sharing, and the ease of creating one’s own playlists, some are predicting the imminent demise of the album. The days of Prog Rock and the ‘concept album’ are long gone. Nevertheless, musicians and bands still seem to be content to release albums, even if they no longer have the constraints of time and length forced on them by the old LP format. So while albums are still sold, it is still worthwhile engaging with them as crafted entities (unless they are simply ‘greatest hits’ anthologies). My purpose in writing these 12 questions is to help people to develop what we might call ‘joined-up listening’: taking an album’s form, music, lyrics and construction as an integrated whole (where possible).

21 Questions to Ask About Commercials

These question are based on ‘Twenty Questions to Consider When Watching a Film’ by Tony Watkins. They are intended to help you think more clearly about these small but significant corners of our media time. Keep in mind that television commercials are vital for keeping the media wheel turning – and our credit cards burning! Commercials are media influence at its best – or worst. Taking the time to analyze a commercial can better equip you to appreciate, understand, and respond more critically to commercials.