History of Rock Ch. 10| Music and Pop Flashcards – Peter Frampton’s Big Album

A big album is one that has a variety of artistically different songs on it and a wide range of styles. Peter Frampton’s Big Album by Peter Frampton is an album that is considered to be a big album because it has songs such as “Do You Feel Like We Do” and “Show Me The Way.”

The History of Rock Ch. 10| Music and Pop Flashcards – Peter Frampton’s Big Album is going to be about how the term “a big album” came into existence in the first place. 

Who was the first person to use this form of words? What does the term actually mean?

What designated Peter Frampton’s frampton comes alive! a “big album”?

It is not certain who the first person was that ever used this term, but what is known for sure is that “big album” or “great album” was initially used in 1973.

 Led Zeppelin 4 was released in the same year and it could be argued that it was their fourth big album. 

In any case, there are albums like these out there, but to be considered a big album you should have a variety of different songs on it and they should all be different genres. 

For example, Peter Frampton’s Big Album by Peter Frampton has songs like “Show Me The Way” and “Do You Feel Like We Do.” For this reason, many people consider this to be a big album.

1. Who said it first?:

It is said that a big album was first used in 1972 by songwriter, musician and music journalist Keith Altham.

 He was the leader of the group Nucleus and they recorded a 7″ called “Renegade” where they sang: “Do you feel like we do on a renegade?” The single reached #14 in the UK charts in 1972. Also, Keith Altham used the phrase “Big Album” as early as 1971. 

He said in an interview with Record Mirror that “The word big album is going to be big again. The big album is back.”. 

Altham also theorized in the same interview that there would be a return to long-format albums with longer playing times, for the reason that it will be convenient for people who are tuning in and out during the playing of the album.

 In his words, “What the public wants is a good long LP from start to finish and you can’t get that if you restrict your playing time”.

2. How was it used?:

In reviewing an album by Black Sabbath called Vol. 4 on Rolling Stone, critic Lester Bangs used Altham’s term “Big Album” to describe an album that has all different styles of music on it. 

Bangs also added that it was difficult to make “a top 10 list of the year” without including a few albums that are considered to be “big albums” because they have a wide variety of styles.

3. What does it mean?

“So, what is a big album?” What does the term “big album” actually mean? According to Wikipedia, for an album to be called as one, it must contain songs that are “innovative or different”.

 In other words, there is no standard way in determining whether an album is called a “big” one or not. Rather, looking at the songs themselves and their genre, it is up to one’s opinion whether the album is a “big” one. 

Some fans consider albums such as Led Zeppelin IV and The Who’s Tommy to be big albums but others do not.

In the case of Peter Frampton’s Big Album, he was at a point in his career where he wanted to break away from the “typical” pop star image that he had been building for himself after becoming successful with a series of pop rock music hits. 

Therefore, in making this album he took on much heavier subject matter and experimented with many different sounds (folk and blues-rock music). Therefore, this album is considered to be a “big” one.

4. Conclusion:

Thus, the term “Big Album” came from Keith Altham who used it in 1972 to describe albums that have a variety of styles of music and are different from a normal pop rock music album. 

Though using this form of words may not be very common nowadays, as noted in the previous section, people still sometimes use the term “big album” when describing an album that has been released by a popular artist or band. 

For example, in a music review on an album by a popular artist, the term “big album” may be used to describe how the songs on the album are different to the artist’s previous albums. In this case, the term “big album” is used to describe an album that has a variety of different songs on it.