Listening to the whole album through is a non-negotiable as a music listener. So why is it so important?

Firstly, it allows you to see the artist’s full story. Many musicians use an album as a median of storytelling, and not listening to the whole album can leave you missing the full story. It leaves the listener with an incomplete experience of the story. For example, on Taylor Swift’s album “Folkore,” Swift connects three songs (“Betty,” “Cardigan” and “August”). If someone doesn’t listen to all these songs, they miss the underlying story the album tells.

Listening to an album fully also allows you to connect to the artist’s vision. On a project an artist might want you to leave the listening experience with something, whether a feeling or advice or anything in between. The album should leave you with something. If you don’t listen to every track you won’t be able to take away from what the artist is sending you off with. You won’t see the vision the artist is trying to get you to see.

It can also have a negative effect on the artist. If they try to replicate the audience’s favorite songs (even if the audience hasn’t given all the musicians signs a fair chance), they could cater to a new style of music, instead of releasing something that makes their music unique and personal.

The worst thing about not listening fully to an album is missing out on songs you would like otherwise. There may be a song you would heavily like if you just gave the song a chance. You are cheating yourself out of enjoying more music that you like!

Some people might say that an album is too long to listen to in  one sitting. While that might be the case, you can always listen in increments.You don’t have to listen to all of an album in one sitting(even though it is advised), you can split it in half and listen to the other half later in the day.