Body of Work: How the Album Outplayed the Algorithm and Survived the Song Economy

An alternative history of the album, focussing on the format’s turbulent life through the digital music era since 1999 through to today, Body of Work explores why we should still bother to listen to music in 40 minute chunks.

Since 1999, the album has been declared dead more times than we can count--yet it refuses to disappear. Body of Work traces its turbulent journey through the digital era and asks why listening in forty-minute chunks still matters.

Weaving insider accounts with cultural history and personal reflection Jopling tells the story of the album’s unlikely survival. From bloated CD culture to Napster’s atomization, from Apple’s unbundling to Spotify’s shuffle wars (and Adele’s famous intervention), the album has not only endured, it has re-emerged stronger than ever.

Body of Work makes the case that the album remains the perfect vessel for the art of song--the format every artist aspires to, even after decades of digital disruption. As producer and artist Jack Antonoff (Bleachers) put it: ＂the album is God.＂ It is the defining artform of popular music, and it always will be.

Jopling has worked for Sony Music, Spotify and EMI, and UK and global music trade associations. He has lectured at Henley Business School, NYU, BIMM, ACM, Belmont, Syracuse, Westminster and the University of Krems, Austria. He started the music podcast The Art of Longevity in 2021 and recently produced a documentary episode based on his in-depth podcast interviews with renowned musicians.