---
title: "Concept Albums and Blogs"
date: 2005-03-24
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2005"
    url: "/tag/2005.md"
---

# Concept Albums and Blogs

At the risk of going off-topic, I’m currently deeply into IMHO the best album I’ve heard in years – Green Day’s [American Idiot](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063145/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Idiot). It’s a [concept album](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063145/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept_album) and I often wonder how such a thing could be done in blogging. It’s common wisdom that a focused blog is the best way to gain a following in the ‘sphere. But I reckon bloggers could complement their chosen topic by producing concept-driven ‘blog albums’ from time to time. I wrote about this a year and a half ago, in [a post comparing blogs to albums](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063145/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/001720.php). While my position has changed on a couple of points in that Sept 2003 post, this extract illustrates what I mean:

*“…in the tech blogging world, [Don Park](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063145/http://www.docuverse.com/blog/donpark/) has recently written an album full of posts about Wikis, [Dave Winer](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063145/http://www.scripting.com/) is in the midst of recording his thoughts on political blogs, Jon Udell has written a variety of classics on topics such as [Universal Canvas](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063145/http://udell.roninhouse.com/bytecols/2001-06-06.html). There are even the blogging equivalent of Unplugged albums – check out Mark Pilgrim’s [These Days](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063145/http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/09/09/these_days).”*

While I encourage ambitious bloggers to be topic-focused, variety is the spice of life. An excellent way to keep things interesting is to explore a different concept every week or month (or whatever time period suits you). I have to keep reminding myself of this too. As I said in the Sept 03 post:

*“Perhaps I’ll start writing weblog “albums” – there’ll be about 10 posts per album and each album will have a different unifying theme.”*

Hmmm. I have some ideas about how to do this in my Web 2.0-focused blog. Stay tuned 😉

bonus link: [Wikipedia list of concept albums](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063145/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_concept_albums). Includes this description of the Green Day album: “A Bay Area suburbanite named Jesus of Suburbia flees his broken home to experience city life, transforming into the rebellious St. Jimmy. Notable as a punk rock opera.” More [here](https://web.archive.org/web/20060508063145/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Idiot) (I heart Wikipedia).

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/concept_albums.php))*