Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2013 May 2

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May 2

Universal Pulse by 311

The 311 release Universal Pulse has 8 songs and is 28:55 long. Should this release be classified as a long EP or a short full album? 108.0.244.168 (talk) 07:56, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

I would say that it should be classified according to what 311 themselves call it. If they call it an album, it's an album. Mini-LP might be better than EP, as well. But there are many, many examples of albums with running times of less than 30 mins. --Viennese Waltz 08:03, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

I referred to it as a mini-LP and categorized it as both an album and an EP because it is somwhere between the two classifications. 108.0.244.168 (talk) 08:56, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

What's stopping you from calling it an album? If it's just the running time, then that is not a valid reason, as I explained above. --Viennese Waltz 09:03, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

Nothing is. I will refer to it as an album and mini-LP. 108.0.244.168 (talk) 10:27, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

Well you can't really call it both, in my opinion. But do as you wish. --Viennese Waltz 11:19, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

According to album, "According to the rules of the UK Charts, a recording counts as an "album" if either it has more than four tracks or lasts more than 25 minutes.[17] Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as "mini-albums" or EPs.[18]".--Shantavira|^{feed me} 14:59, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

Why is Jar of Flies by Alice In Chains referred to as an EP even though it is longer than Universal Pulse? The UK charts would consider both releases to be albums. 108.0.244.168 (talk) 20:52, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

The only answer to this is that those are the labels that the companies who published the albums put on them. In the vinyl record era of recorded music, the terms "LP" and "EP" and "Single" had very precise meaning related to the actual size and speed of the media itself. There was, of course, some variation, but by-and-large during the vinyl era heydey of the 60s-80s, the "LP" was a 12-inch, 33 RPM disc that stored about 25-30 minutes of music (4-5 pop songs) on each side. An "EP" was a 7-inch, 33 RPM disc that stored about 10-12 minutes (2-3 pop songs) on each side, while a "Single" was a 7-inch, 45 RPM that stored about 5 minutes (one song) on each side. Of course, there were LOTS of other formats and combinations, but those were the main ones. Once CDs became the dominant media for recorded music, those terms lost any connection to the physical media itself because CDs come in a universal size and shape (well, almost. There are some odd balls, but mostly, CD singles, CD "EP"s, and CD "LP"s were all the exact same disc). So, whether something is an LP or an EP or a Single had nothing to do with the number of minutes or the number of songs on the disc, since the downfall of the vinyl record era. In the 1990s, the term "EP" was actually partially replaced by the term "maxi-single", which was about as long as the vinyl EP was. Today, the terms are completely meaningless, and the only thing that matters is what the publisher calls it. Don't fret over the definitions and the limits and trying to compare by saying "This thing over here is an EP and is longer than this other thing over here called an LP." That path is pointless. --Jayron32 21:32, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

Universal Pulse was released on 12-inch vinyl. EPs come in 7 10 and 12-inch versions. This 311 album could potentially fit on any of these sizes. 108.0.244.168 (talk) 21:43, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

Hence what I wrote above " There was, of course, some variation" and "Of course, there were LOTS of other formats and combinations". What I meant by that was that there was, of course, some variation and that there were lots of other formats and combinations than the ones I noted. Yet another reason to try to not figure it out yourself. Just go with what the record company calls it and be done with it. --Jayron32 21:46, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

The record ccompany calls it an album and I will call it that. 108.0.244.168 (talk) 18:37, 3 May 2013 (UTC)