History Main / AlbumFiller

However, album filler was still unavoidable, and every now and then there'd be one or two clunkers thrown in to keep the album at a certain minimum length. Double albums were especially prone to this, due to the sheer amount of work required for two [=LPs=] of material resulting in many of these four-sided projects being littered with filler in order to justify releasing it on two discs. Album filler also became an increasing problem when the CD overtook the LP as the dominant physical medium for popular music; because a CD can store 22-28 more minutes of audio than a 12" LP, artists and record companies began to feel as if they were obligated to use as much of this extra space as possible, especially in the US, where the concurrent decline of physical singles forced artists to rely more on album royalties (which are paid per song). Thus, many albums released between 1987 and 2007 would feature well over an hour of music, typically divided among at least 12 different tracks, a good number of which inevitably tended to be filler.

One can hope that due to the advancement of digital sales (e.g. iTunes) and the revival of the LP as the premier physical format can the slow ebbing of the album as the unit of music sales, and that creators of the near future could, if they wish, concentrate on putting out quality songs again rather than having to pad out an album. On the other hand, the even lower royalty rates of streaming services like Spotify seem to be swinging the pendulum back toward album filler as artists make long albums stuffed with mediocre tracks to maximize profit on these platforms.

* Music/{{Eminem}}'s CreatorBacklash against ''Encore'' was in part due to a leak during development forcing him to write filler tracks on very short notice to replace the leaked songs - "We As Americans", "Ricky Ticky Tock", "Love You More" (all dark and serious songs in line with the tone of ''Music/TheEminemShow'') and one other (most likely the Swift/Kon Artis/Kuniva feature "Come On In", but possibly "Monkey See, Monkey Do"). Due to only having a couple of days to do it, the replacement songs ("Rain Man", "Big Weenie", then two other unconfirmed songs, most likely "My 1st Single" and "Puke", but possibly "Ass Like That") all ended up as comedy songs with lurching, stream-of-consciousness flows that were mostly written as freestyles. "Just Lose It" was then added to be the [[BlackSheepHit comedy hit single]], and enjoyed some decent success, but the tracklist changes had the effect of unbalancing the album from being one with a mixture of brooding and funny songs into a ToiletHumor-based novelty album with a few weirdly serious songs on it. [[note]]It should be noted that "Evil Deeds" and "Mosh" also show evidence of being written in a hurry/essentially freestyled, sharing the [[AccentOnTheWrongSyllable wonky, tortured]] flows of the last-minute material, so either could also be a candidate for the filler songs - but it's not likely. Eminem held that the replacement songs were all goofy and stupid comedy songs; "Evil Deeds" is [[SelfDeprecation self-abasing]] and, at most, [[SelfParody wryly comedic]], and "Mosh" is a serious ProtestSong. "Mosh", in particular, is well-regarded by hip-hop fans, and was released as a minor single with a low-budget music video - so it's not like it was ''always'' bad for Eminem to write songs in less than 25 minutes.[[/note]]

* '''HiddenTrack''': Most hidden tracks tend to be pointless too. They are muffled away somewhere at the start or the end of an album. Some artists leave several minutes of silence between tracks before you finally get to the hidden track, with the silence and hidden track being ''part of'' the last officially-listed track. Either way, you always have to fast-forward to find it, an especially big problem if the hidden track is included on an LP or cassette release (not so much on a CD or digital release, as these formats don't wear out from repeated playback). These can also be hangovers from hidden jokes on the original vinyl album, which made sense and worked in the vinyl format but aren't so great on CD. An example might be the message in the run-out groove on ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand''-- works beautifully on the original vinyl (where it repeats forever until the listener manually lifts the needle off the record), a BigLippedAlligatorMoment on the CD version (where it repeats a few times before fading out).

One can hope that due to the advancement of digital sales (e.g. iTunes), the revival of the LP as the premier physical format, cand the slow ebbing of the album as the unit of music sales, that creators of the near future could, if they wish, concentrate on putting out quality songs again rather than having to pad out an album. On the other hand, the even lower royalty rates of streaming services like Spotify seem to be swinging the pendulum back toward album filler as artists make long albums stuffed with mediocre tracks to maximize profit on these platforms.

* Music/{{Eminem}}'s CreatorBacklash against ''Encore'' was in part due to a leak during development forcing him to write filler tracks on very short notice to replace the leaked songs - "We As Americans", "Ricky Ticky Tock", "Love You More" (all dark and serious songs in line with the tone of ''Music/TheEminemShow'') and one other (most likely the Swift/Kon Artis/Kuniva feature "Come On In", but possibly "Monkey See, Monkey Do"). Due to only having a couple of days to do it, the replacement songs ("Rain Man", "Big Weenie", then two other unconfirmed songs, most likely "My 1st Single" and "Puke", but possibly "Ass Like That") all ended up as comedy songs with lurching, stream-of-consciousness flows that were mostly written as freestyles. "Just Lose It" was then added to be the [[BlackSheepHit comedy hit single]], and enjoyed some decent success, but the tracklist changes had the effect of unbalancing the album from being one with a mixture of brooding and funny songs into a ToiletHumor-based novelty album with a few weirdly serious songs on it. [[note]]It should be noted that "Evil Deeds" and "Mosh" also show evidence of being written in a hurry/essentially freestyled, sharing the [[AccentOnTheWrongSyllable wonky, tortured]] flows of the last-minute material, so either could also be a candidate for the filler songs - but it's not likely. Eminem held that the replacement songs were all goofy and stupid comedy songs; "Evil Deeds" is [[SelfParody wryly comedic]] at best, and "Mosh" is a serious ProtestSong. "Mosh", in particular, is well-regarded by hip-hop fans, and was released as a minor single with a low-budget music video - so it's not like it was ''always'' bad for Eminem to write songs in less than 25 minutes.[[/note]]

* Music/{{Eminem}}'s CreatorBacklash against ''Encore'' was in part due to a leak during development forcing him to write filler tracks on very short notice to replace the leaked songs - "We As Americans", "Ricky Ticky Tock", "Love You More" (all dark and serious songs in line with the tone of ''Music/TheEminemShow'') and one other (most likely the Swift/Kon Artis/Kuniva feature "Come On In", but possibly "Monkey See, Monkey Do"). Due to only having a couple of days to do it, the replacement songs ("Rain Man", "Big Weenie", then two other unconfirmed songs, most likely "My 1st Single" and "Puke") were goofy comedy songs with strange stream-of-consciousness flows. While "Just Lose It" was a decent-sized hit single, the tracklist changes had the effect of unbalancing the album from being one with a mixture of brooding and funny songs into a ToiletHumor-based novelty album with a few weirdly serious songs on it.

* Music/{{Eminem}}'s CreatorBacklash against ''Encore'' was in part due to a leak during development forcing him to write filler tracks on very short notice to replace the leaked songs - "We As Americans", "Ricky Ticky Tock", "Love You More" (all dark and serious songs in line with the tone of ''Music/TheEminemShow'') and one other (most likely the Swift/Kon Artis/Kuniva feature "Come On In", but possibly "Monkey See, Monkey Do"). Due to only having a couple of days to do it, the replacement songs ("Rain Man", "Big Weenie", "Just Lose It" and an unknown fourth track, likely "My 1st Single" or "Puke" but possibly "Evil Deeds") ended up as goofy comedy songs with strange stream-of-consciousness flows. While "Just Lose It" was a decent-sized hit single, the tracklist changes had the effect of unbalancing the album from being one with a mixture of brooding and funny songs into a ToiletHumor-based novelty album with a few weirdly serious songs on it.
** "My 1st Single", an ''Encore'' song usually speculated to be one of the last-minute replacement tracks, is a DeconstructiveParody of album filler, presenting it as the result of Eminem trying to write a great lead single in the vein of his work on ''The Eminem Show'' and not being able to replicate it [[FailureHero because he screws up everything he touches]].

* Music/{{Eminem}}'s CreatorBacklash against ''Encore'' was in part due to a leak during development forcing him to write filler tracks on very short notice to replace the leaked songs - "We As Americans", "Ricky Ticky Tock", "Love You More" (all dark and serious songs in line with the tone of ''Music/TheEminemShow'') and one other (most likely the Swift/Kon Artis/Kuniva feature "Come On In", but possibly "Monkey See, Monkey Do"). Due to only having a couple of days to do it, the replacement songs ("Rain Man", "Big Weenie", "Just Lose It" and an unknown fourth track, likely "My 1st Single" or "Puke") ended up as goofy comedy songs. While "Just Lose It" was a decent-sized hit single, the tracklist changes had the effect of unbalancing the album from being one with a mixture of brooding and funny songs into a ToiletHumor-based novelty album with a few weirdly serious songs on it.

* Music/{{Eminem}}'s CreatorBacklash against ''Encore'' was in part due to a leak during development forcing him to write filler tracks on very short notice to replace the leaked songs - "We As Americans", "Ricky Ticky Tock", "Love You More" (all dark and serious songs in line with the tone of ''Music/TheEminemShow'') and one other (most likely the Swift/Kon Artis/Kuniva feature "Come On In", but possibly "Monkey See, Monkey Do"). Due to only having a couple of days to do it, the replacement songs ("Rain Man", "Big Weenie", "Just Lose It" and an unknown fourth track, likely "My 1st Single" or "Puke") ended up as goofy comedy songs. While "Just Lose It" was a decent-sized hit single, it had the effect of unbalancing the album from one with a mixture of brooding and funny songs into a ToiletHumor-based novelty album with a few weirdly serious songs on it.

* Music/{{Eminem}}'s CreatorBacklash against ''Encore'' was in part due to a leak during development forcing him to write filler tracks on very short notice to replace the leaked songs - "We As Americans" and "Ricky Ticky Tock", both of which are dark and serious songs. Due to only having a couple of days to do it, the replacement songs ("Rain Man" and "Big Weenie") both ended up as goofy comedy songs, and while both are now cult favourites, it had the effect of unbalancing the album from one with a mixture of brooding and funny songs into a blatant novelty album.
** "My 1st Single", also on ''Encore'', is a DeconstructiveParody of album filler, presenting it as the result of Eminem trying to write a great comedy lead single in the vein of "The Real Slim Shady" and not being able to replicate it due to his failings as an artist.

One can hope that due to the advancement of digital sales (e.g. iTunes) and the slow ebbing of the album as the unit of music sales, that creators of the near future could, if they wish, concentrate on putting out quality songs again rather than having to pad out an album. On the other hand, the even lower royalty rates of streaming services like Spotify seem to be swinging the pendulum back toward album filler as artists make long albums stuffed with mediocre tracks to maximize profit on these platforms.

** Several episodes of ''Trainwreckords'' comment on how prominent this trope became from the 1990's onward, with several featured albums including a number of artistically redundant tracks that only serve to use as much CD space as possible. Todd reserves particular ire for the repetitive, ''nine and a half-minute'' [[Music/BeHereNow "All Around the World"]] by Music/{{Oasis}} and "Purify" by Music/{{Metallica}} (incidentally, both songs' parent albums are 70-something minutes long). He outright refuses to cover the entirety of Music/MCHammer's ''The Funky Headhunter'' because of this trope.

** In his ''Trainwreckords'' video for Arrested Development's ''Zingalamaduni'', he notes how prominent this trope was becoming throughout the 1990's, with this particular album featuring a number of artistically redundant tracks that only seemed to be there to pad out the 54:25 CD (and even then, it's still considerably shorter than the 61:08 runtime of their debut album). He had also alluded to this trope earlier in his video on ''Music/BeHereNow'' by Music/{{Oasis}}, noting that album's high amount of [[EpicRocking unnecessarily long]] tracks that only serve to take up CD space and realistically ought to have been cut down considerably, reserving the greatest amount of ire for the ''nine and a half-minute'' "All Around the World", which tries to justify its runtime by simply repeating itself ad infinitum.

However, album filler was still unavoidable, and every now and then there'd be one or two clunkers thrown in to keep the album at a certain minimum length. Double albums were especially prone to this, due to the sheer amount of work required for two [=LPs=] of material resulting in many of these four-sided projects being littered with filler in order to justify releasing it on two discs. Album filler also became an increasing problem when the CD overtook the LP as the dominant physical medium for popular music; because a CD can store 22-28 more minutes of audio than a 12" LP, artists and record companies began to feel as if they were obligated to use as much of this extra space as possible. Thus, many albums released between 1987 and 2007 would feature well over an hour of music, typically divided among at least 12 different tracks, a good number of which inevitably tended to be filler.

One can hope that due to the advancement of digital sales (e.g. iTunes) and the slow ebbing of the album as the unit of music sales, that creators of the near future could, if they wish, concentrate on putting out quality songs again rather than having to pad out an album. On the other hand, the low royalty rates of streaming services like Spotify seem to be swinging the pendulum back toward album filler as artists make long albums stuffed with mediocre tracks to maximize profit on these platforms.

* '''Interludes''': Some artists like to announce the next track every time the previous one ended. Others put sketches or skits there. If the interludes happen too much or are unfunny or pointless they will destroy the listening pleasure.

When groups like Music/TheBeatles came about and revolutionized the industry with records like ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'', which began a trend of bands putting out albums that made a unified musical statement, this policy took a bit of a backseat (although most bands still had to produce at least some filler to keep up with contractual demands). The ConceptAlbum started to become popular and rock music was mostly "album-oriented" throughout TheSeventies (some bands, like Music/LedZeppelin, even did their best to avoid releasing any singles at all). It seems to be coming back in some sectors. Bands that release an album every one to two years are particularly guilty of this-- it's almost unavoidable when they crank out hit singles to engage in pervasive airplay.

* '''Bonus tracks''': Songs tacked onto an album, usually at the very end, to encourage consumers to buy that particular version of it. Often these tracks consist of non-album B-sides or singles, promotional songs (which may range from a song composed for a movie or a TV show to a new song or two in a compilation album), remixes/extended versions of hit singles (the latter being particularly common with certain releases of 80's albums), or live recordings (the reverse may happen if it's a live album, with the bonus song consisting of an all-new studio track). While bonus tracks can be pretty nice additions if implemented properly (i.e. including unique, enjoyable songs that can breathe new life into the base album), most of the time they just break up the flow of an album and drag it out to the point of apathy.

-->'''Todd (as Monahan):''' Hmm, what rhymes with rug? Drug... Thug? Would a line that uses the word thug make sense here? ''Pfft'', whatever. I mean, who cares? I'm the guy from Music/{{Train}}! I haven't had a hit in seven years and am ''long'' past the point of caring on this one. I'm just doing this because I need to fill the album somehow. [[TemptingFate It's not like I'm ever gonna have to perform this.]] [[WhoWouldBeStupidEnough The record company wouldn't be stupid enough to release this,]] and even if they did, [[LowestCommonDenominator no one would want to listen to it.]] I might as well sing it like I'm doing a Minnie Mouse impression too! I mean, 'cause ''who cares?'' So, you know what? We owe the record company three more songs according to our contract, so let's just can this turd, and we can forget about it forev-

** In his ''Trainwreckords'' video for Arrested Development's ''Zingalamaduni'', he notes how prominent this trope was becoming throughout the 1990's, with this particular album featuring a number of artistically redundant tracks that only seemed to be there to pad out the CD. He had also alluded to this trope earlier in his video on ''Music/BeHereNow'' by Music/{{Oasis}}, noting that album's high amount of unnecessarily long tracks that only serve to take up CD space and realistically ought to have been cut down considerably.

* '''Bonus tracks''': Songs tacked onto an album, usually at the very end, to encourage consumers to buy that particular version of it. Often these tracks consist of non-album B-sides, remixes/extended versions of hit singles (the latter being particularly common with certain releases of 80's albums), or live recordings. While bonus tracks can be pretty nice additions if implemented properly (i.e. including unique, enjoyable songs that can breathe new life into the base album), most of the time they just break up the flow of an album and drag it out to the point of apathy.

* WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows hypothesizes that Music/{{Train}}'s "Hey, Soul Sister", its bizarre lyricism in particular, is the result of a burned out Pat Monahan throwing the first thing that came to his head on paper in order to fulfill his contract, certain that it would never even make it to radio.

[[caption-width-right:349:[[FridgeLogic ...wait]], why is there a side two ''on a CD''? [[labelnote:Answer]][[FridgeBrilliance That's to make it applicable to an LP]] -- [[WhatAreRecords a what?]] [[PopularityPolynomial Oh, you mean]] ''[[InsistentTerminology a record]]''![[/labelnote]]]]

* '''ListSong''': Songs that just summarize a bunch of stuff can get this critique too. Even worse are tracks where he just provides [[WriteWhoYouKnow shout-outs to people he knows]] or by having all those people actually take turns saying something in the microphone! Why not print a list in the sleevenotes?

* '''Outdated songs''': Songs written for a very specific occasion or event in time, with even the exact date attached to it. Let's face it: you lose your timelessness when you write a song about the upcoming Olympic Games, a bicentennial, the new millennium, or the 10 year existence of your band, and specifically name dates. Cashing in on a fad will also make your song an UnintentionalPeriodPiece that will diminish its chances of clicking in with future generations. Sometimes it can produce NostalgiaFilter, but not always.
* '''Overly long tracks''': Since most songs are about three to five minutes long, [[EpicRocking a particularly long track]] can sometimes get on the nerves of the listener. Guitar solos that just go on, endless jams, entire stories told in one track, unnecessary [[CelebrityCameo celebrity cameos]], continuous [[FakeOutFadeOut fade ins and fade outs]], etc.
** OverlyLongGag: A subtrope. Any joke that just goes on and on should have a real good pay off or be funny in its own way, or otherwise this is again a waste of space for something that won't be relistened to more than once.

* '''Spoken word tracks''': Adding huge chunks of monologue or dialogue without musical accompaniment will always get irritating after a minute or so. Reciting a poem, reading from a novel, adding audio soundbites from a movie, StudioChatter or just [[LeaveTheCameraRunning keeping the recording rolling]]... will get about as irritating as hearing the same advertisement message again and again.

[[caption-width-right:349:[[FridgeLogic ...wait]], why is there a side two ''on a CD''? [[labelnote:Answer]][[FridgeBrilliance That's to make it applicable to an LP]] -- [[WhatAreRecords a what?]] [[PopularityPolynomial Oh, you mean]] ''[[InsistentTerminology vinyl]]''![[/labelnote]]]]

* '''AWildRapperAppears''': Since the late 1980's, a trend has emerged in pop songs of featuring rap artists laying down some rhymes over the bridge or for a whole verse, which has the potential of seriously derailing a song. Few rappers are adept at seamlessly integrating their lyrics to that of a pop song, so oftentimes the rapped portion ends up ruining the nuance of the song, making no sense in context of the song, or in the worst cases, making no sense whatsoever. The rapped vocals may also be difficult to decipher, and the vocal style of the rapper can jar the enjoyment of listeners. In many cases it's clear that the main artist just wanted to give one of his friends some media attention.

When groups like Music/TheBeatles came about and revolutionized the industry with records like ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'', which began a trend of bands putting out albums that made a unified musical statement, this policy took a bit of a backseat (although most bands still had to produce at least some filler to keep up with contractual demands). The ConceptAlbum started to become popular and rock music was mostly "album-oriented" throughout TheSeventies (some bands, like Music/LedZeppelin, even did their best to avoid releasing any singles at all). It seems to be coming back in some sectors. Bands that release an album every one to two years are particularly guilty of this- it's almost unavoidable when they crank out hit singles to engage in pervasive airplay.

One can hope that due to the advancement of digital sales (e.g. iTunes) and the slow ebbing of the album as the unit of music sales, that creators of the near future could, if they wish, concentrate on putting out quality songs again rather than having to pad out an album. On the other hand, the low royalty rates of streaming services like Spotify seem to be swinging the pendulum back toward album filler as artists make long albums stuffed with mediocre tracks to make money on these platforms.

* '''[[CoverVersion Cover Versions]]''': Particularly common on country albums prior to about the mid-1970s, this was simply artists covering pop or country standards, songs that were major hits for other artists and so forth. These cover versions have ranged from "why didn't that become the hit?" to "why did he/she/they even bother to record it?" This was more common in an era where an album usually had only one or two songs worthy of being released as singles, and especially when artists who had become proven hit makers with staying power potential recorded and released new albums every year. Those covers are more likely to be seen as lazy filler if the artists are known for writing their own material, since it can be seen as them running out of ideas and being desperate for anything to fill out the album, especially if it fits the "why did they bother?" category.

* '''Remixes''': This has been a plague since the end of the 1980's. With the arrival of the CD, musicians now had more space on their records that they felt needed to be filled up, and remixing some of the hit songs was usually the solution of choice. Most of the time they are just novelties that don't surpass the original at all.

A side-effect of this was the tendency of bands with [[EpicRocking long songs]], such as Music/BlackSabbath and Music/KingCrimson, to add "subtitles" for different sections of the songs, in order to make it seem like there were more songs and [[MoneyDearBoy they would be paid full royalties]]. (This happened to Music/TheMarsVolta too, who were told that for the original version of ''Amputechture'' they'd only be paid for an EP despite its length, so they were forced to add "subsections" and split songs apart to get full royalties.)

* '''HiddenTrack''': Most hidden tracks tend to be pointless too. They are muffled away somewhere at the start or the end of an album. Some artists leave several minutes of silence between tracks before you finally get to the hidden track, with the silence and hidden track being ''part of'' the last officially-listed track. Either way, you always have to fast-forward to find it. These can also be hangovers from hidden jokes on the original vinyl album, which made sense and worked in the vinyl format but aren't so great on CD. An example might be the message in the run-out groove on ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand''-- works beautifully on the original vinyl (where it repeats forever until the listener manually lifts the needle off the record), a BigLippedAlligatorMoment on the CD version (where it repeats a few times before fading out).

* '''HiddenTrack''': Most hidden tracks tend to be pointless too. They are muffled away somewhere at the start or the end of an album. Some artists leave several minutes of silence between tracks before you finally get to the hidden track. So you always have to skip and wear out your CD to find it. [[note]]Or these can be hangovers from hidden jokes on the original vinyl album, which made sense and worked in the vinyl format but aren't so great on CD. An example might be the message in the run-out groove on ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' -- works beautifully on the original vinyl (where it repeats forever until the listener manually lifts the needle off the record), a "WTF?" moment on the CD version (where it repeats a few times before fading out).[[/note]]

* '''OdeToIntoxication''': A song recorded while being drunk or high is always embarassing torture to listen to.
* '''Outdated songs''': Songs written for a very specific occasion or event in time, with even the exact date attached to it. Let's face it: you lose your timelessness when you write a song about the upcoming Olympic Games, a bicentennial, the new millennium or the 10 year existence of your band and specifically name dates. Cashing in on a fad will also make your song an UnintentionalPeriodPiece that will diminish its chances of clicking in with future generations. Sometimes it can produce NostalgiaFilter, but not always.
* '''Overly long tracks''': Since most songs are about three to five minutes long a particularly long track can sometimes get on the nerves of the listener. Guitar solos that just go on, endless jams, entire stories told in one track, unnecessary [[CelebrityCameo celebrity cameos]], continuous [[FakeOutFadeOut fade ins and fade outs]], ...

* '''Overly short tracks''': Despite having the advantage of being short even these tracks can be album filler. What is the point of having several tracks of about less than 10 or 20 seconds long?

* '''Remixes''': This has been a plague since the end of the 1980s. With the arrival of the CD musicians now had more space on their records that needed to be filled up. Remixing some of the hit songs is usually the solution. Most of the time they are just novelties that don't surpass the original at all.

* '''ThrowItIn''': A bizarre editing mistake, a song done in one take, an unused leftover from a previous album, an early and uninteresting take of a hit song, some musical experimentation, clowning around,... All stuff that was supposed to end up in the garbage can, but is now thrown on an album.
* '''AWildRapperAppears''': Since the 1990s, a trend has emerged in pop songs of featuring rap artists laying down some rhymes over the bridge or for a whole verse, which has the potential of seriously derailing a song. Few rappers are adept at seamlessly integrating their lyrics to that of a pop song, so oftentimes the rapped portion ends up ruining the nuance of the song, making no sense in context of the song, or in the worst cases, making no sense whatsoever. The rapped vocals may also be difficult to decipher, and the vocal style of the rapper can jar the enjoyment of listeners. In many cases it's clear that the main artist just wanted to give one of his friends some media attention.