A remix album is an album consisting of

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

es or rerecorded versions of an artist's earlier released material. The first act who employed the format was American singer-songwriter

Harry Nilsson Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 – January 15, 1994), sometimes credited as Nilsson, was an American singer-songwriter who reached the peak of his success in the early 1970s. His work is characterized by pioneering vocal overdub experi ...

('' Aerial Pandemonium Ballet'', 1971). As of 2007, the best-selling remix album of all time is

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

's '' Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix'' (1997).

History and concept

'' Aerial Pandemonium Ballet'' (1971) by

is credited as the first remix album. It was released after the successes of " Everybody's Talkin'" and '' The Point!'', when he decided that his older material had started to sound dated.

Neu! Neu! (; German for "New!"; styled in block capitals) were a West German krautrock band formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother following their departure from Kraftwerk. The group's albums were produced by Conny Plank, w ...

's ''

Neu! 2 ''Neu! 2'' is the second studio album by the krautrock band Neu!. It was recorded in January 1973 and mixed in February 1973, both at Windrose-Dumont-Time Studios in Hamburg, West Germany, and released in 1973 by Brain Records. It was reissu ...

'' (1973) has also been described as "in effect the first remix album", as many tracks see the duo "speed up, slow down, cut, doctor, and mutilate the material, sometimes beyond recognition". In the 1980s, record companies would combine several kinds of

electronic dance music Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...

, such as

dance-pop Dance-pop is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit ra ...

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

, and

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

into full-length albums, creating a relatively low-overhead addition to the catalogs and balance sheets.

Soft Cell Soft Cell are an English synth-pop duo who came to prominence in the early 1980s. The duo consists of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball (electronic musician), David Ball. The band are primarily known for their 1981 hit versio ...

's '' Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing'' (1982) and

The Human League The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic music, electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their t ...

's ''

Love and Dancing ''Love and Dancing'' is a remix album by English synth-pop band The Human League, released in July 1982 by Virgin Records. Issued under the band name "The League Unlimited Orchestra" as a nod to Barry White's disco-era Love Unlimited Orchestra, ...

'' (1982) are credited for inventing the modern remix album. Since this time, this kind of release is not only seen as an easy cash-in for an artist and their label, but also as an opportunity to provide a second lease of life for a record. In

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

music, it is very common for a whole album to be remixed in a dub style.Dub: soundscapes and shattered songs in Jamaican reggae, p.2 Jennifer Lopez's album ''

J to tha L–O! The Remixes ''J to tha L–O! The Remixes'' is a remix album by American singer Jennifer Lopez, released February 1, 2002 by Epic Records. It contains remixes from Lopez's first two studio albums: '' On the 6'' (1999) and '' J.Lo'' (2001). It features artis ...

'' (2002) is listed in the ''Guinness Book of World Records'' as the first remix album to debut at No.1 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart.

List of best-selling remix albums

Notes

References

{{Lists of best-selling albums Album types

History and concept

List of best-selling remix albums

See also

Notes

References