Great Question: Are Video Games the New Concept Albums?

It's hard to imagine where rock might be today were it not for Sgt. Pepper, The Wall and American Idiot. But with more and more music fans demanded a la carte choice in their music (i.e. song-by-song instead of full albums), whither the fate of the traditional concept album?

Maybe it's time for a full re-think of the whole idea.  Who says that complex musical narratives that stretch out over many songs have to be confined to an album?  Who's to say that this kind of project might not be better off as part of a video game?

Take the case of Health, the great noise-rock band from LA. They were commissioned to create the soundtrack for This prompted one columnist to wonder if video games aren't the new concept albums.