Remix Album

A remix album is an album consisting mostly of remixes or re-recorded versions of a music artists' earlier released material.

One of the earliest remix albums was 1971's Aerial Pandemonium Ballet by Harry Nilsson, which was released by Nilsson after the successes of Everybody's Talkin and The Point! after he decided that his older material had started to sound dated. The best-selling remix album of all time is Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix by Michael Jackson released by Epic in 1997.

Sly & The Family Stone's 1979 release 10 Years Too Soon featured disco remixes of the 1960s Family Stone hits. Then, in 1982, Soft Cell's Non-stop Ecstatic Dancing, which contained the track "A Man Could Get Lost," notable as one of the precursors to house music, was released. A month after the Soft Cell album, The Human League's Love and Dancing was released, and just under a year later Imagination's Nightdubbing was released.

The format was later popularized by the Pet Shop Boys' 1986 release Disco, and then the bandwagon was jumped on further by popular artists such as Madonna with her 1987 EP You Can Dance and in 1990 by Paula Abdul's Shut Up and Dance.

Although they had existed for years, remix albums still eluded mainstream acceptance. That would all change in recent years with releases from many popular artists who have taken advantage of the format of the remix album (including Jennifer Lopez, whose 2002 remix album J to tha L-O!: The Remixes was the first remix album to ever debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart). British band Bloc Party have released remix albums for two of their three studio albums to date (Silent Alarm and Intimacy) which have the same track listing as the studio album, but the remix instead of the original (e.g. on "Intimacy Remixed", track 6 on the original is 'Signs' whist on the remix album track 6 is 'Signs (Armand Van Helden Remix)', etc.)

Also, one of better known remix albums is Linkin Park's Reanimation released in 2002. It contains remixes of their mega-successful debut album Hybrid Theory as well as remixes of some older songs and B-sides. It sold about 2 million copies world wide and was certified platinum by the RIAA.

In the world of reggae music, it is not uncommon for a whole album to be remixed in a dub style. Examples include UB40's Present Arms in Dub (remixed by the band), Massive Attack's No Protection (Protection remixed by the Mad Professor), and Gorillaz's Laika Come Home (remixed by the Space Monkeyz).

In the modern day music business, it is not uncommon for a remix album to be released in lieu of a re-release when an album's performance does not meet expectations. Rihanna's Rated R and Snoop Dogg's Malice N Wonderland will all see a remix album release following lackluster sales.