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

The first remix album ever was Aerial Pandemonium Ballet , by Harry Nilsson , published in 1971.

The next Remix Album didn't appear until 1982 with Soft Cell's release, Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing, (containing the track "A Man Could Get Lost" which is notable as one of the precursors to house music). 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 popularised by the Pet Shop Boys' 1986 release, Disco, and then the band-wagon 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.

Since the format was popularised in the late 80s and early 90s, remix albums have become a way of cashing-in on an artist's popularity, taking advantage of an artists existing fanbase, and often by collecting already released remixes (available on another format such as singles and rushing out a remix album to capitalise on the popularity of a performer, during a lull in their album releases, whilst touring, or to further prolong/exploit the popularity of a successful album). Remix albums such as Linkin Park's Reanimation, Daft Punk's Daft Club and Falling Up's Exit Lights, among others, have been criticized as mere appetizers for devoted fans, and lacking true substance and/or integrity. However, there are some artists that see the remix album as an art form, such as Nine Inch Nails on their album Further Down the Spiral, which contain remixes of The Downward Spiral.

Although they had existed for years, remix albums still eluded a sense of mainstream acceptance. That would all change in recent years with releases from acts such as Ashanti, Destiny's Child, Mariah Carey, Jermaine Dupri, P. Diddy,Faith Evans,Deborah Cox,Janet Jackson,Mary J. Blige, Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears, and 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, have all taken advantage of the format.