The compilation is a collection, a compendium of the best artistic productions of an author or a musical interpreter, that someone, the same artist or author, or a third party, decides to bring together and thus generate a new production that will precisely have the most successful works or songs by the artist in question. So the most common compilations are made of books, of records.
Generally, these types of compiled products generate enormous interest from fans of the artist since they find, for example, the most popular themes of an artist. Even many people prefer to buy these types of products where the best and most successful of someone's career come together.
In the specific case of music, discs of this type are called compilation albums and so they are usually recognized in the industry regardless of having a title. Almost all bands or musical groups have a compilation album or greatest hits album in their discographies, as they are often called.
In addition to the greatest hits of a musical artist, compilation albums can collect the best songs but from several artists who share a musical genre.
And as we well pointed out, in the literary field, it is also common to find this type of productions in which various pieces or parts of the works of various authors are collected.
In recent times, there has also been a foray into the compilation of journalistic material, for example, editorials or columns of journalists or personalities that are periodically published in a newspaper and that of course have a faithful following of readers, usually meet in books Specials that collect them and thus allow followers to have them gathered in a single text.
And also the concept is used many times as a synonym for others such as being summary and compendium. The compendium is a very brief but precise compilation of topics that relate to or pertain to an area or discipline.
