New Music is Falling in Popularity in the US

Public playlists and customized playlists are two different things and only one involves the algorithms I’m talking about. I work in this industry, mate, I know of what I speak. You have a nice evening, now.

 

Got to #127 before I found one I knew "Bohemian Rhapsody," which I always found to be torture. No exaggeration - torture. Just the mention of that song irritates me.

 

What people listen to is not necessarily the same as what music they buy. I suspect one important factor in the alleged fall in popularity of new music is that much of it is downloaded through non-commercial channels (illegally) and traded around. This can affect sales of old music as well but there is no reason to assume this is at the same rate. Older people may be more likely to buy a CD or LP rather than download either legally or illegally.

If the cutoff point between old and new is 18 months, then there's a heck of a lot more old music out there than new.

 

This is the elephant in the room.

 

If we had been monitoring the private use of recorded media in decades past we would probably find that most people have long listened more to music from over 2 years ago than music released that very year.

 

I think the best answer is, comparing the differences between the metrics used today, and those that might have been used in the past, such as years when radio formats were not quite so segmented, and platforms that you chose by your preference, were not as readily prevalent. In other words, comparing what hits the charts in 2022 as opposed to what hits the charts in years when a top-40 or other mass-music formats were actually the number one destination of the casual user.

By only referring to today's metrics without allowing for the reasons for the differences, the article is a conclusion based on a clickbait title. It's comparing apples and orangutans, and saying people prefer eating apples.

I don't doubt the sources of the information, only that, one wonders what the numbers might have been in the 1970s if there had been XM/Sirius-level formatic choices...or, if we had a Spotify-caliber personalized delivery platform in the '90s.

 

It's hard to complete with social media & video games.

 

That's a great point.

 

Actually I think there was already a thread about this exact same article just a couple of days ago. Don’t know where it went.

 

I don’t think Harry Styles sucks. But he isn’t as good as older artists that did his style of music even better. And he is one of the better new artists that gets some push and promotion. For sure there are really talented and interesting newer artists creating new music, but the industry has changed so much there aren’t the mechanisms to break talented artists. Even Styles would not have got the media and record company push that he did if he hadn’t been in One Direction.

 

Oh man is that amazing.

 

I don't think good new music is falling in popularity at all. Youtube alone shows that's not true.

 

I certainly love and respect the music of my youth. And there will always be a special place in my heart for the music of the mid-60's and 70's. Yet, each decade has added to my love of music and that includes music since 2000. The new artists and releases that I love today may not be on the "top of whatever" list but they still add to my life of love and enjoyment of music...

 

Certainly the access to the music may have changed in ways that I don't understand or am used to, but so what. If that music is reaching others hearts and soul, then wonderful. Nothing has to be the way I have known it to be or the way I might expect it to be or even want it to be. I still find wonderful revelations in new music and expect to do so until the end of my days...

 

You mean you don't think the US/UK Top 40 is all the new music on the planet?

 

That's kind of a drag.

 

In fact, this is what Billboard considers old as well for charting.

 

That metric makes sense to me for sales, but not when talking about cultural impact

 

Can music fall and shrink in popularity at the same time?

 

There it is again! "The majority" of new music sucks. That means there is a minority of good music out there. Can you name a couple of new artists that don't suck?

Better to light a candle than curse the darkness!

 

This post nails the topic. I love music; more than I love the mass love of music in my culture. I am not worried if today’s people don’t eat sleep and drink it. Nothing but nothing lasts forever in the exact same state.

 

This guy explains why he thinks new music sucks:

 

Darn kids playing all that racket. It ain’t like it used to be.

 

So, teams of writers writing for multiple artists, preset banks of instrumentation sounds and effects used on every record, booming bass, no space in the recordings, over-compression and distortion. Sounds like 60's Motown.

At the start his list of "good ole" records is Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Metallica and the suchlike, and at the end his list of "bad" new records is Britney, Bieber and the suchlike. Lol.

 

I remember when one of his albums came out, and Spotify had his face on every single genre playlist. That was funny.