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Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

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Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#31

Post by troughway »

29athrowaway wrote: post #22
swiley wrote: post #3

This would be great. The idea of “best ranked music” results in mediocre, bland music that’s mostly ranked based on the social connections of the artist. Musical culture and genres are extremely diverse and trying to rank individual pieces of music makes discovery harder. I doubt they’ll actually do this of course. Their monetization model relies on ranking.

Based on the songs being aggresively pushed by record labels, it seems that the ultimate goals of mainstream music industry are: - To glorify violence, substance abuse, disrespect of women, domination behavior, anti-intellectualism. - To reinforce racial stereotypes, including fear of minorities. - To make people superficial. Songs are an effective way to deliver a message to be repeated over and over and over again…

Upvoted because HNs groupthink downvoting is a festering pile of shit.

However, you’re describing basic human condition. Music like this has existed long before the labels were here. This music, appalling though it may be, is at the end of the day what the populace wants to hear.

It’s the equivalent of allowing people to play violent FPS games so they have an outlet.

Let the people break if it’s in their nature to do so.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#32

Post by Sebb767 »

29athrowaway wrote: post #22
swiley wrote: post #3

This would be great. The idea of “best ranked music” results in mediocre, bland music that’s mostly ranked based on the social connections of the artist. Musical culture and genres are extremely diverse and trying to rank individual pieces of music makes discovery harder. I doubt they’ll actually do this of course. Their monetization model relies on ranking.

Based on the songs being aggresively pushed by record labels, it seems that the ultimate goals of mainstream music industry are: - To glorify violence, substance abuse, disrespect of women, domination behavior, anti-intellectualism. - To reinforce racial stereotypes, including fear of minorities. - To make people superficial. Songs are an effective way to deliver a message to be repeated over and over and over again…

I don't think you can say this in general. There are a lot of uplifting chart songs. On the point of substance abuse, yes, that's a topic. But in reality, young people just tend to talk about this and it's really hard to say what's cause and effect.

And I really can't see your points about superficiality, racial stereotypes etc. That niche surely exists, but it's far too hot for the big labels.

Lastly, on anti-intellectualism: Yes, those songs tend to not be too intellectually challenging, but I don't think that's bad. People tend to listen to those when partying or just relaxing ; it's okay to simply chill out sometimes. Most people don't want to read technical literature for coming down either and that's fine.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#33

Post by werber »

I’ve personally been listening to more calming music, classical and “study beats” and haven’t felt cultural pressure to check anything out recently ( besides wap ). It’s kind of a relief to have less cultural moments for me

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#34

Post by gruez »

29athrowaway wrote: post #22
swiley wrote: post #3

This would be great. The idea of “best ranked music” results in mediocre, bland music that’s mostly ranked based on the social connections of the artist. Musical culture and genres are extremely diverse and trying to rank individual pieces of music makes discovery harder. I doubt they’ll actually do this of course. Their monetization model relies on ranking.

Based on the songs being aggresively pushed by record labels, it seems that the ultimate goals of mainstream music industry are: - To glorify violence, substance abuse, disrespect of women, domination behavior, anti-intellectualism. - To reinforce racial stereotypes, including fear of minorities. - To make people superficial. Songs are an effective way to deliver a message to be repeated over and over and over again…

>it seems that the ultimate goals of mainstream music industry are: [...] Songs are an effective way to deliver a message to be repeated over and over and over again until people break and assimilate the message.

It sounds like you're saying that the music industry is engaged in a conspiracy to change people's behavior. Is this a correct characterization? If so, is there any evidence for this conspiracy, or some plausible motivations? I'm not sure how the powers that be would benefit from people being more violent abuse drugs, or disrespect women, for instance.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#36

Post by segfaultbuserr »

wfme wrote: post #5

Personally, I used to be able to listen to a large portion of the top 50 on Spotify without skipping too many. As of late last year, though, I've found that the top 10 are almost exclusively songs made popular on TikTok. I can't stand to listen to these songs, not because I necessarily dislike the songs (or TikTok for that matter), but because there are 15-30s sections of the song that I have heard dozens of times, p…

Back when I was in school, I really hated Billboard Top 10 for the same reason. Once I've overheard them so many times, often unpleasantly, the actual song became unlistenable, not because I dislike them.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#37

Post by manishsharan »

29athrowaway wrote: post #29
humanrebar wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new Pee Wee movie. Death Note was a remake. They made a movie as a sequel to Breaking Bad. They also pick up many series that were canceled elsewhere, like Arrested Development. The Sandler movies are technically original, though at this point his stuff is as much a franchise as Madea. But, yeah, they do pick up a lot of original and niche stuff too. They're the only reason the romantic comedy is still a thing, f…

Netflix did a pretty bad job with Death Note. Willam Dafoe was a good cast, but the same cannot be said of the rest.

I am dreading the release of Netflix' s "The Last Airbender". All indications are that it will be much more worse than that awful movie version.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#38

Post by 29athrowaway »

gruez wrote: post #34
29athrowaway wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on the songs being aggresively pushed by record labels, it seems that the ultimate goals of mainstream music industry are: - To glorify violence, substance abuse, disrespect of women, domination behavior, anti-intellectualism. - To reinforce racial stereotypes, including fear of minorities. - To make people superficial. Songs are an effective way to deliver a message to be repeated over and over and over again…

>it seems that the ultimate goals of mainstream music industry are: [...] Songs are an effective way to deliver a message to be repeated over and over and over again until people break and assimilate the message. It sounds like you're saying that the music industry is engaged in a conspiracy to change people's behavior. Is this a correct characterization? If so, is there any evidence for this conspiracy, or some plau…

Many conspiracies can be just explained through emergent behavior. For example, there could be demand for that music, and the labels are just creating content to respond to that demand... without any ethical considerations about what they're promoting, that is.

But to be honest, a conspiracy of some kind could be an explanation, who knows.

For some people, there are substantial tangible, material benefits to dumbing down society.

For example, the "gangster rapper" stereotype is pushed aggresively by the music industry. The popularity of "gangster rap" results in "gangster" aesthetics becoming fashionable, even among law abiding people who are not gangsters. However, when people see a person that resembles the "gangster" stereotype (purely based on their attire) pushed by the entertainment industry, they will be more likely to call 911, eventually resulting in an innocent person being killed for no valid reason. Is this a racist conspiracy? who knows.

Likewise, oversexualization results in people having unplanned kids, causing them to ultimately become poor, and more susceptible to predatory loans, low wages, political manipulation and all the machinery that exists only to abuse the poor. Similar to anti-intellectualism.

And then, glorification of violence, competition, non-compliance, etc... this just makes people very divisive, and in order to dominate a large population you want them to be as divided as possible, and constantly distracted with immaterial disputes while you lobby the government.

So, yeah... it could be a conspiracy. It is very profitable to make people vulnerable and susceptible to manipulation and abuse. Especially political manipulation, which is already prominent in American journalism.

It kind of resembles the psychological warfare techniques used by the Soviets (i.e.: ideological subversion). https://youtu.be/IQPsKvG6WMI?t=60

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#39

Post by kabacha »

Honestly I've never met a person who listens to Spotify's top/trending playlists - they are notoriously awful random mess (like all top hit charts)

Spotify is definitely killing top lists but not on purpose - turns out arbitrary top lists are an awful idea once we have free access to music and a strong communities that can curate the music properly. It'll continue to decline as people are learning how to control their playlists better.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#40

Post by vladvasiliu »

dylan604 wrote: post #27
ponker wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s also a different mix of music by listening scenario. I mostly listen to Top 40 and similar garbage while I’m commuting because I’m not that discerning. But the people who are true music aficionados are probably continuing to listen to their obscure music even when not commuting.

In other words its formulaic garbage people really don't care about, yet are too occupied to change it. When given the choice, they choose not.

I think that not all music is the same in that it won't be chosen in every context. Sometimes people just don't want to listen to music, they just want some background "noise" that will cover whatever background noise is present (like during a commute). I guess even the "formulaic garbage" is better than the traffic hum or the random noise on public transit.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing. When I drive (which I don't often do at all) I'll listen to whatever's on the radio, usually "zapping" around (like people do on TV) and ending up listening to some random music I would never chose on my own. That's usually whatever's popular at the moment. Do I like that music? Not really. But it sure beats the crap out of the rental car's noise engine.

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