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Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

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Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#111

Post by quietbritishjim »

tobr wrote: post #85
laurent92 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is astonishing when you realize it. Since the MCM times, we’ve transferred music bands from sound to image, and we noticed the commercial drums (and repetition on radios in particular) produced linear return in investment, and music characteristics hadn’t much to do with it. To the point that today, any music will do. It’s much easier for the labels, since they can pimp anyone among the 1-10% of the population who…

You say “music characteristics hadn’t much to do with it” but then you list a number of specific characteristics that make music more likely to work on radio. That suggests the opposite of “any music will do”. Only music with very specific qualities will do. Or maybe you just meant to say you don’t like pop?

But those characteristics are all things that can be mechanically tweaked by a music producer, rather than innovations that make one recording artist more valuable than another.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#112

Post by toyg »

kjakm wrote: post #96
swilliamsio wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a lot of TikTok songs, the 15-30 seconds of the song that you've heard dozens of times is the best part of the song, with the rest of the piece being rather dry and bland. "Hit or miss, I guess you never miss huh" and "I'm already Tracer" are my quintessential examples of this.

Is this the natural progression from 'albums are full of filler I just want the singles'? Now it's 'the single is full of filler I just want the chorus'? It kind of hints that people nowadays only want the highest quality content which is ironic given the same content is used to soundtrack some of the lowest quality/most unoriginal content (e.g. 10 second clips of people doing the same dance to the same music).

> some of the lowest quality/most unoriginal content

The point of meme content (which is basically what these "same dance" videos are) is not originality; the point is taking part, belonging to the hivemind. Human beings fundamentally want to belong, not to be original.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#113

Post by rob74 »

kjakm wrote: post #96
swilliamsio wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a lot of TikTok songs, the 15-30 seconds of the song that you've heard dozens of times is the best part of the song, with the rest of the piece being rather dry and bland. "Hit or miss, I guess you never miss huh" and "I'm already Tracer" are my quintessential examples of this.

Is this the natural progression from 'albums are full of filler I just want the singles'? Now it's 'the single is full of filler I just want the chorus'? It kind of hints that people nowadays only want the highest quality content which is ironic given the same content is used to soundtrack some of the lowest quality/most unoriginal content (e.g. 10 second clips of people doing the same dance to the same music).

Well, the music is also the most unoriginal one, otherwise it wouldn't have enough mass appeal - so I would hesitate to call it "highest quality content"...

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#114

Post by 082349872349872 »

staplers wrote: post #28
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…

The themes you mentioned are being pushed by more than just the corporate music industry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkES4anCYOw

> "It's all hip hop's fault, you see. Not the three companies who decide what you hear and see."

nice timing at 1:47, or decent 'shop skillz?

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#116

Post by Freak_NL »

geraltofrivia wrote: post #78
menybuvico wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got curious and listened to it, and after listening to that load of rubbish, I simply don't feel connected with society anymore. Do people actually listen to this and like it, or is it just the perceived shock value that counts?

WAP specifically feels like an experiment. A female singer's equivalent to the overtly sexual hiphop. In music, and in video. Anecdotal: Friends have acknowledged that they're more disgusted by it than the male singer's counterparts. I admit I am, too. And this is regardless of the particular singer's ability to sing/rap, or the lack thereof.

Interesting. What makes it more disgusting?

Artistic merits aside, the (uncensored version of the) song and the music video seem justly regarded as a feminist redressing of the balance (if men can rap explicitly about being horny and wanting sex, so can women).

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#117

Post by toyg »

kjakm wrote: post #99
hilbertseries wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if you listen to Bad Guy by Billie Eilish, Chun-Li by Nicki Minaj and thank u, next by Arianna Grande. You would say all of these women sound the same and have the same instrumentals?

My complaint would be less the instrumentals (it's formulaic but that doesn't make it bad) but the lyrics. Look up the lyrics to any of the songs you listed and read them. If you don't have the melody in your head they read awfully. They say nothing, make me feel nothing, and make me think of nothing. They don't resonate in any way. You could obviously look at someone like Bob Dylan as a counterpoint but even if you…

> They say nothing, make me feel nothing, and make me think of nothing.

That's because you're not their target market. The industry as a whole targets teenagers. It's been the same model since the '60s: turn teenagers into faithful consumers of acts (which are really just brands) and ensure they will buy for the rest of their life just to reminisce.

Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish speak to teenagers. All teenagers do is hormonal-driven love drama, so all pop music talks about is love drama. Every generation gets their teenager love drama painted in a slightly different way, to grant the illusion of differing from their parents, but that's it. Even the likes of Led Zeppelin or Bob Dylan, underneath it all, is just love drama; that generation was simply having their love drama tangled up with other stuff because of historical happenstance.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#118

Post by nullandvoid »

chrisseaton wrote: post #106
mNovak wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I agree. I anticipate some amount of people still discover music on the radio (even pop mega hits you have to hear the first time somewhere), then go seek it out on spotify. I haven't much been in a car, thus haven't heard the radio, in 7 months. I have no idea what's on the top 40 right now.

> I haven't much been in a car, thus haven't heard the radio, in 7 months. What's the connection between being in a car and listening to the radio? Do people not generally have radios in their homes where you live? And you must have a phone or laptop to be typing this where you could listen to the radio!

The connection is, most people I know would listen to the radio in a car?

Not saying there's not other ways to consume. but as an anecdote myself or my partner never listen to radio anywhere but in my car either, it's pretty common I believe!

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#119

Post by rob74 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #106
mNovak wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I agree. I anticipate some amount of people still discover music on the radio (even pop mega hits you have to hear the first time somewhere), then go seek it out on spotify. I haven't much been in a car, thus haven't heard the radio, in 7 months. I have no idea what's on the top 40 right now.

> I haven't much been in a car, thus haven't heard the radio, in 7 months. What's the connection between being in a car and listening to the radio? Do people not generally have radios in their homes where you live? And you must have a phone or laptop to be typing this where you could listen to the radio!

Being in a car with spotty mobile connection which prevents people from using Spotify is apparently the biggest niche left for radio...

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#120

Post by kjakm »

toyg wrote: post #112
kjakm wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this the natural progression from 'albums are full of filler I just want the singles'? Now it's 'the single is full of filler I just want the chorus'? It kind of hints that people nowadays only want the highest quality content which is ironic given the same content is used to soundtrack some of the lowest quality/most unoriginal content (e.g. 10 second clips of people doing the same dance to the same music).

> some of the lowest quality/most unoriginal content The point of meme content (which is basically what these "same dance" videos are) is not originality; the point is taking part, belonging to the hivemind. Human beings fundamentally want to belong , not to be original.

I understand your point about taking part but what percentage of people take part vs. people who simply watch? It's not just the dance videos too. There's very little interesting content on TikTok in my opinion. It will certainly suck you in and have you watching mindlessly for hours a day but I think it's possible to do that and still be considered low quality and unoriginal.
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