I Agree With Jennifer Lawrence, I Also Miss The Old Days Of Everyone Knowing All The Same Music, Not The Algorithm-Specific Bubbles We Listen To Now

I couldn't have said it better myself. I sadly also do not know current music. Here and there a song will slip through the cracks and make it onto my radar, like Espresso or a Taylor Swift ditty, but besides that new music is a mystery to me. And I gotta say, that does make me a little sad. I miss the days when we all knew the same songs. Growing up and popping on the radio for the Top 9 At 9, hearing all the biggest songs of the day, hoping your favorite finally got to the number 1 spot. Talking at school at the lunch table about how you liked the new song DC101 played yesterday (when in reality you really wanted to talk about the new NSYNC song Hot 995 played). If you go down a list of the top 100 Billboard songs pre-Spotify, you probably know all of them, regardless of genre. 

Pop, rock, Dido, Shaggy- it didn't matter. You knew all the bangers. 

Now? I've heard of 4 of these songs.

I also think a huge problem is artists get huge immediately and so many feel like "industry plants" and you have no real connection to them. You don't know who they are, why they write the songs they write, etc. Any singer with a nice face and decent voice can get a smash hit thanks to TikTok and the algorithms, but few can have lasting power because they never develop an actual fanbase. It's what makes Taylor Swift so unique- she writes her own songs and has always had a deep connection with her fans because they felt they knew her (parasocially to the extreme), and that has allowed her to stay at the top forever. Meanwhile someone like Katy Perry has a million bangers, but no real connection to her fans because all her songs stand alone as fun pop songs that are fun for a summer and you never hear or think about again.

Sure, the radio definitely was paid off by record labels and all that, but we didn't know or care. Now with the algos, everyone's music is catered so specifically to them, it's hard to learn about new music, new artists, new anything. Ever watch the Grammys or see a poster for a music festival and not recognize 99% of the names? Well as it turns out, it's actually a YOU problem, not them. Because so many of these people you have never heard of are actually some of the biggest singers or bands on the planet. But your playlists are catered so specifically for you that you would never ever know.

While writing this blog I officially have made a new New Years Resolution- listen to a wider variety of music this year. I mostly just listen to Oasis, pop punk, and songs from growing up. My taste and favorites are very correlated and Spotify, to their credit, does a bang up job giving me exactly what I want. But this year I vow to listen outside of my box and see what else is out there. But I will NOT listen to 40 song Morgan Wallen albums. I simply will not do it.