Is Old Music Killing New Music?

[Mosby]

Old songs now represent 70 percent of the U.S. music market, according to the latest numbers from MRC Data, a music-analytics firm. Those who make a living from new music—especially that endangered species known as the working musician—should look at these figures with fear and trembling. But the news gets worse: The new-music market is actually shrinking. All the growth in the market is coming from old songs.

The 200 most popular new tracks now regularly account for less than 5 percent of total streams. That rate was twice as high just three years ago. The mix of songs actually purchased by consumers is even more tilted toward older music. The current list of most-downloaded tracks on iTunes is filled with the names of bands from the previous century, such as Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Police.

I encountered this phenomenon myself recently at a retail store, where the youngster at the cash register was singing along with Sting on “Message in a Bottle” (a hit from 1979) as it blasted on the radio. A few days earlier, I had a similar experience at a local diner, where the entire staff was under 30 but every song was more than 40 years old. I asked my server: “Why are you playing this old music?” She looked at me in surprise before answering: “Oh, I like these songs.”

Never before in history have new tracks attained hit status while generating so little cultural impact. In fact, the audience seems to be embracing the hits of decades past instead. Success was always short-lived in the music business, but now even new songs that become bona fide hits can pass unnoticed by much of the population.

Only songs released in the past 18 months get classified as “new” in the MRC database, so people could conceivably be listening to a lot of two-year-old songs, rather than 60-year-old ones. But I doubt these old playlists consist of songs from the year before last. Even if they did, that fact would still represent a repudiation of the pop-culture industry, which is almost entirely focused on what’s happening right now.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/old-music-killing-new-music/621339/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

[cos dem]

1. New music is what's killing new music

I read this article, and I disagree with the author's conclusions. Some points:

1. Old music is really good. Of course, much of the bad old music has been forgotten, and the classics are what has persisted. But the 50s-90s was so prolific, there's a whole lot to choose from.

2. New music is, on average, pretty bland. I try very hard not to be a music snob, but most new stuff is just not engaging to me. I do like some new music, but it's generally music written in the style of the classics. Steven Wilson is a currently active artist who I like very much, but he definitely reflects his influences, including Pink Floyd.

3. The author seems to want to blame music execs, but then goes on to say that the real solution is to bypass the execs with something new, challenging, threatening (at least to the status-quo), and entertaining. That would mean the problem is that modern musicians haven't come up with whatever that revolution is. Yes, execs will live in the comfort zone, that's what they do. The music revolution (and I'm sure there will be one at some point) will not come from music business execs. So, new musicians, ball is in your court!

[cos dem]

2. I should add that this is generalization.

Ted Nugent, for example, is "old music", but it is shite.

Kid Rock apparently just released some more shite.

[empedocles]

3. The genre list below, lists many hundreds of music genre's. Perhaps audience

[fragmentation is a 'factor']

https://www.musicgenreslist.com/

[viva la]

4. Hiphop is pretty 'new"

and pretty popular.


Well, if "new" means "post-Beatles," I guess!

My presumptions:

1) The pop, rock, and soul music of 1954-1980 is some of the greatest popular music ever, and the appeal isn't time-bound.
2) Once boomers got the ability to download and stream, they listened to the oldies all the time, and there are a lot of boomers, and we all have Alexa.

3) Radio is so categorical these days, and who listens anyway. It's hard to find new music unless you're really looking for it.
4) Older popular music is used a LOT in commercials now. "White Rabbit!" I bet lots of younger people heard that commercial and went to download it, because it's so weird and so good.

It is weird, though, to go to a wedding with a couple under 30, and 80% of the music is from the 60s and 70s. I was at one recently with a string quartet, and the music seemed so familiar, but not quite classical.
Beatles songs. Strawberry Fields. Yesterday. Something.

[Igel]

13. Not a guess.

"Only songs released in the past 18 months get classified as “new” in the MRC database..."

[ProudMNDemocrat]

5. Give me Queen, Bob Seger, Journey, Lynard Slkinner

Elton John, PRINCE, The Cars, Bruce Hornsby, Bruce Springsteen, and John Mellencamp , REO Speedwagon, any day.

These classics will live on.

[bamagal62]

6. A lot of the new music is pretty bad.

[Sneederbunk]

8. +100

[Rebl2]

7. My 28

year old nephew prefers some of the rock music from the 70’s, like Led Zeppelin. Kind of surprises me.

[TexasBushwhacker]

16. I was volunteering at a local film festival

I'm in my 60s. Imagine my surprise when a young volunteer's phone rang and his ring tone was "Bang a Gong". I said "WHY is that on your phone?" He just said "Cuz I like T Rex".

[Jerry2144]

9. Auto tune and drum machines

Are what is killing new music. Very few of these acts can carry a tune in a bucket without major technological help. Many also sound like they’re extremely constipated and straining to poop while singing.

The rockers of the 50s through 80s were trained musicians and actually learned music instead of watched a couple YouTube videos and faked it

[MissMillie]

10. The new stuff is easy to find for free on the radio

so you don't have to pay to stream it.

[DarthDem]

11. Not At All

The article acts like this is a problem. In fact, it's heartwarming and a sign that civilization is not doomed. I particularly love the anecdote about the diner with all the people under 30 listening to older music. Like I said - heartwarming.

There is some good new music these days, but overall, the quality of new music - particularly since roughly 2010 - is so far below the quality of older music that it's not even funny.

Perhaps this will spur some sort of revival of actual musicianship, in which musicians play their own instruments and really sing, unaided by corrective technology. I've been hoping for that for about 12-15 years now.

[FreepFryer]

22. Agreed. All the correction and construction takes away from an honest tune. (Nt)

[Pobeka]

12. I love music, and am generally unimpressed with "popular" music these day.

I put popular in quotes because I think a lot of it is shoved on us by "the biz". Same old problem as it ever was.

But you know what, I can find lots of new music I do like. Music by artists who are talented, able to write interesting song lyrics, most importantly able to write unique, interesting melody lines (you know, so it doesn't sound like about 90% of all the other "current" music".) I try to support them by buying their CD's or MP3's when I find them.


Call me opinionated on the topic, I'll agree...

[SoFlaJet]

14. As a songwriter

I've stopped recording original material because no one cares. I thought maybe it was because my songs suck but I can be objective and can see the trends towards people just not really open to new songs they've never heard before. Since the Covid lockdown that has pretty much killed my ability to make a living playing live music, I have been recording my "The Covers Project" and over these couple of years I have recorded and posted over a hundred cover songs that I have recorded at my home studio.
Here's my latest, a Warren Zevon cover called I Was In The House When the House Burned Down.

[Skittles]

15. maybe new music just needs to get better?

just a thought

[3Hotdogs]

17. I am 79. When I was a young whipper-snapper, I listened Elvis...had all his records. Buddy Holly,

Bill Haley, Johnny Cash and so forth.

But I also listened to Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Glen Miller - still do - along with Floyd, Zep, Stones, The Who.


But maybe 80% of the stuff they put out was not very good. Just to fill a B side or a track to fill an album.

[Uncle Joe]

18. This seems to be a microcosm of our larger society's corporatization

of most everything at the expense of the public good.

(snip)

The problem goes deeper than just copyright concerns. The people running the music industry have lost confidence in new music. They won’t admit it publicly—that would be like the priests of Jupiter and Apollo in ancient Rome admitting that their gods are dead. Even if they know it’s true, their job titles won’t allow such a humble and abject confession. Yet that is exactly what’s happening. The moguls have lost their faith in the redemptive and life-changing power of new music. How sad is that? Of course, the decision makers need to pretend that they still believe in the future of their business, and want to discover the next revolutionary talent. But that’s not what they really think. Their actions speak much louder than their empty words.

In fact, nothing is less interesting to music executives than a completely radical new kind of music. Who can blame them for feeling this way? The radio stations will play only songs that fit the dominant formulas, which haven’t changed much in decades. The algorithms curating so much of our new music are even worse. Music algorithms are designed to be feedback loops, ensuring that the promoted new songs are virtually identical to your favorite old songs. Anything that genuinely breaks the mold is excluded from consideration almost as a rule. That’s actually how the current system has been designed to work.

(snip)

The problem isn’t a lack of good new music. It’s an institutional failure to discover and nurture it.

(snip)

Senior management hated hearing this, and always insisted that defending the old business units was their safest bet. After I encountered this embedded mindset again and again and saw its consequences, I reached the painful conclusion that the safest path is usually the most dangerous. If you pursue a strategy—whether in business or your personal life—that avoids all risk, you might flourish in the short run, but you flounder over the long term. That’s what is now happening in the music business.

(snip)

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/old-music-killing-new-music/621339/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Thanks for the thread Mosby.

[pfitz59]

19. Geriatric rockers rule the airwaves.

Geriatric politicians constipate Congress. Hard for new music or new ideas to find fertile ground.

[countryken]

20. 'Pop' vs. 'Americana music

'Pop' music has been commandeered by the 'music industry', where new ideas and creativity is stifled in favor of adherence to a certain formula proven to minimize investment and maximize profit. The industry is discouraged from taking any chances. Sgt. Pepper would not be given a chance in this environment. This is why pop music has alienated so many.

'Americana' music is generally produced by and controlled by the artists whose intent is to express themselves and to create something worth hearing. You are not likely to hear drum tracks and autotune.

We have to find certain stations that carry Americana - generally to the left of the radio dial, but once we do, we find new artists and new material. We acknowledge that the body of good music is constantly growing, and that a good song that is 50 years old is still a good song, but there are some brilliant songwriters, vocalists, and musicians making it today in this genre.

We take the best of blues, bluegrass, classic country, classic rock, and folk, and somehow it all falls under the umbrella of 'Americana'. What makes it Americana? Artist Jim Lauderdale once made the comment, 'all the good stuff'.

[FreepFryer]

21. The business of music is now about frequency, not novelty. And trash goes viral. (Nt)

[Harker]

23. There are reasons people still listen to Beethoven.

And Jimi Hendrix.