The Playlistification of Music

Thank you for this video, this needs more spotlight. While I agree with one commenter here that the situation is great for more people to find exposure and create music with easily accessible tools, the shift to focus on "content" instead of "art" is what I've been observing as well and made me rage inside a bit sometimes. But, somehow, in a way, the best and noteworthy music will prevail, will be handed down (friends, family) and will survive many generations, will be re-discovered etc, and the real filter for quality is maybe time?

Most music is content now. But most people don’t care. Before streaming most people just listened to whatever was on the radio, now they just listen to what social medias feeds them.

I call it "music is math". Music is mathematical in nature and typically flows patterns that make a logical sense. The average listener understands 2 x 2 =4. Ask them to do algebra and you start to loose them. Ask them to do trig and they glaze over. It's why math rock's fan base is usually musicians and air guitarists lol. As musicians, we understand and appreciate calculus. We see the formulas and appreciate the new approach. The average listener though... They get 7 nation army. I think this has a lot to do with why things are so generic. But, 2 + 2 = 4 is not enough to be a hit. Listeners know that 2 + 2 alone is boring but don't know why. What makes those generic songs appealing is the people writing them have a knack for taking 2 + 2 and sprinkling in subtle amounts of algebra and trig to make them interesting but not so much that the listener says "wait, that's trig and I'm out" lol. Of course there are exceptions like Tool but generally, this is my observation. What I find fascinating is how surprisingly difficult that is to do.

Jesus Jesus japanesus

Lots of great thoughts. Thank you so much for presenting your well articulated viewpoints

THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR AMAZING WORK! ✨💫😘💃🥴

Streaming services? Is there anything apart from spotify?

Interesting video. I'm not a producer so I don't have a producer's ear, but I am a musician, and as a musician, I can say that in my opinion, at least, pop music has been largely boring for the past two decades, even if the shortening of it has only happened fairly recently with the advent of streaming services. Incidentally, I think the consumer is largely to blame and not necessarily the songwriters. Songwriters need to get paid so they're going to largely write what sells. I remember reading an article recently which talks about how even songwriters are frustrated that they can't get more creative with their music than writing standard I-V-vi-IV songs, but pop artists like Taylor Swift won't even consider recording it if it doesn't have the potential to be a hit or to sell on streaming services.

Also, a question that occurs to me is why swear in your videos if you're just going to censor it? Seems like more trouble than just avoiding profanities altogether.

I love this channel just cause Im also from nashville and that thing about the person playin the guitar on the corner was pretty funny. its almost not funny because its real lol

I wish that these streaming services had an option to use a, to expand on your bread analogy, "this goes well with that" algorithm. Like "butter goes well with bread" or "garlic goes well with bread" instead of different variations of just "bread". Like, I like Bring Me The Horizon (shut up, I like them, it's my opinion) and other bands that go well in a playlist with their stuff are bands like Pierce the Veil, Linkin Park, and Breaking Benjamin. None of these artists sound similar, but a lot of people who like BMTH would probably also like at least one of the other three bands I listed. If BMTH is bread, then PtV is garlic, Linkin Park is butter, and Breaking Benjamin is Nutella. All of them go nicely with bread, but suit different moods.

i pity those who don't enjoy melodic death metal

I wonder how much this only applies to the USA and European market of music? I may be a kind of outlier (or maybe I'm still falling into the same trappings without realizing it), but I listen to a lot of J-Rock and J-Pop music, or City Pop because of the anime, and games I play. I often find these new artists from when they're featured in the opening of a show I'm watching, something that really doesn't happen outside of anime, typical TV openings and endings in the West are usually written expressly for a show. While lots of anime openings are either made before a show and animated around, or they're hired to write for the show and the song is released as a single and then part of an album.

But I can imagine this same-y sounding issue can happen there as well as certain popular trends influence which artists/bands get featured for anime openings/endings depending the type of show. Action-adventure shows typically feature more rock-ish, slice of life being more chipper and poppy, spy/thief action shows being some kind of jazz, and sci-fi being techno or using heavy synthesizer.

I don't know maybe I'm just making excuses for myself since I'm not fond of most music made where I live, but at the same time I'm doing the same thing for music I do like.

Just a classic case of as an industry gets larger, the proportion of quality output it creates drops.

If you really listen all these songs even use the same lyrics shuffled around over and over with a different hook

AI about to make life itself a boring hell, but we will clamor to be first in line to get it.

Growing up where I had 4 older brothers who had wildly different tastes in music (going from country, hip hop, and rap to microtonal, indie, post rock, and psychedelic) and my dad being in drum corp. it makes me a bit numb to a lot of the new music that the everyday consumer listens to. It kinda sucks seeing people get excited about the next Taylor swift album, or a new single…..it’s not like she hasn’t sang about the same exact type of thing for the last 4 or 5 albums, and this goes for a lot of mainstream artists. When I have a friend that sends me a song made by a mainstream artist that’s played on the radio 24/7 it pains me to know that they are mainly listening to what I assume to be a hot pile of flaming garbage. I’ll usually send them something back in return and a couple of them will bite and start to listen outside of that hot garbage.

It’s absolutely bonkers to me that we have the entire internet at our fingertips yet we’re the most sheltered and pigeon-holed than we’ve ever been
Just pick a random genre you’ve got loose interest in and listen to what comes up, easiest way to diversify your taste if you base it on the weather or your current mood it’ll always feel like vibes 👌

Technology changed everything.

iglooghost

Ive had this feeling for a while, but im not knowledgable on music enough to say why.

I was saying it was the tempo, simple lyrics and instruments, but that disnt feel like it was all.

I like Tailor Swift

You're not alone. My mom watches music on the TV and it's all the same. Zero creativity whatsoever, and everyone sounds the same and ALL THE SONGS ARE CRAPPY LOVE SONGS!! And she is singing along to them.

music on the radio especially has started to suck

This is why I love King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. They break all the rules and do what they want.

As someone with no knowledge of music, but someone who likes important lyrics but doesn’t know the difference between well made and cheaply made music. Artists like Connor Price and Alec Benjamine imo do it well. They seem to write music they like. Alec doesn’t release often so his fans always want more music and Connor let’s his creative content promote his music. So he can make well made unique music, and let his content creator skills promote his good music

My answer iko music has lost it's humanity. It no longer makes us think, it's just about algorithms and formulas. It's like talking to someone in a helpline, you may think they are human but they can do nothing than obey algorithms. Our lives are now being algorithmified.

i honestly think the problem is that people dont seem to be making music to express their feelings, the seem to be making music to make money

Since I'm developing my own music service and want to get it right - this video has helped to develop my opinion on how some stuff should work really well. Thank you so much!

I don't listen to streaming services. But they sure sound like elevator / mood / background music.

In short: Modern music sucks, because of economics caused by streaming.

Also, Personally, I think its something about there are no new genres, that does not mean there is no new music, i mean dont get me wrong, if you say "Vaporwave" i guess most people here know what we are talking about, except, somewhere some 80s synth music will be in that playlist, you keep refining things you want to hear untill it does not work.

And then we have the fact that people are using music to hide in their headphones and lock out the outside world, or use it at white noise for studying or driving, i dont have a problem with this but isnt it mentally too much? When is the last time you have just sat down, put music on and actually listen to it, because there is a really low percentage of people who wish to do that.

Most peoples interaction with music is silence coloured in and it shows

I've completely transitioned to almost exclusively video game music. The composers aren't trying to hit it big, they're just trying to make good music that fits the game. It's influenced my own music and now I only make songs for myself.

With our attention-based media economy, while music is still valuable, it’s not as actively sought out as much. It’s more or less a background accessory to game with, or to use in the background of a study/work session. I can’t really recall actively listening to music just to listen to it, anymore. It’s an accessory now, and that’s about it.

The lyrics are the wort part there so bad and uninspired i just put game ost on blast to get me in the mood for doing things

Good vid. This is not a critique saying "modern music bad." I take this as showing the problems artists who mix genres face when such emphasis is placed on playlists, and those playlists are what they are: very specific and curated to be such. There are a ton of great bands and artists that are being creative and have great streaming numbers. I'd wager they are doing well mostly because they found success on the road or other more "in real life" or "traditional" means.

there's the idea that content that tries to be valuable to everybody ends up being valuable to nobody. i think that artists that are making music or any other art for that matter that is meant to be heard by a specific group of people end up achieving two things: one, they provide something of much greater value to their target audience, and 2, an unintended potential side effect is that they may end up informing trends, which means that they have a chance to break into a much wider audience. music is the most accessible medium in terms of creation and consumption and, because of the ability to consume it while performing other tasks, there are layers to the level of listening a particular song will get on average. A consequence of this is that people in this passive listening mode don't necessarily know what they are looking for or want, and, often, even if they are in a particular mood, something else might catch their interest and take them on an entirely new train. Another part of this is that people aren't necessarily thinking critically about why they like a certain piece of music, and, honestly, the ethos surrounding the artist, affects the perception of the music. This is where meme songs come in. tl;dr do you and start telling people what they should like rather than making shit that people already like. Kanye is a good example of this. man can touch anything now and it's golden, even if its purposeful garbage. people now know that this is shit they should like, and consooom

Support local bands. That's where the talent is.

I don't even use spotify,have been using my phone's built-in music app. Tried spotify once and I regretted the crappy sounds I heard there. Glad I my phone still has such an app

As a DJ, I have to begrudgingly admit that I think part of the problem is the fact that music is made with a DJ in mind nowadays. They make songs more predictable because that makes it easier to mix for a DJ. If their track isn't "DJ friendly," it won't get played in clubs or on the radio.

This is extremely evident in EDM, where genres will all kind of follow the same formula and structure... Down to the exact BPM.

Amazing, Bro. And congratulations. You and a lot of people now, are just seeing what i'm trying to explain and say to all the people i know for 10 years now. Yes, the problem is here since as long as this. But, some people need to get close to the Elephant to see that there is an Elephant in the hall. ^^

It's funny to me how the only good radio stations are the old people radio stations (atleast in germany and austria)

Very insightful thanks

This has been a staple of "popular" music since the dawn of For profit record sales. When you attempt to make art profitable, the "markets" will always consolidate into a slodge of the same crap in a different wrapper; (for example; Go to a grocery store and just look at the Water,) This is the system we accept people, Without massive change to the system itself, this will ALWAYS be the case.

Something I've really noticed lately is just how good listening to a full album all the way through is. I've been enjoying music more taking control over things instead of letting Spotify do all the work. A lot of times when Spotify does start shuffling music at the end of an album, if I find a song that piques my interest, I'll go to the artist page and check out their works and see if I can find more music with interesting vibes, if there's an album tied to it, I check out the entire album. It's great

bro is vince gilligan