Is Old Music Killing New Music?

Audire

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IMO this article is rather insightful. There‘s a trend at present where the younger generation is listening more to the music of another generation rather than to their own. Why is there such a trend? Is the music of yesteryear better than newer music? Why are cultures still Influenced so much by older music, and not as much by newer music?

Is Old Music Killing New Music?

It states, “Old songs now represent 70 percent of the U.S. music market. Even worse: The new-music market is actually shrinking. … The 200 most popular new tracks now regularly account for less than 5 percent of total streams.“
 
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Cellcbern

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IMO this article is rather insightful. There‘s a trend at present where the younger generation is listening more to the music of another generation rather than to their own. Why is there such a trend? Is the music of yesteryear better than newer music? Why are cultures still Influenced so much by older music, and not as much by newer music?

Is Old Music Killing New Music?

It states, “Old songs now represent 70 percent of the U.S. music market. Even worse: The new-music market is actually shrinking. … The 200 most popular new tracks now regularly account for less than 5 percent of total streams.“
Not surprising if you are talking about recent popular music - as a genre it sucks:





 

Cellcbern

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Not surprising if you are talking about recent popular music - as a genre it sucks:





While I am always looking for new music I don't find a lot that I like. Most of my music purchases involve filling in gaps in my collection of old jazz, blues, R&B, and soundtracks.
 

wil

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Jul 22, 2015
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Not surprising if you are talking about recent popular music - as a genre it sucks:
Popular music's not really a genre I don't think, but that's beside the point. :)

My favorite music is mostly un-popular music. It's there where you find creativity,
innovation and soul. There is so much great music being produced today, yesterday, 50 years ago, 100 years ago... In every genre: Jazz, Classical, Folk, Rock and all their infinite permutations. This is one of the great gifts of the internet -- the ease of finding so much great new and less known music.

Yes, most "popular" music is manufactured trash.
 

picears

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Feb 4, 2022
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Not surprising if you are talking about recent popular music - as a genre it sucks:




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Hah! That Smithsonian Mag article is already 10 years old. Some 18 year old today probably thinks 2012 qualifies as "old music".

I'll offer up another conjecture: marketing.

Put simply, turning humans into mindless consumers through the use of triggers (words, sounds, images) combined with the conglomeration of music owners (how many record labels have big corps swallowed up in the past 30 years?) into global entities, and new music consumption is now turning into something akin to dental floss buying at Walmart: 10 feet of shelves but all the same product.

Additional factor: huge online libraries (e.g., Youtube) available for free now lets young people try out music on a whim. And the one thing with fashion, including music fashion, is that once a person is satiated with what they've been listening for a period of time they want to try something new. And the free libraries let them occupy their time, and since there is only 24 hours in a day, the time for listening/buying new music decreases.
 
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