Pop Shots – Music’s New Year’s Resolution Should Be to Develop an Identity

Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week, with New Year’s Eve just a few days away, I’ve come up with a new year’s resolution for the music world, and it's a big one. After nearly two decades of few, if any, new subgenres being created, I want the music of the ‘20s to resolve to develop an identity … actually, I want it to develop lots of identities.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about the fact that there were no defining sounds of the ‘00s or the ‘10s.

If you play a music fan something from the ‘80s or ‘90s, even if they don’t recognize the artist, they’ll be able to tell you when the song is from, probably to within a 3 to 4 year window. If you were to play that same person something from the ‘00s or ‘10s, they might recognize the artist, but they’d have a tough time giving you an estimation of year the song was released.

Therein lies one of the major issues with music today – we have some very popular individual artists, but no one is creating a defining sound, and it could easily be argued we haven’t had a defining sound in nearly two decades.

Why does this matter?

Good question.

It matters because we associate eras with subgenres of music, and if an era has no concrete genre associations it will, ultimately, disappear.

Don’t believe me? Think to yourself – what did the ‘10s sound like? I’m guessing you’ve come up with some artists you love, but that’s about it.

Now think to yourself – what did the ‘90s sound like? Grunge may be the first thing that pops into your head, and then alt-rock, East Coast hip-hop, West Coast hip-hop, the Southern hip-hop explosion, pop punk, nu metal, the Max Martin takeover of pop music … and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

See the difference? The music industry’s pivot to streaming has been part of the problem. Artists currently have to be placed on popular playlists in order to be heard. To be placed on those playlists they have to conform to the identity of the playlist. Artists who want to create something new, and different, have far less of a chance of their music being included on those playlists. Without these types of artists being heard we lose any chance of a new, era-defining sound coming to light.

Think about it, if streaming playlists had dominated other eras of music we’d have missed out on pretty much everything. For example, do you think the playlist overseers of the early ‘50s would’ve welcomed the British invasion? Probably not, so say goodbye to The Beatles.

‘70s pop and rock playlists would’ve turned away the first artists using synths, which means we would’ve never had new wave.

Early ‘90s rock playlists would’ve been dominated by ‘80s hair metal, and turned away Nirvana, telling them “Smells Like Teen Spirit” wasn’t a good fit.

Basically, what I'm saying is if streaming playlists had existed throughout music history, we wouldn’t have much of a music history.

So what’s the solution?

I’m not going to pretend to have all the answers, but I do have a few ideas.

First off, we need more artist-run platforms for music. I know, this, unfortunately, means more work for artists, but I don’t think catering to the playlist gods, or creating your own playlists on current platforms, is working.

Second, we could really use a rebirth of college radio, both in its purpose, and in listenership. College radio used to be one of THE places to break new music, so much so that College Rock was once a dominant subgenre that gave us artists like R.E.M.

What happened to college radio? I honestly don’t know. The station I had a show on as a community volunteer transitioned to NPR for a major portion of their schedule, following the lead of another local college station.

Maybe in other areas college radio is still a hotbed for new music, in which case I say – you’re awesome, and I appreciate the work you do!

In the end, whether it’s creating new platforms, or properly utilizing old ones, let’s start 2021 by doing whatever we can to make the ‘20s a decade to remember for music!

 

That’s all for this edition of Pop Shots, but come back next Monday for more shots on all things pop.