SONGSBREW

Feature Story

Modern music is rubbish.

What a sweeping statement that is to make.

Firstly, what is modern music? Are there genres that we can apply here? Some of the newest genres and microgenres of music include electroclash, bedroom pop, hyphy, drift phonk, and slowcore.

Sound familiar? You may not recognize the genres, but you have likely encountered new takes on them if you’re a frequent social media user.

For example, slowcore has been around since the 1990s and has evolved to incorporate elements from lo-fi, shoegaze, and dream pop. This genre is experiencing a surge in popularity among Gen Z and features a calming BPM of between 50 and 70. Recently experiencing a resurgence thanks to TikTok, bands like Duster and artists like Mazzy Star, both from the 1990s, are being adopted by younger generations.

Hyphy originated from the West Coast hip-hop music and culture of the 2000s, characterized by its typically upbeat and bouncy sound. Its BPM ranges between 90 and 110 but can increase to 130. If you've heard “Squabble Up” by Kendrick Lamar, it has heavy hyphy and g-funk influences.

We could be here all day going through new and resurgent genres, but if you want to distinguish your Dangdut from your Illbient, the Music Genre List is what you want.

‘Modern music’ vs ‘new music’?

Here is where it gets a little tricky: technically, ‘modern music’ is considered to be 1890-1930, and the definition is genres that emerged from the late 19th century.

However, it’s unlikely that this will feel modern to you, or us, for that matter.

What we’re talking about is the new stuff, the catchy clips on TikTok, the incoherent slop with a few lines that get stuck in your mind, and the new music playlists that are top-to-bottom packed with ear-burning trash.

The not-yet one-hit wonders who release a sludge single, pay for a bump on TikTok, and it goes oozing out into the world via 15-second video clips, followed by a record deal, and interviews on Genius.

Harsh? Maybe. Not only are we speaking about new music, but we are also talking about young, fresh, experimental artists. Is it fair? Is it us? Is it the industry? Has music really gotten worse? Or, what is most likely is that this is a question that comes back around with every generation, thanks to our sticky decades.

Why are people hating on new stuff?

We love new trends, crazes, and good music as much as the next person. We don’t want to be haters for the sake of hating. Who does? Doechii Anxiety? Yes. Doja? Always. Megan Thee Stallion? We are in the front row. But if Kendrick Lamar taught us anything this past year, it is that we can and should be pettier and more hater.

For the sake of remaining unbiased (kinda), we turned to our favorite place: the internet.

What is it that people don’t enjoy about new music?

Homogenization is a significant issue - everything sounds a bit too similar to everything else. Shorter tracks, often seen in new artists, tend to be around 3 minutes and feel designed for the social media era's short attention span.

Heavy use of autotune and AI. People believe there is a perceived lack of skill in breakout artists. While autotune has been around for decades, in combination with new tech, people are bored.

This conversation has become more prevalent in the last year, though.

But could it be you’re simply not looking hard enough? And the issue isn’t with the musicians, who aren’t your style, but rather a lack of music-digging skill?

The good news here is that it is not just you. In fact, according to studies of music released between 1950 and 2023, the complexity of the music we listen to has decreased dramatically.

If you are wondering what the decrease is in %, it is a conservative 30% according to Madeline Hamilton.

Have songs become shorter, or are you imagining it?

Spotify data, trawled through by Michael Tauberg, showed that for the last 18 years, the average length of a track has been decreasing.

It might be us…and you.

There are approximately 28.7k songs released daily (Chartmetric)... Statistically, they can’t all be bad, short, autotune AI hellscapes, and you’re probably never going to hear 99.99% of them.

If we are having the conversation that new music is rubbish, it is because we, and perhaps you, like many others, have fallen into the habit of listening to the easiest thing to access, which is popular music and pre-made playlists. Yes.

What we are really talking about is current mainstream music, isn’t it? And from there, what we really mean is that we have forgotten the tragic music events of years past. We only remember the big hits and the good stuff. The rest? Never happened.

While some of the fundamentals that lead people to say ‘new music is not as good as it used to be’ are indeed happening, things like shorter tracks, more AI, and autotune are actually a thing. We still tend to fall deeply into confirmation bias when examining this topic.

Great music, subjectively of course, has to stand the test of time. It needs to inspire new music 15, 30, 70 years later. Music, like all art, becomes a reflection of society, and we should never expect to enjoy all new pop music, nor should we expect it to be for us.

But looking at some of our current mainstream artists, can we honestly say that these individuals will have long, glorious careers, or will they remain flash-in-the-pan social media sensations?

Are they destined to slip down the charts into oblivion because, actually, they are crap. And not because we are old, lazy with new music discovery, or that nostalgia is clouding our music tastes?

Maybe some new music is 💩, just like some older music is 💩.

And maybe, that’s ok.

Industry News.

We’ve seen a lot of partnerships between music transfer services and music streaming platforms. We love it. We believe in ‘ownership’ of things like playlists. The latest one to hit the news is FreeYourMusic and SoundCloud. SoundCloud has now positioned itself alongside the larger DSPs and implemented the Move Your Music feature. Tech powered by FreeYourMusic (music transfer wizards, obvs).

But why does this matter?

From an industry perspective, with these partnerships on the rise, we can make some assumptions based on the signals:

Power is shifting towards users, money talks, right? Happy customers who feel in control of their music will stay longer, and they will feel less risk when considering trying a new platform. It aligns with the ‘user-centric’ media we’ve seen pushed from them all in the last 12 months, too.

Official support sounds good. Integrating is always better than ‘click here and go there’; this means users will trust the tech, which is beneficial for everyone. But you know what this really does? It reduces the risk of churn. Get them, keep them.

Retention and acquisition. Ah, those two beautiful words. The DSPs stand to gain new users and then keep them. By partnering with transfer tools, they're saying, “Come over, bring your playlists with you, and stay.”

But what this means is that the market is maturing in a new way. We are now seeing that growth isn’t only about getting their hands on first-time streamers. Oh no, this is about poaching loyal subscribers cleanly. It is one of the best ways to win over long-term music streamers, and that is where the big bucks are.

Now, platform interoperability is more expected from users. To be a music streaming service without a partnership like this? You’ll need to pull out all the tricks in the book, throw them all at the wall, and see what sticks, like Spotify.

But the thing that makes the SoundCloud + FreeYourMusic partnership different? It’s in the user base. SoundCloud users are more community- and interaction-focused; the platform is built for those who want to do more, explore more, and have a deeper drive for discovering new music. With the Move Your Music feature, SoundCloud is now comfortably able to poach music-lovers from the big guys with ease and offer them a real social and musical experience. And that, that is what makes it unique in all of this. Long live music transfer, and long live the ability to take what you love the most with you.

The Essentials

Your Catch Up

The Playlist Edit 

Music Discovery

Tracks that we can’t get enough of this New Music Friday. This week was hard to select just a couple from the 1824 playlist, but these are our winners, and it was close!

A Final Note

Until next time,