This is a great exploration of what it feels like the 'hipster' of the mid-2020's would be talking about - so basically an article written for me!
Fascinating that conversations around genre/culture needs to include an understanding of algorithmic serving, economic and technological trends and so rarely ever does. A breath of fresh air.
I feel as confused as ever about the state of art and culture after reading this but in a way that feels energising rather than depressing.
I wonder if our evolving sense of genre and cultural movements writ large will need to include an understanding of their distribution technologically as an inherent feature of their definition.
"Now this process has reached its climax, and we’re dealing with a gnarly monstrosity, albeit an exceedingly pleasant-sounding one that sounds fantastic in coffee shops." Except it doesn't sound exceedingly pleasant, at least not for me. This kind of mediocre music either irritates me or makes me laugh, so it does serve some purpose, but I suppose most people aren't bothered by vague pseudo-pop sounds.
Great piece, though I wonder if A-Pop will stick. Even when I hear K-Pop, I'll acknowledge it as so, but ultimately consider it just pop music.
I wonder if kids exposed to more global influences will create more worthwhile, interesting or even surprising music, or we'll just get more boring non-pop?
A-pop is a meta corrective so I don't expect it to stick so much as intervene a bit in the conventional wisdom of (mostly American) popchat folks. The main reason it will never work, though, is that it can't be googled!
"At least ten or twenty tracks like it have shown up in my playlists each week for years." This is ambiguous. You mean ten to twenty have shown up in the playlists you *listen* *to* on Spotify, not the ones you make for us; but I actually interpreted it the second way until I thought, "That can't be true."
Changed to make it clearer — they show up in the playlists I skim for new songs. (I created a holdover playlist for them this week and already have something Ike 40 that I noticed so far.)
This is a great exploration of what it feels like the 'hipster' of the mid-2020's would be talking about - so basically an article written for me!
Fascinating that conversations around genre/culture needs to include an understanding of algorithmic serving, economic and technological trends and so rarely ever does. A breath of fresh air.
I feel as confused as ever about the state of art and culture after reading this but in a way that feels energising rather than depressing.
I wonder if our evolving sense of genre and cultural movements writ large will need to include an understanding of their distribution technologically as an inherent feature of their definition.
Keep writing!
"Now this process has reached its climax, and we’re dealing with a gnarly monstrosity, albeit an exceedingly pleasant-sounding one that sounds fantastic in coffee shops." Except it doesn't sound exceedingly pleasant, at least not for me. This kind of mediocre music either irritates me or makes me laugh, so it does serve some purpose, but I suppose most people aren't bothered by vague pseudo-pop sounds.
Great piece, though I wonder if A-Pop will stick. Even when I hear K-Pop, I'll acknowledge it as so, but ultimately consider it just pop music.
I wonder if kids exposed to more global influences will create more worthwhile, interesting or even surprising music, or we'll just get more boring non-pop?
A-pop is a meta corrective so I don't expect it to stick so much as intervene a bit in the conventional wisdom of (mostly American) popchat folks. The main reason it will never work, though, is that it can't be googled!
Hah! In 2005 when I first googled, 'Brazilian Girls' without the tag of '(musical band),' I got a lot of links to things I didn't want to see.
"At least ten or twenty tracks like it have shown up in my playlists each week for years." This is ambiguous. You mean ten to twenty have shown up in the playlists you *listen* *to* on Spotify, not the ones you make for us; but I actually interpreted it the second way until I thought, "That can't be true."
Changed to make it clearer — they show up in the playlists I skim for new songs. (I created a holdover playlist for them this week and already have something Ike 40 that I noticed so far.)