I was listening to music on YouTube the other day and there was a recommended video βSatellite Lovers - Sons of 1973 (Full Album)β. The album art looked compelling, and it had 1M+ views (βmany people must like itβ my chimp brain thought) so I threw it on.
Indeed, it was a great listen. Some nice, delightful, breezy funk-rock.
My curiosity was peaked to learn more about this band Satellite Lovers, only to find out that basically nothing is known about them. If you search around online you get tons of results of people just saying βI heard this band on YouTubeβ. Apparently, they released a few records in Japan during the β90s and then faded away into obscurity.
Some random anon uploaded their music to YouTube in June and the recommendation algo decided for some reason to turbo-boost it. Now a forgotten, inactive, 30+ year-old band is popular again. A modern miracle of The AlgoRhythmβ’.
The Centralization of Tastemakers
Social Media websites like π and Facebook are routinely in the cross-hairs of scrutiny for their influence of the flow of information. Weβve collectively realized that itβs a pretty big deal to control the recommendation algorithms and that they can be used to massively manipulate the opinions of people.
Sliding quietly under the radar though of the algorithm panic, are our music streaming monopolies. For a large percent of the population now, if your music isnβt on Spotify it basically doesnβt exist. When Neil Young decided to pull his records from the service he wasnβt accomplishing anything other than making sure nobody under the age of 30 would every hear his songs again (he has since returned to Spotify).
In Yesteryear, there was the decentralized network of radio DJs. Yes, the radio stations might have had similar ownership and the record companies had influence in determining what would get played, but the authority for making a song popular was spread out over a much larger group of people whose individual influence was less. Now whoever is pushing the weights on the Spotify algorithm has total global control over the music industry. The true Swedish House Mafia is not the electronic band, itβs the cartel of engineers at Spotify S.A. manipulating the charts.
If a banger gets recorded in the studio, but never gets picked up by The AlgoRhythmβ’ for anyone to hear it does it make a sound?
I can only imagine the bribery and games that go on to try and get songs algo-boosted. Our next Harvey Weinstein style scandal wonβt be coming out of Hollywood. Itβs going to be some Level 3 engineer at Apple Music who was promising 19 year-olds theyβd be pop stars if they sucked him off.
βOoh thatβs that meβ¦ Espressoβ is certainly catchy, but how much of its chart-topping success was fueled by getting the βnudgeβ from the boys in Sweden?
Super-Sonic
Why does it matter that weβve centralized the music listening funnel? Why should we be calling on Spotify for transparency and to open-source their recommendation algo?
For starters, music is basically a form of mind control. The fact that a song can get βstuck in your headβ should be mildly alarming to you that youβre dealing with a powerful organization of sound. Ask an American to recite the alphabet, and heβll probably start doing it in this sing-songy way that he learned when he was 5 years-old. This stuff gets embedded in your mind and soul.
I have a theory that the marker for when your has brain fully developed is the moment when you stop seeking out new music as much and tend to just relisten to the older stuff. Youβve hit the point where that sort of youthful blank-state has ossified and you start having less degrees of openness. Coincidentally, this change in music listening patterns seems to occur for most people in their mid to late 20s.
Along with this idea, your max βmusic sensitivityβ window is from the onset of puberty until your mid-20s. When youβre in a turbulent, hormonal, emotional state thatβs when music is going to hit you harder. The records you listen to then will stick with you for a lifetime. You can definitely enjoy new music as you get older, but you probably wonβt form those kind of beloved connections with songs and artists as you do when youβre a teen.
If I had a kid Iβd probably be less concerned with whatever βwoke booksβ the public school is trying to teach and more worried about what their music diet looks like. Teenagers can barely even focus on a book anymore, music is going to have much more sway on them.
Itβs fine to listen to some trash during the teen years, itβs not going to ruin you, but you should also be exposing yourself to some stuff with artistic merit. The problem with streaming is the recommendations are all self-reinforcing. You listen to junk and get fed more junk. You need a friend to point you in the direction of something else or you will keep just circling the drain.
The platforms also offer a very self-centered view of music listening. Playlists are βFor Youβ. It goes to extremes where theyβre pushing you to try out the βLiterally Meβ main character playlist. Itβs a very different relationship with music than in past times when it was almost always consumed in a communal setting.
Perils of Over-Abundance
Netflix came out and offered you instant access to movies and TV series whenever you wanted. No waiting, no commercials, limitless video to consume. Somehow instead of being great for the viewer it turned into a place that has everything but thereβs nothing to actually watch. βArtβ became βContentβ. Streaming music is coming close to creating this effect as well. Thereβs so much noise on Spotify, none of it feels as weighty as when you had some restrictions and what was available.
As time rolls on I question how much music you should really listen to. Probably not the thousands of hours I log every year which Iβm reminded of when Spotify drops its annual recap (just for you!). A lot of that is logged in the gym, car, or when doing work. Passive background noise. But, in a world where music is now so pervasive and easily accessible, silence now stands out as the ultimate premium substance.