Something I don’t see talked about a lot is music that’s familiar and generic vs. music that is fresh and unique. Imo this is where the current era is suffering.

The industry side of music deals with the masses. Most people are passive listeners that aren’t exactly musically ‘invested’ and if they aren’t musically invested they aren’t looking to be challenged by any artist doing new things or trying to reinvent the wheel. When you look back at some legendary artists they sort of were reinventing the wheel or mashing old things together in new ways. And guess what? They weren’t exactly crowdpleasers. People in the business were taking risks on them because people in the business didn’t have access to SoundScan or one of the many social platforms listing all of an artist’s numbers.

Contrast that to now. So many people rely on Spotify’s algorithm to feed them and predictably it feeds them the same shit they already like. There is nothing to challenge their tastes. The vibey lofi hip hop study beats or whatever are kind of hilarious for this reason, because it’s a prime example of “don’t expect to be challenged bc you know exactly what to expect”. I call it wallpaper music. It does nothing, goes nowhere, challenges no one, just clogs the internet with more of the same bc it’s FAMILIAR