Music has been developing constantly, with classical music being the simplest in structure and instruments, to then being developed by Jazz artists, to then having Rock music take over the world for a good 6 decades, it is currently stopped at Rap music being the most popular genre in the world. The technology era has provided many reasons as to why certain genres are popular, and today we will be looking at;
Streaming numbers: Rap songs that are popular are anywhere around the 2-3 minute mark, or “the sweet spot”, these song lengths don’t leave the listener bored, nor do they leave them asking for more, as most popular rap music has generic structures and is made to last for that time only. This has led to projects being full of songs with 60% of them being subpar in hopes of one of the 20 songs to catch on a trend. Streaming numbers moreover are not on the side of classical and jazz music as their compositions are very long. Another thing that is benefitting rap and pop reach their peaks are the AIs in Apple Music and Spotify and other streaming services making playlists for you. These introduce the consumer to new artists while benefitting the artists as well. The major difference in terms of success now and in the 2000s is, in that time, sales were much “higher” than they are now. This is as at that time physical copies were sold much more, but now Vinyl and CDs are usually used as an aesthetic rather than a medium for music listening(I am proud to say I have a record player) and the way sales are calculated favor the side of physical copies. Streaming, however, allows you to listen to more music without having to spend money to buy stuff, hence it’s a much easier and better way to consume music.