Something Is Up With Music
It’s been a weird year for music. Various signals point to shifts in taste and sensibility, but maybe even culture’s relationship with music entirely. The late great Andre Harrell used to say, in reference to the modern music landscape, that “Hip Hop is the new Pop.” The genre has unquestionably been the undercurrent of influence of pop culture for decades. As of June however, Billboard confirmed that no Hip Hop album has made it to the Billboard Top 100 or Billboard 200 in 2023. A Pop Punk and Emo resurgence is well on its way, with everyone from Blink 182 to The All American Rejects touring again to cash in. Most perplexing however, is that streaming darling Lil Baby just canceled 10 shows on his arena tour due to low ticket sales.
Though once a prime example of an artist who went from algorithmic superhero to real streaming numbers, if a top streamed artist now struggles to tour, perhaps it indicates a shift in their utility for audiences. If we are indeed living in the era of “main character energy” -- a dynamic in which the consumer sees themselves as the main character of their own show -- what if it’s more than simply a matter of changing taste, but instead the entire relationship between audience and music itself is changing? In the finale of The Idol, controversial lead Tedros, played by The Weeknd, calls a music exec “TikTok obsessed.” Not unrelated, Lil Baby’s tour begs larger questions about the ROI of assuming that social virality is the gateway to moving product across any entertainment marketing campaign.
Aphex Twin, yes that 80’s and 90’s Dance DJ, is having a resurgence with Gen Z culture. Though not on track to sell out arenas, the cult following he's developed recently reflects an entirely new relationship between creator and consumer. He’s barely active on social, but Aphex Twin’s ambient music is being used regularly throughout TikTok, specifically within a nihilistic inspired content category called “corecore”. These are amalgamations of absurd video clips spliced together to melancholic music, that mirror a sense of nihilism based on our crisis filled times. Even Rosalia was recently pictured in an Aphex Twin-adorned outfit.
Aphex Twin deliberately manipulates his own face in covert art and videos to distance himself from his work. Known for mostly ambient music, these songs are being used more as soundtrack material in social than as a FYP cheat code that is inspired primarily by algorithm trends. The passive nature of this music leaves more room for the consumer to be the creator, and talent. Unlike other contemporary talent whose pages are filled with promotional content, the average streamer couldn’t even tell you what Aphex Twin looks like. In other words, Aphex Twin isn’t the star of the show (or tour), you are.