Music in the 21st century: the age of many microgenres
The internet is a double-edged sword when it comes to music. When we talk about streaming services and the instant access we have to music, we are often met with negativity, and rightly so. As James Blake highlighted in several social media posts recently, people don’t make much money from streams, and it is becoming harder and harder for artists to make a living from their art.
“This is how much artists make out of streaming: Between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream, depending on the platform,” said Blake in a video he uploaded to social media. “Which is 1million plays equals $3,000, and if you’re assigned to a label, then imagine that number’s cut by at least 50%.”
The fact that streaming services don’t adequately pay musicians is, without a doubt, one of the worst things in the modern age of music. It’s harder for artists to make a living off of it, which means the work put out into the world doesn’t have the same amount of time or budget assigned to it. That said, the relationship between the internet and music isn’t all bad.
We live in an age of microgenres, meaning not many bands are strictly rock, rap, jazz, or pop anymore. While some might argue the general progression of music is responsible for the birth of these microgenres, the internet has sped up the process of establishing them tenfold.
Think of it this way. Before the internet and streaming services, people had to go to a shop and buy an album based on a couple of singles they might have heard on the radio. That album cost a fair amount of money (roughly the same price as a month of Spotify today), and as such, buying an LP was a risk, a fun risk, sure, but a risk all the same.
As a result, people were a lot more faithful to specific genres. If you knew you liked rock music, why would you risk losing a healthy amount of money buying a rap album? You like rock, so a rock album is a safer buy over a genre and an artist you aren’t as familiar with. That’s not a problem these days, as the most significant thing you have to lose by checking out another artist or genre is a couple of minutes of your time.
We have access to more hours of music in the palm of our hand than we could get through in our lifetime, and because it’s easier for indie artists to make and publish music today, too, that library is forever getting bigger and bigger. This means that it’s a lot more common for people to be into multiple genres simultaneously, as opposed to one specific style and sound.
When people are inspired by multiple genres and start making their own music, it’s only natural that all of those genres will have some sort of influence. This gives rise to microgenres, which blend various styles together in a cohesive way. There are so many now that they’re nearly impossible to get through. So, the final question is, is this a good or bad thing? Well, it depends on why you like music.
On the one hand, albums don’t have the same impact that they used to. There are a lot of classic albums that set a precedent in music, almost as if they stop the world for a moment as everyone is given a chance to listen. Most of these records were pre-internet, when genre was more defined, and the means by which people listened to music were restricted. If an album was selling well, it was hard to escape; everyone had a copy, and every radio station played it. As such, music isn’t as connective as it once was.
On the other hand, it’s great to be a music lover these days because it is so easy to listen to music, and there is so much of it to consume. If you discover a genre you like, there are different branches of that genre for you to climb across and use to find other exciting artists. The microgenre might make music look like a bottomless ocean, and that’s because it is, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t lovely to swim in.
People often think music evolves because of musicians, and while that is somewhat true, it isn’t entirely correct. Music evolves because of musicians, technology, how music is recorded and distributed and how it is consumed. The microgenres that run riot these days are the result of how we listen to music and are just another step in the overall evolution of sound. Whether you like it or not, this is simply the natural way of things.
