Hit or Miss : The Power of the algorithm in the modern music scene
By Cormac McCarthy (Music Editor)
Pop music by its very nature has always fallen victim to its formulas. An old adage has always held that for a pop song to be successful it has to be 3 minutes long, fast enough to dance to and have gotten to the chorus in the first minute.
While this is by no means an iron-clad formula for a guaranteed hit single, the structure does align to the majority of pop songs that have been produced over the past sixty years. For a concise example of such phenomenon, look no further than the track listing of any Now That’s What I Call Music compilation.
This is the footprint left behind by radio as getting airplay has historically always been the way to gain an audience. Even in the modern era of pop music, there are often “radio edits” to slightly longer songs in the benign hope that it might gain airplay through that method.
In recent years, the advent of streaming services, social media and digital identity all dominate the consumption of the music market. These combined all create a new fierce arena for fame and attention from the general public.
Tiktok, the new springboard for young artists, doesn’t shy away in its admittance to a carefully constructed algorithm designed to keep users fixed on their devices. Songs very quickly become trends on tiktok due to people lip-synching to the lyrics or using it as a sound to play over their video.
Within a day, an artist can suddenly find their song being used on thousands of videos. For instance, Olivia Rodrigo’s fame can largely be attributed to TikTok star, Charli D’Amelio, who played Rodrigo’s song, Drivers License over a video of her dancing.
It has even come to the point where music sites, journals and magazines have advice columns that promote your “TikTokability”. These columns typically provide updates on trends that have been popular on the platform and how to use these trends to you advantage. These tips can range from something as banal as ensuring that the listener can dance to the full length of your track or something so specific such as to use initials of famous people in your titles.
Artists are put under intense pressure from labels to ensure that their presence is constant on all platforms. Famously, Halsey did a series of blank videos captioned with the title “My label made me do this”. Ironically, this low-energy effort did more in terms of publicity than anything else she had produced.
Pressure from labels to do everything and anything is nothing new but many young musicians have noted an almost obsessive fascination with gearing towards the algorithm.
Streaming platforms such as Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music etc. also have a large part to play in the ever changing world of pop music. In Spotify’s case, listeners find new artists through suggested media and new music playlists. These playlists are predominantly generated by suggesting artists that are similar to the tastes of the listener.
However, in conjunction with this, Spotify won’t suggest an artist unless it is clear that there is a constant stream of new releases. From this, artists no longer will wait long periods between album or EP releases but will instead release a regular slew of singles.
This puts pressure on the artist to be constantly updating their repertoire for fear of falling behind amongst the pack. There is no longer the time to develop the style to the same ability as there once was. While in the past, an album may have been accompanied by no more than a single or two, nowadays an album may not be more than a compilation of previously released singles. Take Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia album where only two of the eleven songs on the album had not been previously released.
The world of pop music has always been subject to the trends it creates. The rise and fall in the popularity of musical genres are often leaped upon by the lustful music publishing companies. Wherever there is money to be made, there will always be trends to be gamed and the artists will be expected to follow.