(How) Do you keep up with current music?

Diddy

Diddy

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I guess I felt this to some extent earlier, but since moving to Japan I've TOTALLY lost track of music, at least Western music. I've looked out for released by major pop artists like Madge and Gaga etc, but even then it's been a bit patchy (still haven't listened to Britney's Glory).

I FINALLY started using torrents thanks to @Alla , and downloaded the top 40 singles. WTF happened to the charts? :D

Well anyway, I think there are probably equal parts being physically away from the culture, as well as an increasing generation gap.

Spotify feels so passive for me, but I've got the app on my Amazon FireStick so I can put it on my TV but it's only remembering some Scandi stuff I played years ago and just regurgitating anything vaguely nearby.

Do you have similar feelings, or are you still keeping up to date in a different way?
 
I keep up with a fair amount of current music (in no small part thanks to moopy), but I have no idea about the singles chart for the majority of the time. It's largely an irrelevance.
 
I used to listen to radio on drive to and from work but now that doesn’t happen um 100% moopy I suppose :D
 
I haven't regularly listened to current stuff since around 2010, and that was through being at uni and going out often so would regularly be Putting My Hands Up for Detroit or whatever the kids were doing back then. Even at that time I started to get disillusioned with how same-y everything was sounding and started to get dismissive of the charts.

I'm more grown up about it these days and won't simply dismiss all new stuff as "noise", but I also don't actively listen to it. Popular music has simply moved on and I've aged. There's still plenty of stuff, old and new, from my old favourites which I would choose to listen to now rather than what's troubling the top 40.

I sometimes give my Discover Weekly playlist a listen on Spotify, but it's generally if I just need some background music and I don't have many takeaways from it. And if I do, I forget them pretty quickly. Another sign of age. :D Plus the other day it was throwing out Jessica Simpson songs so it's not all new stuff anyway (presumably!... is she BACK?)

So to answer the two questions in the thread title:

- No I don't
- If at all, then through Spotify or Moopy
 
Up until the shit show that is 2020 I guess I would say I did as often in the office we had the radio on - and it would often be something like Capital, so even without trying I guess I was exposed to at least a solid smattering of the current top 40. Now working remotely I use Spotify and I probably would have no idea how 80% of the top 40 goes. It is only artists I already like/appear on Moopy/I'm in the target audience for (Gaga, Ava Max etc) that I would know due to myself actively seeking out their stuff to at least give it a go.

It's probably the first time in 24 years that I'm not 'all over' the top 40 and you know what, I actually do not care :o
 
To be honest, I don't think I do keep up with what's current either. The charts really are no concern to me now, which is quite sad, as they were such an event for me many moons ago.
 
'Getting over the chart' is something that happens to all of us (here at least) and to many before me.

But do teenagers obsess about the charts in the way that we did at all any more? For one, the idea of a weekly chart seems kind of archaic, given that info is available daily if not hourly now. And there are so many other ways of measuring success.
 
It’s sad that we got over the charts, but yeah, it’s not the same animal as it was before, and the YOOF must not think it’s relevant (I mean we don’t now they’ve buggered around with it)

happily we seem to have gotten over that weird pride people had of how few of the songs they knew. I never got how that was anything to be proud of especially
 
I stopped listening to the Top 40 around 2010/2011 as I was no longer interested. I don’t really listen to the radio any more either.

I keep track of new releases via music blogs and sites e.g. Resident Advisor, Pitchfork, Stereogum etc. I also tend to actively seek out the music of artists I like these days.
 
Beryl said:
Tik Tok sets the charts these days
Click to expand...

See listening to the top 40 I downloaded, I recognised a bunch of them from TikTok. I just wonder how these things start, it’s not really a platform for the companies to promote on is it, in the same way as Youtube is.

does the song just get popular in TikToks and then feed back into music consumption? I’m curious which way round it all happens
 
Was it ever pride? I saw it more as incredulity at the situation, when in the past most of us are the kind of people who would want to know every song in the chart, and actively seek all the chart out - and that was back in the days before Spotify and YouTube when you had to work at it.
 
lolly said:
Was it ever pride? I saw it more as incredulity at the situation, when in the past most of us are the kind of people who would want to know every song in the chart, and actively seek all the chart out - and that was back in the days before Spotify and YouTube when you had to work at it.
Click to expand...

for some people definitely! I guess it was the angle of “I like stuff that the mainstream doesn’t”
 
If it's not posted about on Wiwibloggs then I'm not interested quite frankly.
 
I scan my eyes over the hit parade now and again, on a strong stomached day I may play the Spotify top 40. But on the whole I have given up making a connection with current youth sounds. Bedsides ways to access music is so diverse now. I'm quite happy knowing what the latest dance and pop music sounds like through Spotify.
 
lolly said:
'Getting over the chart' is something that happens to all of us (here at least) and to many before me.

But do teenagers obsess about the charts in the way that we did at all any more? For one, the idea of a weekly chart seems kind of archaic, given that info is available daily if not hourly now. And there are so many other ways of measuring success.
Click to expand...

This is a key point. It's not just we are all getting older and no longer care about the chart, but also that the idea of a top 40 weekly chart is actually now an outdated and irrelevant concept. I'm sure say Little Mix's record label are happy when the latest one went into the top ten and it adds another 'top ten hit' to their tally. But it isn't like the 90's where you had to hit the top ten to be considered a success or to keep your record deal etc. People can get tens of millions of streams over such an array of platforms and not even trouble a chart. And given that we can all be connected to essentially unlimited music by simply opening an app on our phone means the whole idea of a top 40 counted down the week after the period (TOTP type thing) is fairly redundant.
 
Every playlist with "hits" or "top" on the title is awful, I just actively search for variations of new music 2020, new music July 2020, etc and also keep an eye on the "You may also like" but the thing is, current/new music is shit though there's the odd gem.
 
-Spotify new music lists

-I try to keep up to date with radio playlists and add anything to Spotify that takes my interest/in the charts

-Any recommendation from MOOPY
 
I'm firmly of the age now that I can't stand radio 1 or anything on it.
 
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