Sunday, December 16, 2018

Matching?

At The Columbia Journalism Review, Cherie Hu writes about how the importance of placing music on streaming platforms has served to homogenize it -- would-be pop stars write not from the heart (or elsewhere) but to the algorithm.

Given that CJR's purview is journalism, Hu also brings in what the ephemeral nature of Algo-Rhythmic music does to music magazines or music reviewers: What do you write about when a trend in music barely lasts long enough for you to print an article about it? Hu says that many of the magazines are writing more now about recording or playing sessions and the like instead of offering a critique or even a review of a song or album.

Supposedly "give the people what they want" is a formula for success. But in this instance, what the people seem to want is less and less inventive, less and less appealing and more and more generic. Ephmera, meet ephemera. I just know you two will become good friends.

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