What Young People are Consuming of Music These Days
Some things have changed, in terms of what young people hear. The reality of a post-apocalyptic world where the charts are dominated by the virality of a dance app in a post-TikTok world.
Music has the power to translate the spirit of our times. It was like that with hippies in the late 60s, punks in the 80s, grunge in the 90s and pop in the 2000s, etc.
It has always been very strong, especially among young people, who use it as an expression tool that represents their anxieties, ideas, worldviews. Music helps young people to express their personalities.
And the behavior of young people, in turn, gives us indications of trends and new ways of perceiving the world and society. In other words, better keep an eye on them.
In order to propose new playlists, people did in-depth research on what young people listen to LIVE nowadays.
Despite the plethora of options streaming offers, they realized that it’s still possible to categorize young people’s music tastes into a handful.
You will see that the tribes are still real, they are only given millenial names now.
Where did these insights come from?
It is part of the music curator’s job to be aware of news and changes in the charts and in people’s musical preferences. As a brand aimed at young audiences, working with young musicians makes this attention and observation multiplied by MIL: every week a new musical style or an idol appears and disappears. It’s an intense job “trying” to always stay on top of what’s going on.
When people started working with music curation and playlist creation, they always knew the importance of delivering consolidated data about the performance of the stores’ soundtracks. Therefore, one of the most important features of today’s music is player installed in stores is the feedback tool so that managers and sellers can interact with curation.
Sellers are, for the most part, the profile of the public that consumes the brand.
It is no coincidence that today employees end up being young people very similar to store customers and consumers. These feedbacks, added to internal surveys, ended up giving an overview of what young people are most consuming these days.
The music researchers have observed the styles of music most consumed by young people and how these behavior patterns might be relevant to decision-making in areas other than music.
After all, it’s not just playlists. They are representations of lifestyles.
1) Is the concept of romance in check?
In the reports that, even in greater numbers, the fluffy pop songs were not as successful in play as the more naughty RnB ones.
One of the styles most listened to by young people today is RnB/Rap Acustico, genres that fit exactly in this “sticking” mood.
2) Acoustic Rap
Rap was born from the combination of some elements, including the DJ – whose function is to mix live music, continuing the beat so that the dance doesn’t stop. On top of that, the master of ceremonies – or simply “MC” – has the mission to deliver the message in a spoken way to the public.
Originally, Rap beats are samples of the most varied styles of music. An “organic” feel like a guitar, for example. Therefore, the so-called “Acoustic Rap”, where the base consists of chords played on a guitar, turns out to be something remarkable and considerably new in this genre.
The fact is that western music has very prolific rappers and singers in this more “unplugged” style, with daily releases watched closely by fans eager for news.
Lo-Fi Hip Hop & Aesthetics
A style of sound that is almost always instrumental and very functional, used for studying, relaxing, and even sleeping. It has a lot of internet connections, with Vaporwave and Hip Hop, so much so that it was also known as Lo-Fi Hip-Hop.
Lo-Fi Hip-Hop playlists are a phenomenon on YouTube, with channels streaming live video playlists virtually 24 hours a day, every day of the week.
Warmest regards,
Juliette Schlegl (Julyka)
Writer and Artist
For more about my work and journey, please visit my Linktree at https://linktr.ee/julyka
