It comes from the Swedish music industry researcher Daniel Johansson in an article in a big Swedish newspaper. I said the same in 2004 that Eminem was one of the last big stars. We were already back then heading for a local market and the chances of getting into the big media streams were very low. My guess back then was that it would be hard to have a global thing that was very slim, but I was wrong (or too early). And so, it was until around 2008 when Lady Gaga just showed up out of nowhere, and after that, we got several following artists, Taylor one of them. I just feel that we are back again in the quiet mood that the mid-2000s was. At the same time, we see time from time, music gets boring. Ramones started because the music was boring in the 70s. Nirvana came because of the over-commercialized music in the 80s.

I heard another interview with kids and how they find news. Their primary source is Tiktok. And yes, big media houses report in Tiktok so they get “real” news. It’s just that the things reported are usually from the entertainment industry, and quite often from the industry in USA. We are now more global than ever. We are local and global, forget national. The second question to the kids was if they had heard about the attack in Israel this week, the answer was no, even the comment “Is that a new war”? Of course, to get your news from Tiktok you very easily end up in an echo chamber. A lot of the real news goes totally by. In my beginning on Tiktok I got presented with new music and the latest trends, but since the algorithm sees that I like more stupid stories or jokes, that is what my feed is filled with. I just saw that the algorithm doesn’t even show people I follow that much if I don’t choose that channel with just following content. And several accounts that I actually like I now don’t even get the latest stuff. So, the echo chamber is very hard to crack.

Of course, this will affect my music discovery as well. Twenty years ago, I could get my discoveries on top charts. Now everybody agrees that Spotify’s top chart is not working and really doesn’t show what is going on at all. At least I had that right when I said that 2016. The problem is that we get more and more into filter bubbles. We are not listening to the same songs as we used to do. And if we do that the time span is very short-lived, remember “Bloody Mary” from Lady Gaga speed up? That was less than a year ago and it feels like ages.

What is the future then? Superfans? Both yes and no. If you look at the porn industry, which is usually the industry that adopts the latest technology in entertainment, superfans seem to be it. Only Fans or porn direct to consumer seems just to be booming and it seems quite much money for some of the stars into it. This will of course be adapted to the music industry; you might have your account and gather your superfans there. Still, the market is kind of limited. I still like Taylor Swift, but I will never be a superfan, I can consider paying to see a show. In reality, I’m only a super fan of Ramones. Still, I like a lot of other artists. So this middle stardom will be hard to maintain.

Speaking about shows. They talk a lot and the kids also discover old music. Only last year of the 200 most played songs only 5% was new music. And they think it will be as low as 2% this year. Also, if you ask people if they want to go on a show with an artist, they just found on TikTok, the answer was just 2% would like to go on a concert with that artist. At the same time when Generation Z was asked if they would like to see live shows 82% answered they liked to go to live events or wanted it. It’s totally clear that you will choose your live events not from the algorithm or any streaming top chart. At the same time, the live events have to offer more than just “You’ll pay ten bucks to see me, on a fifteen-foot high stage, Fatass bouncers kick the shit out of kids who try to dance” as Dead Kennedys wrote in “Pull my strings”. We need new clubs, new venues, and new festivals, but most younger people running them that can define what the next generation wants. I still believe that a great concert can give you such a rush of emotions that these new generations never have felt it. I guess we need to get them back by adapting to their needs and suddenly you will have the next superstar. Otherwise Talyor Swift will be the last.