The point you raised about people being less inclined to keep up with new music than new films is interesting.
I suspect (and you may have suggested this previously) the main factor is actually thematic. Pop music remains focused on young relationships and sex to a degree not reflected in other mediums. And I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling distanced (even awkward) listening to someone ten years younger than me sing about those things.
By comparison, sitcoms are often pitched towards a broader age range. There are plenty of exceptions, but the default seems to be a nuclear family, or at least adults in their late twenties. And if young romance isn't the main focus it's likelier to appeal to an older crowd. And where drama is concerned, older romance might be even better suited as a subject than the younger kind, the stakes generally being higher.
Thematic content is unmentioned here but I think you are correct. Though I feel like people have more of a stomach for thematic content focused around young people on film over music. There are of course limits. Good point though
1. Question: is the ratio of male/female responses in line with your subscriber demo? If not, why would men overwhelmingly respond vs the woman? 🧐
2. We’ve turned into a visual society. Watching a music video is multi sensory vs listening to a song in your headset. That said. I want my MTV back. Think of all the new music we discovered thanks to curated music video programming!! It’s now a comedy/reality/talk show station with no “M” in the TV. AXS has cool programming but not straight up music videos like the glory days of MTV. We need a player to come in with a 24/7 channel featuring programming slots for a variety of genres. And offer that shit on Netflix / Apple TV as part of the basic package. Sprinkle in VJ’s with fun facts and short artist interviews. Put Ray Romano music programming formats in front of Jackie Gleason viewers and we’ll at least have something to talk about.
In terms of question one, I'm not sure. Unless I've missed it, I don't think Substack gives you user demographics. I suspect my subscribers skew male based on the people who comment, but I really have no idea.
Substack demos would be nice, but those questions would certainly scare off new subs. Just thinking out loud on that one. Too often I hear that women don’t respond to questions, invites, offers. Just curious if this is one of those times.
A good question. When I look at a Substack post’s likers and commenters, I often get the sense that there’s a larger group of readers who like but don’t comment, that these might almost be two separate groups. Maybe the same with survey respondents. Are they significantly different in age, gender, etc. from the regular readers, likers and/or commenters? I feel Substack commenters skew a little old and male, but I don’t know if Chris’s respondents are like that. About half of the survey respondents were over 50. Does that mean old, or not? Same with the 3:1 male:female ratio in respondents: Is that what to expect for a data-driven blog, or not?
And the MTV Unplugged series. Bits and pieces are out there on YouTube. But last summer PBS started streaming Dylan’s 1994 Unplugged appearance and it reminded me what a great format that was, how it encouraged more stripped-down performances of the greatest hits:
I also think streaming is a HUGE factor that was not mentioned in the piece. When I was growing up, unless you were buying an album or CD, the musical spectrum was really limited to four subsets: niche, (think Quiet Storm or soft rock), general genre (like rock, R&B, and country), top 40, and “oldies“ – music that had been top 40 but was kind of deemed whatever the commercial equivalent of culturally significant was.
When I listen to music now, I have no idea when it’s from, or how old or popular, the musician performing it is. And to a large degree, it doesn’t really matter.
Really interesting stuff, Chris. While it’s true that my vibe, broadly speaking, with what is most popular has probably been diminishing since the 70s (I’m 59), there is the occasional outlier like Billie Eilish, whom I love. And it seems somewhat ironic that the sound of pop, divorced from what is actually selling or streaming millions, has so infused the category I call “Rock, Folk, etc.” - whether it’s Shalom, Boygenius, or Claud - that I’m considering changing it to “Rock, Folk, Pop, etc.”!
The point you raised about people being less inclined to keep up with new music than new films is interesting.
I suspect (and you may have suggested this previously) the main factor is actually thematic. Pop music remains focused on young relationships and sex to a degree not reflected in other mediums. And I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling distanced (even awkward) listening to someone ten years younger than me sing about those things.
By comparison, sitcoms are often pitched towards a broader age range. There are plenty of exceptions, but the default seems to be a nuclear family, or at least adults in their late twenties. And if young romance isn't the main focus it's likelier to appeal to an older crowd. And where drama is concerned, older romance might be even better suited as a subject than the younger kind, the stakes generally being higher.
Thematic content is unmentioned here but I think you are correct. Though I feel like people have more of a stomach for thematic content focused around young people on film over music. There are of course limits. Good point though
You know I’m chiming in on this one!
1. Question: is the ratio of male/female responses in line with your subscriber demo? If not, why would men overwhelmingly respond vs the woman? 🧐
2. We’ve turned into a visual society. Watching a music video is multi sensory vs listening to a song in your headset. That said. I want my MTV back. Think of all the new music we discovered thanks to curated music video programming!! It’s now a comedy/reality/talk show station with no “M” in the TV. AXS has cool programming but not straight up music videos like the glory days of MTV. We need a player to come in with a 24/7 channel featuring programming slots for a variety of genres. And offer that shit on Netflix / Apple TV as part of the basic package. Sprinkle in VJ’s with fun facts and short artist interviews. Put Ray Romano music programming formats in front of Jackie Gleason viewers and we’ll at least have something to talk about.
In terms of question one, I'm not sure. Unless I've missed it, I don't think Substack gives you user demographics. I suspect my subscribers skew male based on the people who comment, but I really have no idea.
Substack demos would be nice, but those questions would certainly scare off new subs. Just thinking out loud on that one. Too often I hear that women don’t respond to questions, invites, offers. Just curious if this is one of those times.
A good question. When I look at a Substack post’s likers and commenters, I often get the sense that there’s a larger group of readers who like but don’t comment, that these might almost be two separate groups. Maybe the same with survey respondents. Are they significantly different in age, gender, etc. from the regular readers, likers and/or commenters? I feel Substack commenters skew a little old and male, but I don’t know if Chris’s respondents are like that. About half of the survey respondents were over 50. Does that mean old, or not? Same with the 3:1 male:female ratio in respondents: Is that what to expect for a data-driven blog, or not?
And the MTV Unplugged series. Bits and pieces are out there on YouTube. But last summer PBS started streaming Dylan’s 1994 Unplugged appearance and it reminded me what a great format that was, how it encouraged more stripped-down performances of the greatest hits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJpB_AEZf6U
Maybe Lana Del Rey for the first of the new series?
How cool would that be?!?
I also think streaming is a HUGE factor that was not mentioned in the piece. When I was growing up, unless you were buying an album or CD, the musical spectrum was really limited to four subsets: niche, (think Quiet Storm or soft rock), general genre (like rock, R&B, and country), top 40, and “oldies“ – music that had been top 40 but was kind of deemed whatever the commercial equivalent of culturally significant was.
When I listen to music now, I have no idea when it’s from, or how old or popular, the musician performing it is. And to a large degree, it doesn’t really matter.
This is ultimately probably the best way to listen to music
This is golden, Chris. It makes me realize I need to really listen to things again. I've lost the ear. The ear is here. Needs to come back. Cheers man
Really interesting stuff, Chris. While it’s true that my vibe, broadly speaking, with what is most popular has probably been diminishing since the 70s (I’m 59), there is the occasional outlier like Billie Eilish, whom I love. And it seems somewhat ironic that the sound of pop, divorced from what is actually selling or streaming millions, has so infused the category I call “Rock, Folk, etc.” - whether it’s Shalom, Boygenius, or Claud - that I’m considering changing it to “Rock, Folk, Pop, etc.”!