IS MUSIC DYING OR ARE PEOPLE JUST NOT SEARCHING...?

Music is an art form that has continued for most of eternity. If it is using sticks and trees to create a sound or getting inside of a studio and producing a piece. It exists in all cultures and languages. If anything, it's one of the only constant things in humanity. We share love, anger, frustration, melancholy through music—every topic and feeling already covered. Nowadays it seems so difficult to find new artists since everything sounds the same. But truth be told, those same people are actually searching. And most of the time, they stick to just one genre. There are only 40 widely recognised genres of music which include hip-hop/rap, country, pop (hating pop music doesn’t make you deep!!!), EDM, K-pop, R&B/soul, jazz, Latin and soooo much more. And yet there are distinctly over 6,000 genres worldwide. You can’t look at me in the face and tell me that you only listen to a certain genre then say: “Ugh, everything is boring. All music is the same and that’s why its dying.” Because without a doubt, you are so wrong!

I think we all know that music is for everyone and when I say everyone, its CREATED for everyone. If you stick to one genre of music, sure, everything will start feeling the same because mainstream is taking over. I mean, it is called mainstream for a reason. When we go on social media as teenagers do, we hear the same songs on repeat. We are also taught to follow trends to gain popularity which looking at it now that I’m older, that was the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard.

Is individuality difficult these days? Yes! We are so far into humanity that there’s no way anyone can be different. Like the clothes you wear, music you listen to or the activities you do to feel a bit whimsy and free. But the day that we all stop grasping onto that mainstream sound, music will not seem like its dying. I think its impossible for something so special to just die—disappear.

My biggest tip that barely anyone ever tells you: don’t let a language barrier keep you from finding your favourite songs. Me myself, I have just discovered Japanese shoegaze, and I think it's one of the most beautiful genres to exist. People hate on K-pop specifically because what comes to their mind is Dynamite or Butter by BTS, or something from Blackpink and even Stray Kids and expect the worst. See now, I’m not hating on anyone who actually listens to them, its music and everyone has different tastes but if people cared enough to listen to something else that’s not so popular, they could find some hidden gems. I am a strong believer that no matter how much you might dislike an artist or genre, you will always find at least ONE song that you would enjoy!

I understand having different tastes, and I get why you would enjoy rap or country. It’s just that if you enjoy one genre of music, I can tell you now and confidently, you will like other genres.

The problem is nobody likes to search at all!!! They expect it to arrive in their hands. My favourite ways to find new music is concerts (especially openers), Instagram profiles and reels to which they talk about discovery of artists. The thing is about concerts is that they have become WAYYY too expensive. My friend the other day was buying tickets to the System of a Down concert (no hate to them) and tickets that weren’t even that close were $250 AUD which is a ridiculous prize. I hate how concerts seem like a luxury nowadays instead of a privilege. Linking back to what I said before, music is shared in so many ways and emotions. Doesn’t it feel a bit dystopian that the cost of seeing your favourite artist life could cost more than grocery shopping for a family of three? (true story). That is why I think small artists aren’t really getting noticed anymore, I don’t know if it's their team/record label or just themselves, the pricing for an artist with under a million monthly listeners on spotify shouldn’t be $200 or near. People used to go to random concerts and discover through a live experience, but it seems like only the wealthier can do it now.

I think this one of the most brilliant ideas to give people exposure to the many genres in the world: if you search up ‘Every Noise At Once’ on google, a website will pop up. If you click onto it, there's a map of so many music genres, even ones you’ve never heard of. You can click onto a certain one and a clip of a song from that genre will play. To go further, you can go on ‘list’, chose a genre and press on it. It further gives sub genres and even a spotify playlists that you can listen to based on the genre you chose. I even heard this great idea where you can pick a random number ranging from 1 to 6291 and whatever number it is, find the genre, click onto it and listen to it. It's such an amazing website to discover new music.

Now, if you ever go and say: “Music is dying!” you have thought wrong, you just aren’t searching.