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Intro & 2024: Part 2 - Early Observations

  • kevpalowe8
  • Mar 18
  • 7 min read

Updated: Mar 20

HOW'S IT GOING?:


That’s the biggest surprise of all.


I’m loving it.


I knew I would enjoy it on some level. A ‘research project’ . Sometimes, I even quite like doing things I don’t enjoy – because you get a more tangible sense of a achievement.


That’s how it started - I began with a 24 minute playlist and once I put it together and was really to press ‘play’ for the 1st time I thought ‘I’m going to hate this............ Brilliant’. But, the surprises began right from the 1st few seconds. And, even when I wasn’t  absolutely loving it, I was asking myself what positive stance CAN I take. For example, Jack Harlow’s “Lovin On Me”.


Its not the sort of thing I would chose to listen to. BUT  ... I quite like the structure of it. I like its underscoring bass. I like its sparse texture. I like that fact that Harlow sings along to the sample used, though clearly he isn’t a particularly good singer. That’s quite a clever little trick that makes him seem ‘accessible’. We all like to have a little sing-a-long, even if we can’t sing, no? And Jack Harlow assures us that’s OK. Quite ingenious really. So; that’s how I was approaching this. That said, in that 1st week's playlist was a few tracks I genuinely liked. Dua Lipa’s “Houdini” was one I was particularly attracted to.


And, goodness, there’s a whole story that would unfold there that I will tell as we go.


But, from an early stage, it was turning out that I was GENUINELY enjoying this.


Who’d have thought it? Who’d have thought I’d end up liking so much of the music? Who’d have thought I’d find an album that was so brilliant that I’d throw it into the mix of the ‘best albums I’ve ever heard’? Who’d have thought Spotify would identify me as a ‘Top Fan’ of Dua Lipa and inform me I’m in her top 1% of listeners? Who’d have thought I’d be genuinely moved by her performance of ‘Be The One’ at Glastonbury? Who’d have thought I’d be waiting in an online queue to buy Dua Lipa tickets?  Who’d have thought I’d be recognising chart tracks on the radio? Who’d have thought I’d see the BBC headline ‘English Teacher win Mercury award for best album’ and think ‘Yes, I know who they are! I know that album and its well deserved’? Who’d have thought Id be talking to younger people and know some things that they didn’t??!!!! YES I AM THE KING!


‘Who’d have thought?’..... well why the heck would anyone be thinking about this? What I mean is it’s ME that certainly would not have. Although, I’m pretty sure that if you’d have told my friend Simon Ore a year ago that you were from the future and recited the above list, he’d have said with 100% conviction: ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know who you’re talking about but it ain’t Kev’.

 

METHODOLOGY:


Filling in 25 years is a mammoth task. I needed to start small. I decided to create a playlist of the top ten of the UK singles chart each week and ‘keep an eye’ on the album chart. Within a few weeks I was listening to the playlist everyday without fail. I very swiftly realised that ‘keeping’ an eye on the album chart was too flaky and started creating a playlist for this too. About 3 months in I decided I should try and expand further, and created an ‘alternative’ playlist for albums that did not chart highly or at all. I also planned to create playlists for music of the biggest names around. I’ve done Taylor Swift & Ed Sheeran so far.

 

EARLY OBSERVATIONS:


MELODY


Before this project, I had noted that melody has taken a bit of a back-burner as an element of pop music composition over time. Melody has been important for some artists and not for others ...... probably based on how good they are at doing it........ although that’s not always the case. Some genres don’t lend themselves to melody and in some cases music is far more affective by pushing melodic composition away. Take the Sex Pistols for example (although, Jonny Rotten’s manner of ‘pitching tone while avoiding singing per se’ was actually masterful). In order to demonstrate what I mean about melody over the years I’ve made the little video below by way of demonstration. It’s the video attached to this post.


It is a Beatles melody vs an Adele melody. Have I deliberately selected examples to demonstrate a theory, rather than at random? Yes, of course. I also feel I should make it clear that I am just illustrating a point. I am certainly not criticising the Adele song, a song that I struggle to listen to because it moves me so much. Wonderful track. If you are not familiar, there are links to these 2 tracks here.



 

GOOD..... BUT IVE HEARD IT ALL BEFORE:


There have been a number of times when I’ve been listening to my playlist and, although I’m enjoying a track or artist, I’m thinking ‘yea, but we’ve already had [insert artist] and they were better’. I’m not going to particularly discuss that because I don’t believe in the futile criteria many seem to have where everything must be original and at least as good as, or ideally better than, everything that went before it. For me..... that’s just setting yourself and everyone else up for a life full of continual disappointments. Also, I’m not by any means convinced that failure to meet such criteria can be show n to be an exclusively recent trait. So, it’s just a thought...... and its just based on the limited scope of what I’ve heard rather than an overall critique of any artist....... but here’s when I’ve thought it.


Jack Harlow....... not bad – but we’ve already had Justin Timberlake and he was better.


Olivia Rodrigo....... but we’ve already had Avril Lavigne and she was better.


Noah Kahan...... but we’ve already had Mumford & Sons and they were better.


Teddy Swims....... but we’ve already had Al Green


Gracie Abrams....... Taylor Swift


Conan Gray....... Depeche Mode


YG Marley....... (Not surprisingly) Bob Marley


Myles Smith......... Coldplay


There’s been more – you get the idea. It’s arguably a bit of a ‘theme’.

 

TRACK LENGTHS:


They’ve significantly shortened since the 90s! I remember sometime in the early 90s it was reported that the average pop song’s duration had broken the 4 minute mark. In 1998, Oasis hit the top spot with ‘All Around The World’ which clocked in at almost 10 minutes. This led to reports that the average pop song length had seen a significant rise in the previous couple of years (not just because of Oasis) and was now 4 mins and 16 seconds. As I remember it was said that since the 1960s there had been a gradual increase in average track length from 2 mins 30 seconds, with 2 sudden increases...... I think the 1st one in was the mid 70s and then in the mid-late 90s. Skip forward to 2019 and the trend had gone the other way; reportedly 3 mins and 3 secs. Judging by what I have seen/heard in this year’s UK Top Ten Singles Chart, it has been further decreasing. I’d say it’s now just shy of 3 mins.


There is something that has become known as the Spotify Effect which refers to the algorithms that ‘advertises’ a track through streaming platforms so that people will listen without specifically searching. ‘Recommendations’ etc..... that sometimes play automatically without the expressed action of the user. As I understand, it’s based on the percentage any given track is listened to by the user before they skip on. So, naturally if you have a 20 min track the chances of someone skipping on are higher than a 2 min track. So,  your track needs to be concise if you want to play to the algorithms and expose it as widely as possible. In a world of instant gratification where there is soooooo  much to consume (not just music) right in our hands, we don’t feel we have the time to waste on something we’re not getting into and quickly move right on. Therefore, while as was initially surprised tracks had got shorter, I quickly realised it made complete sense. Although, sadly, it’s evidence that the Bots rule.

 

ENDINGS:


Endings have always been problematic. Its been hotly debated over the years. There used to be 2 main ways. One was the ‘fade’...... heavily criticised as a ‘cop-out’. The other was pop's version of a symphonic ending. This would be either like the end of a Beethoven symphony. You know.... like...  Bam!...... BAM!.......BAM!....... BAM BAM! Or, often in a rock band, one big extended BAAAM!....  followed by a long roll around the drum kit and one final short BAM as the drummer crashes the cymbal. This was also heavily criticised for being cliché. I have to admit, of the 2 I actually preferred the fade.

Well, over the last few decades they’ve come up with the answer........ and I like it. It’s a thumbs up from me. And it’s so simple. Don’t worry about an ending. Don’t have one. This option is not a completely new invention but was not commonly used in the past. Obviously - the track DOES ends but it will usually simply come to the end of a musical phrase and just stop. It works really well. The pro of the fade was that the listener could imagine the song would go on forever – which in reality, even if it was the greatest track ever, would be torture........ but while you’re in the moment of enjoyment, not wanting it to end, the fade gave that Illusion without it being a reality. The ‘no end’ psychologically has the same effect..... because there actually IS no ‘end’...... you’re left hanging...... the song is suspended forever....... without it being the ‘cop out’ of the fade. Ingenious. For me, this is a definite plus point. In this case, the kids are definitely doing it better than previous generations!!!


I’ve been saying a lot without referring to the actual tracks. So, I’d like to crack on with that next. See you next time.

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