The proportion of music genres has increased over the past decade, according to Spotify. To SVT Kulturnyheterna, the streaming platform reveals that they have identified more than a thousand genres.
– New genres actually appear every day. We usually pick them up quite quickly to show them to our users, says Emma Vikström, music editor at Spotify, to SVT and continues:
– There are any number of users who listen to music that I, as a music editor, do not, but then their listening behavior enters our data, and this allows us to present more genres to more users.
New identity
Streaming and increased accessibility to music is believed to be the cause of the genre explosion.
– Artists are inspired by others to get out of the noise of all the endless music that is released today, says Emma Vikström and adds that a change has also occurred in listeners’ identification patterns:
– In the past you were a popper, today you are, for example, a “swiftie”,
Barbiecore is a typical example of a new genre that popped up. It originated last summer and is a result of the “Barbie” movie soundtrack. But how it finally sounds is unclear.
– Barbiecore means everything from classic hip-hop to disco and pop, as long as it’s in the realm of pink and joy. But we’ll see how long it lasts. This case is more about a cultural phenomenon that gives birth to a genre, than the other way around, says Emma Vikström.
Genre: Mood based
In other words, genres are still important, not least for platforms like Spotify. But the concept’s meaning has simply shifted.
– Our younger consumers don’t listen genre-based anymore, it’s more genre-crossing and mood-based. If you are sad, for example, you want to listen to a playlist with sad music, explains Emma Vikström.
Is there anything bad about this change?
– I don’t think so, there is more and more to discover. If you love one type of genre, it can lead you to love another.
So the genre isn’t dead?
– Absolutely not.
