Even the most popular groups aren't popular if you don't keep up with pop culture.

    Okay I know this sounds silly because OBVIOUSLY but social media has fractured pop culture and the way we consume music and art so much that we are now in our own small spheres and a monoculture like it existed in older day doesn't exist anymore.


    What I mean to say by all this mumbo jumbo is that back then if Britney Spears had a hit everyone knew it. Nowadays the biggest hits are on tik tok so let's say you are on booktok there are odds you might not know the song if the song isn't viral in your section of internet.


    I noticed this with Benson Boon. Apparently he is a popular musician about whom I didn't know at all. I suppose I had heard his songs in reels, shots and tik toks but... I didn't know the song exactly or that it was a Benson Boon song. This is not a new phenomenon but I feel like this type of popularity is always... weird. It's music for background listening. It's not music that touches you. Ofcourse you can argue that this type of music can touch you but the way I see it it's really just an attempt at money making. (At least Benson Boon and the recent country pop trends sure is).


    I didn't keep up with kpop for almost an year due to college and in that one year I heard absolutely nothing about the genre. No BTS no Blackpink no NewJeans nothing. I hadn't even realized Blackpink had gone solo until I went to reddit. It just shows that the popularity of pop music ends outside of internet. Now people will say what about the stadiums? Obviously people listening on the internet are humans who exist in real life but what I am saying is that the probability of meeting these humans is lower in real life than on internet where there are concentrated spaces for fandoms.


    Take Coldplay. I have never heard of anyone listening to them but they are selling multiple dates in stadiums. I honestly think they are the most popular group in the world but also... I have no idea that they have been releasing new music???

    Agree about how we don't have "international acts" really international like back in the day.

    I'll take Brazil as an example. When TV and radio were the only source of music for people we had soooo many singers known by everybody, but now it's like big or small niches and unless you go outside your sphere you won't know even one song out of the top 100 of your country Spotify.

    Here we have a singer who I never heard about selling out stadiums that not even Anitta can.. unbelievable.

    But yeah, now we are more "spread" and as we have way more diversity I assume you'll just focus in what you like and be there.

    Quote from monalisalove

    Agree about how we don't have "international acts" really international like back in the day.

    I'll take Brazil as an example. When TV and radio were the only source of music for people we had soooo many singers known by everybody, but now it's like big or small niches and unless you go outside your sphere you won't know even one song out of the top 100 of your country Spotify.

    Here we have a singer who I never heard about selling out stadiums that not even Anitta can.. unbelievable.

    But yeah, now we are more "spread" and as we have way more diversity I assume you'll just focus in what you like and be there.

    Yeah I don't think it's a bad thing per se. Now more artists have a chance to be popular and gain their own fanbases. Music has become way more inclusive so it's not just the same 5 singers anymore. What's terrible though is the algorithm driven stuff that gets pushed to us and the latest upcoming AI slop is going to make things worse. But just as there are cons there are also pros.

    Quote from yerisvelvet

    Yeah I don't think it's a bad thing per se. Now more artists have a chance to be popular and gain their own fanbases. Music has become way more inclusive so it's not just the same 5 singers anymore. What's terrible though is the algorithm driven stuff that gets pushed to us and the latest upcoming AI slop is going to make things worse. But just as there are cons there are also pros.

    Yep, overall is great, more opportunities etc, but also yeah, we probably won't have any other act as known as MJ, etc.

    Yes I've seen videos about this topic. Back in the day there was only radio and MTV and that's what everyone listened to and watched so everybody knew all the popular bands and songs. Even if you weren't a fan of MJ or Madonna you knew their songs cause there was no escaping them. But these days we have a million options and we aren't all living on the same two channels. We only listen to who we want too. Like I know who Taylor Swift is but I couldn't name any of her songs or even be able to tell you it was her if I heard her voice.


    The best way to put it is no matter how big an artist is and how big their fandom is, it is still miniscule to the overall general public who probably doesn't even know them or at least can't even name one song from them.

    Quote from yerisvelvet

    Okay I know this sounds silly because OBVIOUSLY but social media has fractured pop culture and the way we consume music and art so much that we are now in our own small spheres and a monoculture like it existed in older day doesn't exist anymore.



    Before social media/internet, mainstream media on tv and radio got to decide who would become popular.

    They would play and fawn over whoever they wanted to be popular, so "naturally" (but actually not naturally at all), that person or group became popular and everybody knew them. Most of the time it wasn't "they show who was popular", but "they are popular because they showed them."


    There would have been no Kpop popularity in the West at all, because Western music industries would not want that competition.


    Now, people can make a choice themselves what they want to listen to.

    If you decide today you will become a fan of Croatian folk music, you can open an app and within a minute you're listening to it.


    The Western music industries are still very gatekeepy, but they can't control what people see anymore like they used to. Anyone can go to some app and check out Kpop groups and become a fan, even very nugu Kpop groups often have Western fans.


    So, on the positive side: I'm glad (usually American) people can't decide for everyone anymore who is popular and people have way more choices.

    Quote from icyruios

    Mariah Carey sunbaenim ends everyone you cannot escape her even if you live forever in your mom's basement

    APT ended Mariah Carey flop :iconpepe: just kidding

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  • AllKill VIP

    Before I got into K-pop, I was really into rock and never used Spotify or anything like that. I followed a website that regularly posted new rock bands and albums—mostly gothic or symphonic rock. I’d check out anything that looked interesting, even if it was totally underground or unknown.


    Before that, I was into all the boy groups of the ’90s. Back then you had MTV, the radio, and teen magazines to help you discover artists. That’s how I found groups like NKOTB, Boyzone, O-Town, Youngstown, C-Note, LFO, 5ive, Westlife, 98 Degrees, NSYNC, No Authority… the list goes on.


    These days, with K-pop, I use Spotify to explore and let it play random tracks. I usually end up stanning smaller or lesser-known groups more than the huge ones. It always makes me happy when I can introduce someone to a group they’d never heard of.


    I guess I’ve always been the type to find music off the beaten path, not necessarily following the most popular trends or biggest names.

    Quote from number-one

    APT ended Mariah Carey flop :iconpepe: just kidding

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    It's ok because at 2025 year end Mariah will take it back

    Quote from xx-jenn-xx

    That’s h‍ow I found groups like NKOTB, Boyzone, O-Town, Youngstown, C-Note, LFO, 5ive, Westlife, 98 Degrees, NSYNC, N‍o Authority… the list goes on.

    H‍ow did y‍ou manage to leave Backstreet Boys off of that list?!

  • AllKill VIP

    Duh. No one is listening to the radio or watching music only channels on TV anyway. The way people consume content and especially new music has just changed.


    I would say people now have access to more music than ever. Rather than saying no one is ever global I would actually say the average global popularity of music itself has gone up many folds. With reels and TikTok I know obscure songs from all over the world. Not just America who had the monopoly on global music because they had the funds to project themselves far more than any other country.


    So sure maybe one singular artist isn’t as popular as MJ or something but we have a hundreds of artists from all over the world having hits and visibility because of social media.

    Quote from Jasque-O-Part2

    Maybe that's why it feels like Rock is dead for me


    People my age and older only care about bands of grandpas or the ones that most members are dead.


    Where are the young people that everyone knows? Where is this gen Linkin Park or Nirvana?

    Tbh there are a lot of factors to why rock is "dead" and a big reason is the advertising companies and labels in late 90s and early 00s changing their business model. Still if you check out some post rock stuff you will find that there are small dedicated fanbase and communities who talk about these groups. Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Black Country New Road, and an upcoming band called Maruja are getting a lot of hype recently.

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