Last week, a friend asked me, "Who is Noah Kahan?"
I didn't know.
I mean, I know he is a very popular musician. But I didn't know why because I hadn't heard a note of his music.
Then, last night during a quick social media scroll, I saw the name Jason Derulo and I had the same feeling. Who is this? He's huge, I thought. But why? Again, I hadn't heard a note of music.
If it was 1977, who would Noah Kahan, Jason Derulo, Turnstile and Angine de Poitrine be?
This isn't a knock on these or any artists. I just have a feeling that in 1977, I would have not only known wildly popular artists, I would also know a lot of their music, whether I liked it or not. Today, not so much.
I could probably name another 50 artists just by spending one minute on Brooklyn Vegan's home page. Who are these people? I don't remember being this baffled in 1977 or 1987, for that matter.
20 comments:
Angine de Poitrine are big in prog circles and have a viral video on youtube. Kind of proggy math rock. Just guitar and drums. But the reason they went viral is the costumes they wear. The costumes got people to hear complex instrumental music that they normally would never know about. I just ordered their 2 albums. The other artists mentioned I never heard of
Sorry, I should have been more clear. I know Angine and have listened to their music. But I would love to hear people's ideas about who those four artists equivalents would have been in 1977, if that's even something anyone can say.
All I can say, Sal, is I know the feeling. 😎
Back in 1977 'album rock radio' played new music so we got to hear what was new whether we liked it or not.
The internet is too sprawling for us to be able to keep up with all that's out there that's new.
Anyway something like that, it's too early in the morning for me to ponder this question thoroughly just yet. Good morning. Yawn!
Captain Al
Let me try this.
Let's say you were one of the "Disco Sucks" crowd in 1977. I bet you still knew 25 disco hits. You might have been a loyal fan of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, but you still knew why 1977's Mac was playing arenas. You may vehemently hate rap, but you KNEW who Public Enemy and Run DMC were.
Noah Kahan is playing Wrigley Field!
Without record shops, radio and music magazines that I like being available any longer, I discover music via various friends, blogs, and forums that feature music in styles I like or think I might. I never cared about top 40 or AM radio, and my streaming service conveniently allows me to filter new releases by genre, so it’s unlikely I’ll come across those you mention or others that have a broad fan base on TikTok and that ilk. I heard of Noah Kahan via a crossword puzzle clue that I couldn’t answer, but still haven’t listened to his work.
- Paul in DK
Here’s another possible factor: nowadays most people wear headphones in public thus isolating themselves and not sharing whatever they are listening to. It didn’t matter if we wanted to hear the music or not it would enter our ears and thus we would become aware of it.
Also curated playlists limit what we hear. Much less democratic.
This topic is saddening me I Think I’ll put my headphones on. :-)
Captain Al
Okay so pre-internet, pre-streaming, pre-YouTube, we had radio, MTV, rock magazines, American Bandstand, Solid Gold.
Isn't it odd that NOW, everything is at our fingertips, with hundreds of ways to hear and see and read about music, and for some reason, we know less?
The death of MTV playing music videos has a *lot* to do with this. Like it or not, that was a cultural touchstone for many decades in discovering new music (or, rather, the music foisted upon us by the record labels). If you have younger daughters, you'd know who Noah Kahan is. :-)
I hear what you're saying, but my argument...well not an argument, really but...my point is...having young daughters explains knowing who Noah Kahan is NOW. 40 years ago, one didn't need nose piercings and mohawks to know the Sex Pistols, or kids to know who Debbie Gibson was. We knew, even if we didn't listen.
I just don't have a memory of knowing so little about current music back in the 70's, 80' and even 90's, the way I know so little in the 2000s. And I listen to music just as much, if not more than I did 40 years ago.
The other real reason is the death of "Top 40" radio. Everything on the radio is now so segregated into genres, that it's near impossible to keep up with what is current and popular any more unless something really breaks through the zeitgeist . And, honestly, even if "Top 40" radio was still a real thing -- would anybody even listen to it?
Bingo, this is exactly right
i think noah kahn is maybe dan fogelberg? and jason derulo is lionel richie?
Haha. Okay, that's not what I mean.
Who would be headlining stadiums 40 or 50 years ago that would make us ask "Who is that?"
Yanni? Naw, the ads made him known. It's hard to find lists of stadium tours. How about playing MSG in the 1970s? I'm sure you Stray Dog, but I didn't know them or Bulldog, an Argentine punk rock band. The link is fun. You can go to any year and see all the acts at MSG. https://www.concertarchives.org/venues/madison-square-garden--4?page=2&year=1972#concert-table
In 1972 Bulldog was an offshoot of the Rascals, certainly too early for punk.
But while not what you asked for, I think the points by Captain Al and Shriner and so on are all germane. No radio, no MTV and a LOT more music than ever before. it's no surprise stuff can be really popular for some and remain unknown to others, even hardcore music fans. I mean, I finally played a song by Kahane because like you I thought, Who the hell is that? But it did nothing for me. Didn't even finish the album. But unlike massive music fans, I am sure the phenomenon of being clueless about something that is huge in other circles is very familiar to most and not even an age thing. Lots of women are deep into romantasy but to most of us Fourth Wing and A Court of Thorns & Roses are titles that mean nothing. But they are HUGE.
My bad. Bulldog is also the name of an Argentine punk band but they came later. I had to look up who Bulldog was and they came up, not that group.
well okay so I wouldn't have been baffled because I was into all things music I tended to be aware of most bands and or artists and had at least a vague idea of what they were about (albeit sometimes wrong as addressed later) but on the other hand awareness did not make me listen to those people. Whereas today I don't even pay as much attention although I hear a lot of the names I'm usually not interested enough to go seek it out. Unless of course you recommend it. That being said I didn't really listen to 38 Special or a bunch of other southern rock bands or whatever that Seals and Crofts knock off was England Dan something or other and whoever. And much to my later shame a lot of the disco / smooth soul bands of that era good example would be the Sylvers whose bass player is and was amazing and my loss. Hope that answers your question.
Sal, this is an excellent thread and probably the most salient discussion about pop music. I know of Kahan because my daughter's nineteen. I'm still bamboozled as to how he's touring stadiums this summer (she's catching him at Oracle Park in SF next month). I understand how atomized our culture is but still, why don't we hear his music everywhere? That said, Bruno's touring football stadiums and I barely hear his music in public. I often tell my students that I never bought a single Pearl Jam or Nirvana album in the early 1990s because I didn't need to; those cd's were blasted out of every other dorm room or apartment in my community for years on a daily basis, so whether or not I even wanted to listen to grunge, I did every day...
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