Are we getting bored of music faster?

Where we are in society our attention span is terrible.

Yes and no. At the beginning of COVID people were almost starved of new and live music. Only thing we had for about a week was Tory Lanez with an air horn on Instagram Live! But what started coming out was music artists admitting they had still been in the studio. Throughout COVID your favorite artists were compiling music by the boatload with almost endless resources and endless time. And then what happens when an artist gets too much alone time and not a lot of socialization? Their art begins to reflect it. 

We can all agree the music released in the past 2 years is probably some of the most personable music we have ever heard. Even your viral songs sometimes still had a deep story and sad undertones. 

The reason I bring this up is for the no of my argument. People are discovering their favorite artists daily due to this transparency we are seeing in music today. We are hearing real feelings, real stories, real things that people can relate to and not just music that sounds good. Knowing who an artist actually is, carries the music a lot further. Being able to see through an artist that just wants to be rich and famous compared to an artist that wants to make art is becoming so obvious. So maybe we aren’t becoming bored of music faster, we have just become more picky. 

But at the same time where we are in society our attention span is terrible. Bringing up apps like Tik Tok where the most viral videos are no more than 1 minute. Things like Twitter dedicate no more than 1 or 2 days to a trend before it’s on to the next thing. And the sad truth that art from the small fries gets drowned in all the noise to the point that releasing art on the weekends can almost guarantee your work will be overlooked.

To add, we live in a time where music is the most accessible it’s ever been, thanks to Spotify, Apple Music and the internet in general. If you have 3 favorite artists, you can listen to their music on any device at any time. Why waste time listening to some new artist you scrolled by on Twitter, or listen to the new Drake album when you listened to Take Care every day for the past year. Nostalgia is strong, especially in a time where 2020 felt like the worst year for everyone. With nostalgia always working on us, it’s hard to redirect that joy towards new music that you can’t see yourself listening to a year from now.

So yes, music is losing our attention faster than ever. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t still discovering music and also giving flowers to all our favorite artists now before it’s too late. We may be getting bored of music faster but I will still say to remain picky in the music you enjoy. Remain picky in your time. And to my musicians, keep finding your fan base being yourself because they are out there….getting bored of the music that’s out.