So says Spotify, according to YouTube.

Apparently every song on this list is doing well on Spotify, which is the closest thing to doing well on the radio that still exists in any meaningful way. Radio still exists, sure, but it’s a backward-looking medium; and since the 90’s it’s where you go to find stuff that everyone already likes, not to discover new things you might like. It’s lowest-common-denominator slop for the masses.

Naturally, this leads to the place we are currently in, the Primacy of Pop. More than once I’ve thought of writing about the End of Poptimism, but every time I started, a cursory internet search indicates that most of the chattering class are way ahead of me. I never really cared about it to begin with; it was always a race war disguised as an aesthetic movement, and at this point people are sick of it.

So if Pop has become tired, and Hip-Hop has slowly lost steam as well (disappearing from the Top 40 this year for the first time since the 90’s), and the Country we see on the charts now is a poppy, hip-hop-infused version of itself, subject to the same problems, then that creates an opportunity for something else. Since the Death of Rock in the late 00’s, it’s disappeared into the shadows, presumably doomed to become like Jazz, limping along on life support on niche labels and school music programs.

And yet, my 14-year-old wears a Pink Floyd t-shirt to band practice and the other kids think its cool. I’ve had High School kids show off their collections of Pixies and Descendent CD’s to me. There has remained an appreciation for Rock, seeking a market. Or a market opportunity.

What’s interesting to note is how diverse the offerings on this list are. You got alternative, screamo, pop-punk, sludge metal, and the dearth of these things in the last 15-20 years makes them sound not like strange experiments but as valid expressions of recognizable ideas. Most of this list I would have scorned back when I got married, now they sound like old friends I’d lost touch with for no good reason. A bit more appreciation and a lot less disdain is the way to be as 21st Century Digital Boys and Girls. Maybe we can breath some life into the old girl.