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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   24289 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026

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There have been plenty of articles out over the last decade showing people are listening to older music

I would be very interested in seeing this if it's based on some kind of empirical data. However, with reference to the actor claim:

The movie star is dead. At least according to the group of disgruntled sales agents, production executives and Hollywood insiders

This sounds like a vibe check someone came up with for clicks, not a data-driven insight. Especially given that we arguably have a greater proportion of people occupying themselves with the output of young thespians ever-- they're just disproportionately engaged in reaction videos, prank videos, toy unboxing videos, etc. instead of relatively highbrow hollywood movies. I say "arguably" because I know that my opinion on this is equally driven by unsubstantiated vibe checks, but again, that's my exact point... that we can find endless amounts of anecdotes or just-so stories in either direction, but that numerically it's hard to find worthwhile information.

I don’t think you can compare YouTubers to movie stars though that would be indicative of a decline of monoculture where everyone watched the same few actors. You seem young, but from my youth it seems like the big Hollywood actors are the same people they were when I was a kid. I feel like movie stars isn’t data dependent because there’s only going to be 5-15. It’s not a giant sample size. Is Chalamet the biggest movie star now that’s younger? Maybe it’s vibes but again by definition small sample size, but I don’t think he’s anywhere close to prime Cruise or DiCaprio or Pacino.

For your point on streamers. I would agree that Logan and Jake Paul seem bigger than any current under 40 movie star. Maybe that counts; maybe it doesn’t. The death of the movie star specifically seems real.

For music I just did AI for data:

“ Yes. Streaming data, listener surveys, and chart trends show people (including younger listeners) consume more older/catalog music now than in the recent past, and established/older artists hold stronger positions relative to brand-new ones.  Catalog vs. current music on streaming “Catalog” typically means music more than 18 months old. Key U.S. on-demand audio streaming figures from Luminate (the main industry tracker, formerly MRC Data): • In 2025, catalog exceeded 75% of all annual U.S. audio streams for the first time. Current music (≤18 months old) not only lost share but fell in absolute volume (from 339 billion streams in 2024 to 334 billion in 2025).  • Music from the previous five years dropped sharply in share: 49.6% in 2024 (covering 2020–2024) to 43% in 2025 (covering 2021–2025). That represents a large absolute shift toward older material.  • 1980s + 1990s music together rose from 6.9% to 9.7% share in 2025; 2000–2009 also gained modestly.  • Earlier benchmarks showed catalog already high and rising (e.g., around 66–73% in the early 2020s). Pre-streaming eras had far higher reliance on new releases for revenue and chart dominance because older music was less accessible. Spotify has described 2026 as its “most nostalgic year,” with roughly 1 in 3 streams going to songs at least a decade old and 1 in 6 to tracks at least two decades old—up significantly from the peak of new-music dominance around 2016. In early 2026, the share of Spotify Global Top 50 songs released in the prior two years fell to 69% (from >90% in 2019–2020).  Younger listeners are part of this. A Luminate study found that among ages 13–24, the share naming 2020s music as their favorite fell from 55% (2021) to 44% (2025), while preference for 1990s-or-earlier music rose from 18% to 25%. 1990s music was the fastest-growing decade by streams in a recent period (+8%).  Chart and artist-age trends • Average age of Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hitmakers has risen recently (historically around 28–29 overall; 32 in 2025, one of the higher recent readings). Millennial artists have dominated recent Top 10s, with fewer breakthroughs by true Gen Z (teen) artists.  • The share of new artists on charts has declined over decades (roughly from 60% in the 1960s toward 30% more recently), with more positions occupied by established “hitmakers.”  • Older/legacy artists continue to score major commercial success via new releases, tours, and catalog boosts (e.g., from biopics, TikTok virality, or reissues). Examples include sustained or renewed streaming for acts from the 1970s–1990s and charting longevity for artists in their 30s–40s+. Why this is happening (and caveats) Streaming removes friction: entire catalogs are instantly available, algorithmic playlists and social media (especially TikTok) surface older tracks, and listeners of all ages return to music from formative years while still sampling new material. Nostalgia and the sheer volume of new releases (tens of thousands daily, many unheard) also play roles.  Caveats: Much of the “catalog” growth is “shallow” (music a few years old that stays relevant longer via playlists) rather than only deep pre-1980/1990 material. Very old music (pre-1980) remains a small share overall. Contemporary music still accounts for a large absolute volume of streams, and new hits continue to break through—just with catalog claiming a larger and growing slice of total listening. Data is strongest for the streaming era (post-2010s); pre-digital comparisons are imperfect because consumption was measured differently (sales, radio, physical ownership). In short, the evidence from industry tracking (Luminate), platform data (Spotify), and listener surveys consistently shows higher relative and often absolute engagement with older musicians and catalog music today than in the recent past.”

So it does seem that data rise current hits have steadily been losing share to older things.

Okay, I will concede that this is at least weak evidence in favor of your assertion. I can, however, come up with other compelling explanations for the data pretty easily:

  1. Concurrently or in addition to the global/nationwide trends, the median spotify user is getting older. I mean this in both the obvious literal since (everyone is always getting older) but also in the sense that the age demographics of new users is also shifting to favor older demographics as the population pyramid skews older in general. This is very much in line with, "Contemporary music still accounts for a large absolute volume of streams" -- representing not a transition of liking specifically older music, but of liking the same music, which happens to age alongside the people who discovered and loved it when it was novel.
  2. Some combination of spotify itself and the structure of the music industry is making new music gradually less discoverable. This could be due to an oversaturation of online artists due to reduced barriers to entry in the recording business, or entrenched music and advertising interests getting more entrenched and working in an anticompetitive fashion. Rather than a growing preponderance of old music representing the true "preference" of consumers, it represents the true preference of consumers on spotify-- whereas discouraged novelty-seeking consumers are gradually slipping away to other platforms that make new music more discoverable. (Like souncloud, maybe? Or youtube music?)

(Also, to transpose this argument onto the publishing world would require an explanation for the disparity in behavior in men and women for books if the behavior for music is similar/identical. Though I recognize that you're not the original poster I was talking to and therefore that you may want to argue narrowly the age-preference thing rather than my original point about the publishing industry.)

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