Episode 57 – “Deploy the dialog your word against the law”

Welcome to Songs That Don’t Suck, with your host, Mark Bradbourne.

Welcome to episode 57 of Songs That Don’t Suck, as always, I’m so glad you’re here. This has become my favorite time of year on the podcast because each week I am finding more and more data about the year that was, 2023. And I’m finding it from more sources, and it’s all talking about kind of the state of the industry. And this week I’ve got some fascinating tidbits that I want to share with you.

The first bit of data that I have is from a company called Chart Cipher. Chart Cipher uses artificial intelligence to analyze the Billboard streaming chart songs, and they look at song composition, lyrics, titles, things like that. Fun note, as I was digging through the research, the data as far as like the Billboard charts comes from Luminate, who I have mentioned the last couple of episodes. So I feel like we have a very trustworthy data source here, which is very important when you’re dealing with data. So Chart Cipher was looking at genres that were being streamed, and hip hop and pop were both at 27% in 2023, which was tied for the highest percentage among the genres that they listed. Country and rock were 20% and 19% respectively, with R&B, Latin, and dance filling out the rest, and those clocked in at 9%, 6%, and 3%, respectively. Now numbers mean nothing without context, right? You’re like, okay, Mark, these are great percentages, kind of makes sense. But we really need to look at what’s happening year over year to understand the trend that is happening in the industry.

So let’s look at pop first. Pop has floated between 23% and 30% over the last five years, which is probably baseline for popular music. I feel that makes sense because pop music changes, the audience changes as young people move into kind of that pop range and the people who are listening to pop get older and get better taste. So that makes sense, right? It’s that evolution that makes it hold steady with that audience as it morphs. Pop in 2019 was at 53% of streaming, and it went up in 2020 to 58%, and it has been declining ever since, declining so much that it has matched the pop levels at 27%. So the immediate question you should ask yourself is what has taken its place? Two genres, country, which has jumped from 8% in 2022 to 20% in 2023, which is 150% increase, and granted, it’s a lot of bro country, and I’m hoping that trend dies soon. I think it will. But the other genre making huge jumps, like I said, it’s rock. Rock jumped from 12% in 2022 to 19% in 2023, which is a 58% increase. Rock is on the rise, and I am ready for it.

The other good news in this bit of data that I got from Chart Cipher was that the lyrical repetitiveness is down, so masterpieces like All the Single Ladies, we’re seeing less and less of that 12-word song happen, and we’re also seeing that major keys are up as far as the number of songs, which major keys tend to produce happier music, where minor keys tend to produce darker sounds and sadder music. So if you like non-repetitive, happy songs, we should enjoy some music in 2024 if that trend holds steady.

One last thing that I found, this was from a different study. This was a company called Chart Metric, and they were studying the artist’s ability to go from undiscovered to superstar. So in 2023, 0.05% of all quote-unquote undiscovered artists were able to break out of it and get into either mid-level, mainstream, or superstar career stages. The vast majority, so almost 88% remained in the category of undiscovered, with only 12% transitioning into developing, which is the stage before mid-level. So it is still not an easy business, and I feel like it’s only gotten harder. To kind of close out my data thoughts, this was probably the best stat that I found, and it kind of made me laugh. So artists on Spotify have uploaded a combined total of 872 years of music to the platform, which is nearly twice the amount of time there was between Leonardo da Vinci painting the Mona Lisa during the Italian Renaissance, and Beyonce releasing her 2022 album, Renaissance. Oh, I love when people look at stats that way. It puts them in such great perspective.

All right, let’s get into new music this week. Really good week. If this is your first time listening, thank you so much for checking out the podcast. If this is your 51st time listening to the podcast, thank you so much for your continued support. I appreciate it. Obviously you found some value here, and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Basically each week I listen to hundreds of songs. Most of them are crap. The ones that aren’t, I put on a playlist, I review, I whittle down, and hopefully I bring five songs to you to put into your regular rotation so that you are constantly moving and evolving with the times and finding new music so that you’re not listening to the same stuff day after day, year after year, like I was before I started this podcast. So, let’s get into new music for this week.

The first song this week is Ego by Paige Fish. This one is a find from my oldest daughter, Jenna. She is off at college doing amazing things, but still has time to share music with her dear old dad. This is probably in kind of that singer-songwriter genre. There’s a splash of country here, but there’s also a very bluesy feel to this. Reminds me a little bit of Bonnie Raitt. She’s got a really lovely quality to her voice, and kind of when she slips from her lower register to her upper register, it’s just flawless, like it’s just so good. She has such good control over her voice. The music track really matches that. It’s very silky, has a great feel to it. I was kind of researching Paige, and I found that she actually auditioned for American Idol. She was only on one episode, figures kind of to me. It seems like that show is less about singing talent, and more about whatever sob story they have, which is kind of matching of most reality TV nowadays. Paige has a great voice, and looking at the credits of the song, she wrote it. So I think that speaks a lot to her as an artist. I think lyrically, the song’s pretty slick. I think it tells a really fun story. And I went and grabbed a couple of other songs just to kind of get a sample of what she’s all about, and I found that Bonnie Raitt comparison to be very valid, so if you dig Bonnie Raitt, this might be an artist that you want to dig a little deeper on, and that is Paige Fish.

The second song this week is Give It Back To Me by Francis of Delirium. This indie pop track reminds me a little of Peter Gabriel, which is odd, but it’s just one track, and it’s really more about the song structure. Peter Gabriel’s come talk to me. There’s a longing, like there’s this repetitive thing that happens, and this song kind of matches that for me, and it was the first thing that really popped into my head. Vocally, I can’t really think of who she reminds me of, but she has an absolute beautiful voice. She’s got this really cool break that happens in her voice when she’s in her upper register, especially when she’s kind of holding out and sustaining these longer high notes. You’ll notice it kind of at the tail end of the song, like when the chorus is really built up right before the bottom falls out. Very emotional track as you’re listening to it, and that vocal break that she has really adds to the longing feel that I get when I’m listening to it. Really glad that this one dropped on my radar this week. I really enjoyed this find and was really, really enjoying listening to this one.

The third song this week is from Johnnyswim, and it’s Tomar El Mundo. Please forgive my bad Spanish, but very early in the podcast I made the comment that it was highly unlikely that I would ever talk about a song that was not in English because I am not fluent in other language, including Spanish, despite the fact I’m on a pretty long Duolingo streak right now. But when an artist remakes one of your favorite songs that is originally in English as a Spanish track, that’s a winning formula for me apparently. The original title, the English title is Take the World, and I love it. It’s probably one of my favorite Johnny Swim songs, and it was really beautiful to hear the lyrics expressed in another language and still know what’s being said, and Spanish is a sexy language. It sounds good, and when Abner and Amanda are singing it, it’s magical. But it did remind me of another time I actually experienced this. So Tom Landa and the Paper Boys covered Sting’s Fragile, and they did it half in English and then half in Spanish, and it’s amazing. It’s one of my favorite songs that they’ve covered, and they’ve covered quite a few, but their version of that is fantastic. This track, oh my goodness, Tomar El Mundo, the Spanish version of it, is a two song EP, I guess. The B side, which is also in Spanish, and I have no idea what’s being said, but it’s a really beautiful song as well. I know that it’s about Abner’s parents and their love affair, which is beautiful as always, and I am patiently waiting for Johnnyswim to drop a new album. I know it’s coming. It’s got to happen soon. I can feel it.

The fourth song this week is Glitching Prisms from Night Versus, featuring Brandon Boyd. Night Versus, I’ve found, is generally an instrumental trio, and they kind of dance around the art rock, prog rock, trip hop genres with some other things sprinkled in, so it made sense for them to team up with Brandon Boyd. Now, when I first heard the song, I thought it was new music from Incubus as Brandon Boyd is the lead vocalist for Incubus, but nope, it’s just Brandon’s very distinct vocals with Night Versus. Incubus, if you are not aware, they dance around a lot of the same genres, and then some extra ones on top of that, they’re extremely diverse band. This track, Glitching Prisms, is freaking awesome. I love the proggy feel of it, and it’s good to hear Brandon singing again, which caused me to go look at Incubus and see what they’ve been doing lately, because they’ve kind of fallen off my radar, turns out Incubus has a new track here in February called Echo. I will include that in the show notes as a link, call it a little bonus music, a bonus lead for new music this week. Anyway, back to Night Versus. Musically there are moments here where I can hear bands like Marillian and Rush, and when I went and listened to a few of their other tracks from their latest album, which was a 2023 release, if you are fans of kind of heavier prog inspired music, run. Do not walk to their artist page and listen. It’s all instrumental, like I said, but it’s killer. Just killer, killer musicians, so absolutely go check out Night Versus.

The fifth song this week is Dark Matter from Pearl Jam. A friend of the show, Jeff, sent me this saying, this song does not suck, and he’s so right. The minute I started listening to it, I was struck how much it sounded like early Pearl Jam like Versus-era Pearl Jam, which is among my favorite era of the band. Their later work always was a little hit and miss for me. There would be songs that I dig and songs that I didn’t, but there was a period where they stopped writing songs that had hooks, like I’m thinking specifically of the Binaural album, which I just could not get into at all. Anyway, this song has been on solid repeat all week. It is a fantastic Pearl Jam track. If you don’t know who Pearl Jam is, I’m not sure what rock you are under, because they have been killing it for years, and it’s good to hear Pearl Jam kind of recapture what I always thought made them great, and that was kind of the slamming energy that they could put behind a track. They are going on tour. I do not know if I’m going to be able to go see them, but I am really, really hoping that happens. So, you know, thoughts and prayers for me.

All right. That is it for this week. As always, spread the word to your fellow music fans. If you’ve got someone who absolutely loves music, but struggles to find new music, this is where you send them. You can follow the show on social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads. Check out the website, songsthatdon’tsuck. net. You can send us artist recommendations. You can send me feedback, whatever you want to do. Check the show notes. There is links now for all of the music, and it goes to all the platforms, so whether you listen on Spotify or Tidal, YouTube, Bandcamp, whatever, Amazon Music, it’s all linked through Songwhip, which is pretty awesome, and it’s a free service that I’m taking advantage of, and it’s fantastic. So, go out, listen to these tracks, support these artists, and… Thanks for listening, and until next week, keep searching for and listening to songs that don’t suck.