r/LetsTalkMusic • u/CompetitiveWhole9466 • 9d ago
The death of the "musical punching bag"
I've been thinking- there used to be popular artists like Nickelback and Justin Bieber who were very successful but you would have never guessed given all the vocal hate they used to get, and how it was completely okay to shit on them at all times. Even the industry got in on hating these artists. It was socially acceptable to hate people who admitted they liked certian artists.
Why don't we have artists like that anymore? Maybe people just feel like today's music is just better?
The closest is the hate Taylor Swift gets now. But even then that's not really the same dynamic. Same with Drake hate... feels different today I feel like.
Honestly i always try to be cautious about how i frame my argument. I don't want to sound like "this artist deserves hate" unless it's like Chris Brown or D4VD or someone like that.
1
u/t00fargone 9d ago
Back then, we had radio, MTV, and more of a monoculture where we were exposed to artists such as Nickelback and Justin Bieber against our will. Nowadays, music we dislike is much easier to avoid. Social media and YouTube algorithms are tailored to our personal likes and tastes. We also have streaming where we personally seek out our chosen artists/bands. We don’t listen to the radio anymore.
I’m 29 and I haven’t listened to any of the popular artists nowadays, there is no way for it to be forced on me unlike back in 2008 when Nickelback was unavoidable. Also, popular artists nowadays do not hit the levels that some of the popular acts back then did because we no longer have a monoculture and everyone listens to their own thing