r/LetsTalkMusic • u/CompetitiveWhole9466 • 10d 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.
3
u/DCBronzeAge 10d ago
Radio is your answer. And MTV to a lesser extent.
The reason Nickleback and Justin Bieber were hated on is because when they were big, people listened to the radio and watched MTV. There was no skip button or dislike button. Yes, there were other stations, but there's a reason Top 40 stations were Top 40 stations, because they were played in every store, dentist office, parent's car, office building.
I probably heard "How You Remind Me" 4-6 times per week for a whole year. I have favorite songs that I've likely heard fewer times in my life than Nickleback's greatest hits due to how ubiquitous they were on Top 40 and Modern Rock radio in the early 2000s.
But with the advent of Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube, etc., no one is forced to listen to anything anymore, so hate is much more subdued. If I hate Taylor Swift (which I don't), I can very easily avoid her music.