Author: Alexander De Koning

The term listening party has always thrown me off. It’s almost a tease in the name itself – sometimes they’re cool experiences, other times they’re not as cool as they’re made out to be, maybe due to the host wanting a large turnout just so they can guarantee they’ll have a line that stretches around the block.

An anomaly occurred just a little less than a month ago, when Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” charted on the Country Billboard chart. It was, at that time, maybe taken as a joke. But then you started listening to it… and you couldn’t really tell what the song was. Was it a country song, but made with hip-hop instruments? Or vice-versa? Regardless if it feels like a glazed-donut dipped into an orange 7/11 Big-Gulp, the song itself represents perhaps a new age in contemporary music.

Some bands think about product before emotion. Some bands think about the end destination, rather than the journey. Some bands get too caught up on what the final outcome might look or sound like.

There was a bit of news last week that may have been overlooked. Warner Music Group announced its roster of newly signed artists for the coming year. On there already were the usual staples: Coldplay, Madonna, etc. But there was one signee that trailed off from the others – an algorithm generator. But as far as news goes, no one batted an eye.

There seems to be a trend going on the music world today, but this one has no signature sound. No trademark looks, face tattoos, or use of auto tune. In fact, it’s a movement to kind of not be recognizable at all, but to be minimalistic in approach. Less is always more. It bears no similarities to the genres that came before it, nor does it try to reinvent the wheel. They’re simply tunes that can be played with no more than a piano and an 808 drum machine. One critic might call it the “music of the future.”