✘ Your micro-identity is killing music
- Musi too good to be true? - Spotify's Listening Party for Billie Eilish - Euphoria brought Trance to the masses - Network of indie music magazines - Legitimize Yourself -
If you ever doomscroll, you’ve come across a micro-individual. If you’ve ever enjoyed swiping through your Spotify Wrapped, you’ll think you have a micro-identity. You’re special, because it’s your taste, hyperdefined by a variety of calls and signals that a supposedly small group of others will know, understand, and vibe with. Music has a lot of history with this kind of stuff. When I started going to festivals I would wear my Aphex Twin t-shirt and people would think it was me signalling I play Half-Life. But then I would come across that one person who would know - and my micro-individual musical taste found confirmation through that stranger. On the Internet, however, we’ve taken it too far. We’ve lost sense of what’s good and honed in on trying to be different - no matter what.
The rise and rise of micro-identities
Online trends have long left the sphere of offline trends. It’s impossible to keep up. Any trend seems to invite an expression of individuality, however it’s mostly a request to buy. This can be as simple as a nail polish, or as elaborate an entire outfit. Lots of the writing about this topic focuses on fashion, which has a longer history of fast-changing trends. There’s no Gartner Hype Cycle in fashion, more a series of interlocking, fast-rising and fast-dropping curves of interest.
Add algorithmic feeds to this already hyped up hype cycle and we get the total collapse we’ve seen on social media more recently.
“When we see parts of ourselves reflected in consumer goods that others online also identify with, it can feel like a stand-in for community without sacrificing our desire for individualism. We’re part of an in-group (“the girls that get it, get it, and the girls that don’t, don’t”) that is inclusive enough for us to feel camaraderie with strangers who have the same preferences for cream blush, but exclusive enough to signal status.”
Caitlyn Clark, quoted above, understands the collapse of trends around micro-identities in the light of the individual versus a community. We’re all desperate for the recognition that community provides us with. At the same time, we are all clamoring to show our individuality.
Micro-identities and micro-genres
Every new social medium has brought with it it’s own micro-genres. This seemed to culminate in Soundcloud and find mainstream exposure through Spotify’s Wrapped. The Soundcloud version can have genres with very few artists attached to them, but with very vocal support. Spotify’s version simply has over 6000 genres now, helpfully brought into focus by the Pudding. Just like fashion trends, we can grab hold of these genres and fully immerse ourselves in it. Take KRONE, who tagged all their music with #hellscapedrill. Part of a larger evolving Memphis Rap scene, there’s a way of listening to this music as a hyperspecific genre. Similarly, there’s a way to listen to it in the broader web of Soundcloud’s dynamic artist communities.
While these Soundcloud-style micro-genres always seem artist-driven, Spotify’s are mostly not. It’s either a break up of an existing major genre into subgenres (think Latin) or it stems from a combination of listener behaviour and Spotify’s algorithm. That latter means that it also helps to understand where artists sit inside that ecosystem. Music Tomorrow made a tool to help artists do just that, and it shows the incredible web of interrelated artists.
While music seems to thrive on this micro-individual level of listening, there’s a catch. Just like with fashion micro-trends, it’s impossible to keep up. Perhaps more importantly, the feeling of community is not a feeling of recognition of ones individual identity. It’s different for artists operating as a collective through a sound they’re developing together. As listeners, it’s a false promise of individuality. You’re not going to find your Japanese Chill Rap friends. It’s more likely none of you know you have a Japanese Chill Rap identity.
Micro-identity work as unfreedom
How do we know when we make an active choice towards the music we listen to? Maybe you’re listening to the radio or an algorithmic playlist? But even when you’re listening to a micro-genre on Soundcloud and you feel immersed in the online subculture attached to it, it’s a form of oppression. It’s the idea that you have free choice, but this choice means that you feed your capital - your time and attention - into the platforms that force artists to keep churning out content. There’s no freedom, but unfreedom. So stop thinking about yourself in terms of one or more micro-identities and simply listen to music you love. Take the time to reach out to the artist that made that music and strike up a conversation.
LINKS
⁉️ Musi won over millions. Is the free music streaming app too good to be true? (Kate Knibbs)
“By tapping into YouTube in this way, Musi appears to have pulled off something remarkable: Building a booming business in streaming music without taking on any of the legwork of striking deals with labels and distributors. That causes David Herlihy, a copyright lawyer and music industry professor at Northeastern University, to describe Musi as a “bottom feeder.” He believes the app has skated by thus far because it’s not technically breaking any laws. “It’s legal,” he says. “They’re linking to YouTube, and YouTube has licenses.” Not everyone is so sure Musi is so legit.”
✘ Everyone talked about Musi all of a sudden, and it seems like some form of legal action will soon follow for the app.
🎧 Spotify drops a prime-time ‘Listening Party’ for Billie Eilish’s new album (Ashley King)
“Artists can speak directly to their fans via audio stream and fans can request to go on stage to speak to the artist directly. A direct chat is available that will facilitate chatting between fans about the music, allowing them to follow along together. Artists who participate can play any music from their Spotify library, allowing fans to easily save these songs to their Spotify account.”
✘ Remember when Clubhouse signalled how we would all engage through audio over the Internet forever more? Spotify jumped on the bandwagon and then quietly dropped it again - like all of us. Now, it looks like they still have plans for the technology.
😺 How ‘Euphoria’ brought trance to the masses (Harold Heath)
“Lashes also points to an overlooked but important aspect of the compilations’ legacy. “A particularly notable aspect of the ‘Euphoria’ series was its role in cultivating a strong female following in a scene that was, at times, predominantly male,” she says. The ‘Euphoria’ series was vital in showcasing the talents of the Tidy Girls — Anne Savage, Lisa Pin-Up, Rachel Auburn and Lisa Lashes — at a time when DJing was far less accessible to anyone who wasn’t male. It might not seem like such a big deal now, but moves like this contributed to a more welcoming and inclusive clubbing environment, as well as providing female DJ and producer role models.”
✘ It’s 138 bpm, nothing more, nothing less.
🕸️ EM GUIDE – A new network of independent music magazines (gammaw)
“A dilemma for networks and platforms that bring together individual projects for some sort of coordinated action is whether such a group is extendible or not, that is, will a network allow new members to join. Arguably, although it adds considerable complexity (to implement and maintain smooth membership lifecycles, a fair admission process, etc.), real and sustainable diversity cannot be reached via a static membership.”
✘ A great initiative to see if a more cooperative mode can help sustain independent music zines.
🫵 Legitimize yourself (Yancey Strickler)
“This path is available to us all. Instead of hoping for institutions to pick us or the social media lottery to strike, by starting labels we can create our own legitimacy. We can start new packs of our own.”
✘ This resonates quite strongly with my own piece above. The need to legitimize yourself seems to come from inside, but is also strongly placed upon us from outside. Focusing on a collective can be a way to alleviate that outside pressure, at least.
MUSIC
Arooj Aftab released a new single, and it’s absolutely beautiful. Her voice seems stronger. Have a listen and drink a whiskey with her.