Really, internet? Really? For the past 5-7 weeks, the top 5 positions on the Spotify Top 50 Streams have remained virtually unchanged, with Miley Cyrus, Drake, Katy Perry, Lorde an Avicii playing musical chairs in positioning while racking up nearly 9 million cumulative weekly streams.
We use FM radio as a whipping post for our frustrations over endlessly repetitive programming and nauseating overpromotion of a painfully limited roster of names. But if Spotify’s streaming numbers are to be believed, the general public wants it that way. Bands occupying positions 5-10 on the Spotify Top 50 Streams chart are more of the same as well, with Jay Z’s “Holy Grail” and Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive” still holding strong. New singles from Lorde and Drake add some new blood to the mix, but it’s the same flavor, endlessly.
Who says Rock is dead? Spotify, the service Thom Yorke calls the “desperate fart of a dying corpse,” does. Only one rock band (Imagine Dragons) is anywhere near the top 20. It doesn’t matter how much hype goes into new albums from Pearl Jam, Kings of Leon, Nine Inch Nails and beyond – there’s barely a blip on the Spotify radar when it comes to rock n’ roll, and none of the aforementioned bands have made any impact on the chart whatsoever.
Check out Spotify’s Top 50 Tracks for the week, the musical equivalent of the Groundhog Day movie. Only without Bill Murray.
