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Mint
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Mint
How music discovery became predictable
If I could, I'd pay serious money to travel 20-something years back in time to experience Nirvana's ground-breaking album, Nevermind, for the very first time again. Having borrowed a cassette from a schoolfriend, I found an opportune time to go to my parents' room and use the two-in-one music system—a 'deck". This wasn't a parent-friendly record; on Smells Like Teen Spirit, the main guy, Kurt Cobain, screams about his libido repeatedly. While I'd heard one Nirvana song—Come As You Are, via a stray MP3 on someone's CD—I had little idea what was coming next: a sonic thunderstorm that would blow my teenage brain right out of my ears. All of this today sounds like gibberish. 'Two-in-one"? 'Cassette"? 'MP3"? In the early-to-mid-2000s, these were essential terms in the cultural lexicon. Music consumption and discovery, as with every generation prior and since, was for millennials too dictated by the prevailing technology of the time, and indeed its limitations. Only, that particular period is the most tumultuous in recent music history. It was an era of upheaval, transformation, and chaos, as the world shifted from the physical to the digital: cassettes were commonplace and affordable (a standard ₹125), but they were being phased out. CDs were a popular if rather more expensive format. These were found, neatly arranged by name and genre, in brick-and-mortar shops, imagine. MP3s, available for download online, became a convenient and free alternative, existing in a lawless, peer-to-peer digital jungle via file-sharing software Napster and the clones that followed. While no longer a complete novelty, digital music wasn't yet pervasive either. But it was gaining traction, leaving the industry in turmoil as bands lost significant revenue and labels' bottomline got wrecked. Everything was illegal, pirated by amoral music nerds and spread widely by internet anarchists. Starved as we were of a lot of current music that just wouldn't release in India via conventional routes, we hit the download button. These trends defined how young people discovered their music. You could go to a Planet M to window-shop, and you'd end up finding a random band or artist that could ruin your week or change your life. Grey market spaces like Palika Bazaar—an underground and 100% illegal market in the heart of Delhi—became a source for complete (pirated) discographies, sorted into digestible MP3 folders. Cable TV, pre-streaming, was another place to find music. MTV and Channel V and, later, a channel called VH1, would play music videos all day long. NO MORE BARRIER TO ENTRY Musical tastes, for millennials and those preceding them, were shaped by a range of eclectic factors. The most exciting among these were the happy discoveries. The life-changing accidents. A random untitled mix-CD from a friend's friend's friend. A mislabelled song on the pirate software Limewire. Something you stumble upon on VH1 while channel-surfing. The songs you've never heard before, that catch you by surprise. It's this feeling where a greater force takes over your being, and compels you to dig deeper, and find out everything about that band. You have no choice but to start a new obsession immediately. Much of these tools of discovery have now, for reasons good and bad, been rendered obsolete. And while it's tempting to romanticise the past, it was also genuinely exhausting to hunt for music. Nothing ever released here on time; they played the same 50 songs on TV; MP3s were mislabelled and impossible to sift through; downloads took hours, days, weeks; tapes were dying, CDs were pricey. Today, for the price of a single cassette, a hundred-and-bit rupees, I have access to Spotify's entire library of over 100 million songs. (A relevant counterpoint here is that you're only renting this music; it could disappear tomorrow.) There was a prolonged battle for the soul of music but, by the mid-2010s, streaming had won out, becoming the preferred mode of listening globally. The barrier to entry was decimated. There are dozens of streaming platforms—the chief ones being Spotify, YouTube Music and Apple Music—each one offering (to Indians) affordable prices for their premium versions and free versions with ads. A quick sidenote: streaming platforms are a net evil to society; they've done untold damage to artists by offering them literal peanuts and devaluing art, while training listeners to never pay for what they consume. It's legalised theft. The P2P MP3 era that pioneered digitisation, while not without its problems, had a sense of reckless freedom and idealism to it. That chaos and anarchism has been replaced by a cold-blooded capitalism where the artist gets shafted while the guy above him lines his pockets. Indeed, Spotify—the loudest player in the market—faces regular criticism and has been the subject of high-profile boycotts and walkouts. (They've all returned, hat in hand, as bands are left in a no-win situation, having to pick between fans and principles.) And yet, at the same time the tech has liberated the listener by opening up access in this way. It's all very messy. NEEDLE DROPS We'll come back to streaming since it's such an omnipresent force in the world of discovery. But the olden methods—cable TV, physical stores, and such—have either withered away or been re-interpreted in modern settings. Instead of Channel V late-night broadcasts curated by Luke Kenny, people are discovering music accidentally through 'needle drops" on TV/web series they're watching on second screens. This is a curious inversion; previously, shows would use popular, recognisable songs as a cheat code to signal a pre-determined mood to the viewer. Like how no medical drama could resist throwing in the awful How to Save a Life by the Fray for a while. Now, that arrangement has flipped. Songs on shows—which are experienced differently as the viewer has an existing emotional relationship with the show's characters, as well as visual cues for context—take on new meaning and serve as introduction to an artist. Excited, the viewers rush to YouTube to comment in solidarity. They search online for more needle drops. SEO-driven aggregator websites and click-hungry publications rush to compile a list of all the songs featured on a show, which is duly converted into playlists by fans. There's also the rather more controversial method of discovery: Instagram Reels. There can be an inauthenticity and, if I may, a dishonesty about music written expressly for the purpose of going viral on social media in 30-second teasers. But it works because we all spend an inordinate amount of time on social media. Often, these songs have inescapable hooks. The format of social media short-form videos is such that the same template is reused, recycled, and rejigged during its window of relevance. Just by repeat exposure, these songs can get stuck in one's head and lead the listener on to a path of greater discovery. A lot of music listening, thus, seems to have shifted online. And to the ever-present cellphone. While previously there were different avenues—computers, music systems, Walkman or Discman, iPods—a streamlining of technology has meant that the phone is the primary device now. By way of outliers, we do have vinyl fetishists with record players; audiophiles; music nerds going deep on centralised forums like Reddit or Discord, using the Bandcamp/SoundCloud online catalogues, even buying CDs directly from young, independent bands. But mainstream habits revolve very much around streaming. In physical spaces, too, you may—at a restaurant or a bar—come across someone pointing their phone at the speaker playing music. They're 'Shazaming" a song so they can hear it again. Shazam, an app that processes a song being played and provides all details related to it, has been around forever. But it really caught fire over the past decade, and was acquired by Apple in 2018. Previously, you'd have to memorise the lyrics to look up later, or hope to hear the song again. It's a nice reminder, again, that technology can be such a valuable asset in the process of discovery. And just as often a hindrance. LIMITS OF THE ALGORITHM Which brings us to the elephant. The algorithm. Recently, I discovered something called Spotify Blend. Users can 'blend" your profile with that of a friend's, and Spotify will do its algorithm witchcraft to create a custom, shared playlist incorporating both people's musical preferences. It even offers a 'match score" to see if your music tastes align, a quick and foolproof way to tell if the relationship is going to last. You can add up to 10 friends in a Group Blend, each with their unique taste profile coming together to create one giant khichdi playlist for everyone to parse through. This is a modern retelling of community exchange; people have forever shared their music with friends in group settings. Except that we have an additional friend in the mix here: the algorithm. Streaming services offer a series of playlist options, from user playlists to 'algatorial" ones. The ones driven by the algorithm are of particular interest here. On Spotify, you get Time Capsules, Discover playlists, homepage recommendations, autoplay options—the algo never sleeps. Multiple AI and machine-learning processes work simultaneously to create this entity. Based on research, theories, and information available, the technology analyses songs via content filtering—looking at a song in isolation, studying its metadata and such—and collaborative filtering, where it's placed within a larger context. User behaviour, search history, lyrical themes, compositional structures—they're all factored in to craft personalised recommendations. I've even noticed the algorithm sometimes picking up the key in which a song is composed, and playing a series of songs that all start in that same key. Regardless of one's principled opposition to streaming, these features aid the process of discovery and make it so much easier. The algorithm is sharp, well-informed, intuitive, and will instantly gauge a listener's interest, guiding them to new places. But it raises a couple of semi-philosophical questions. For one, why should I allow the machine to tell me what to listen to? There's a volatility attached to discovery—repeat trial-and-errors driven by human emotions and external variance. Streaming, with its robotic efficiency, can flatten that unpredictability into a horizontal structure leaving little room for experiments. It knows what I like, and it'll keep feeding me. More importantly, what about the music that even I don't know I like? At a time when my music habits exclusively comprised alt-rocker misanthropes, I stumbled, on MTV, upon a song called Surfing on a Rocket by French electronica/dream pop duo Air. It led me down a circuitous path of cool electronic music I'd never have found otherwise. Algorithms—on Netflix, on social media, on music streaming—can create bubbles and echo chambers. They keep feeding you versions of things you already like and engage with. And they hide you from a world of discovery that you don't even realise exists. Those avenues for happy accidents, while very much still around, can get constricted by the self-limiting nature of algorithmic excellence. It's a complex subject, riddled with questions around access, ethics, tech manipulation, listener behaviour, maybe some moral panic—as such, all discussions around art and consumption do eventually circulate within these idealism labyrinths. And conversations around the algorithm deserve critical examination without being tainted by generational bias. But what remains steady is that new generations find novel ways to access and consume music; it can feel alienating—even existentially distressing—to those on the outside. Maybe we're losing some recipes. But the music landscape is forever fluid and evolving. And people within it will always find systems that work for them. Akhil Sood is a Delhi-based writer.
Forbes
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
RØDE's Peter Freedman Shares Kurt Cobain's Iconic Martin Guitar With Royal College Of Music
Kurt Cobain's 1959 Martin D-18E guitar was played during Nirvana's legendary 1993 MTV Unplugged ... More performance. The founder and chairman of Australia's biggest audio technology is sharing the iconic acoustic guitar that was played by Kurt Cobain during Nirvana's legendary 1993 MTV Unplugged performance with the world.RØDE's Peter Freedman AM owns Cobain's guitar and now he is loaning the instrument to the Royal College of Music's Museum, London. Cobain's 1959 Martin D-18E is currently on display at the museum and will be there until November as part of a Kurt Cobain Unplugged exhibition. This is the first time the guitar has been made publicly accessible in Europe and offers fans, musicians and historians a rare opportunity to experience one of modern music history's most celebrated artefacts up close. The guitar was purchased at auction in 2020 for a record-breaking $6.01 million, making it the most expensive guitar ever sold. At the time, Mr. Freedman made it clear that this was not an act of private collecting, but a public pledge to use the guitar as a symbol of support and solidarity for those working in creative industries. Peter Freedman (left) seen earlier during the announcement of RØDE's acquisition of Mackie. 'This guitar represents more than just a moment in time, it's a reminder of the powerful connection between artists and their audiences,' says Mr. Freedman. 'When I bought it, I promised it wouldn't just hang on a wall. I wanted it to be seen, to inspire and to give back to the creative community that helped shape my life. Its inclusion in this exhibition honors that promise.' urt Cobain's original Dunlop 60mm guitar plectrums, used during the MTV Unplugged performance. Since its purchase, the guitar has been displayed at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, raising awareness of the challenges faced by creative professionals, particularly in the wake of global disruptions to the arts sector. Its presence at the Royal College of Music Museum, a globally respected institution for musical education and preservation, marks a fitting chapter in its journey. Also on display is one of Kurt Cobain's original Dunlop 60mm guitar plectrums, used during the MTV Unplugged performance and found inside the case of the Martin D-18E guitar when it was sold at auction. In a world first, fans will get the chance to win this rare piece of rock history by entering a prize draw online, with all proceeds going directly to supporting students and the Future Music Fund at the Royal College of Music. Kurt Cobain Unplugged will feature the guitar as its centerpiece, alongside the prized plectrum and ... More Cobain's famous olive-green mohair cardigan. Kurt Cobain Unplugged will feature the guitar as its centerpiece, alongside the prized plectrum and Cobain's famous olive-green mohair cardigan worn during the MTV Unplugged performance, marking the first time these three legendary items have been displayed together. Accompanied by archival footage, contextual materials and a rare look into the legacy of Cobain's artistry, visitors to the exhibition can expect a visceral and nostalgia-drenched experience surrounded by cultural artefacts that not only defined a musical genre, but an entire generation. You can visit the exhibition which is being held from June 3 to November 18, 2025, at The Royal College of Music Museum, Prince Consort Road, London. Learn more about the Kurt Cobain Unplugged exhibition and find out how to enter the competition to win Cobain's plectrum here.
Daily Mail
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Courtney Love, 60, admits she has settled for 'a friend with benefits' because she takes a 'libertine' approach to relationships
At the age of 60, Courtney Love has settled for a 'friend with benefits'. The widow of Nirvana rocker Kurt Cobain is keeping the name of her famous lover under wraps but revealed they are both 'libertine.' Speaking on the Fashion Neurosis podcast with Bella Freud, she revealed: 'I'm a libertine, and the person that I most do my romantic crap with is also a libertine, so we are really more friends with benefits.' 'I don't like talking about them because there's jealousy around that person.' Courtney has lived in London for five years and admits to previously finding herself in a love triangle from which she was eventually rejected. She was last in a 'serious' relationship with Nicholas Jarecki, who was 15 years her junior, in 2015 but they split a year later. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. Last summer, Courtney's hilarious story about not having sex with Liam Gallagher went viral after Oasis announced their shock reunion. The Hole singer famously enjoyed a raucous night with the musician in 2000 - but turned down his advances due to his looks and personal hygiene - likening him to a '13th century serf.' Speaking to Metro in 2014, she recounted Liam playing her his hit Songbird in London's famed Groucho club. She said the frontman asked her 'what do you think of me?' - with Love saying: 'I mean, he was lovely but he had really bad breath from being up all night and his eyebrows kind of met in the middle. 'And I just thought he looked like a 13th century serf from Monty Python. And I blurted it out loud.' She added that Liam wasn't insulted as he 'didn't understand me' but that daughter Frances was furious with her for turning him down. She said: 'Frances, who loves Oasis more than Nirvana, was furious I didn't sleep with him. 'She texted me saying: "Mommy you are an epic sl*t but you never slept with Liam Gallagher!"' The pair were famously pictured in a cab in London that year - with romance rumors igniting. She previously said she had desperately wanted to meet Liam before their encounter and was mesmerized by his singing ability She said: 'I kept thinking. Liam's the talent! It's not Noel! Unfair I'm sure. It's them both.'
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Iconic Rocker, 60, Makes Bold Statement About Having a 'Friend With Benefits'
Iconic Rocker, 60, Makes Bold Statement About Having a 'Friend With Benefits' originally appeared on Parade. Courtney Love is doing 60 in style. The legendary rocker, who rose to stardom as the lead vocalist and guitarist for the rock band Hole, opened up about her romantic life in a new episode of Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud. Lying down on the couch like all of Freud's guests, Love discussed her casual sexual relationship by referring to "the person I do most of my romantic crap with." She said this person "is also a libertine, so we really are also more friends with benefits sometimes." Love, who was previously married to Nirvana icon Kurt Cobain until he died in 1994, declined to mention her love interest's name publicly. "I don't like talking about them," she noted, "because there's jealousy around that person." Honing in on her own feelings of jealousy, Love went on to say that she doesn't "really get it." 🎬 🎬 "I don't know if I'm being in denial here, but I have a friend, and I made friends with him when he was on the up in the art world, and he's done astonishingly well, and I could not be happier for him," she told Freud. "I have another friend who I met on her come up and now she's bigger than I'll ever, ever be and I'm really happy for her." Love has been living in London since 2019. She's even in the process of becoming a British citizen, PEOPLE reported. Back in March, she told Todd Almond at London's Geographical Society that she loves living across the pond. 'I'm really glad I'm here. It's so great to live here. I'm finally getting my British citizenship in six months. I get to be a citizen. I'm applying, man! Can't get rid of me,' she Rocker, 60, Makes Bold Statement About Having a 'Friend With Benefits' first appeared on Parade on Jun 12, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 12, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Nirvana's ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit' Video Hits Two Billion YouTube Views
'Here we are now, entertain us.' You asked for it and Nirvana provided. The iconic grunge trio's beloved video for breakthrough 1991 hit 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' has just crossed the two billion views mark on YouTube. The Samuel Bayer-directed clip in which late singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and company rock a high school gym into a frenzy debuted on MTV in the fall of 1991, quickly catapulting the group to global superstardom. While the majority of the YouTube music videos with two billion or more views are from pop, Latin, country and hip-hop artists including Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, Katy Perry, Enrique Iglesias, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, Adele, Ed Sheeran, Shakira and Alan Walker, there are a handful of other rock videos that have reached that storied height. More from Billboard Billboard's Greatest Pop Star of 1992: Nirvana Woman Arrested for Attempted Break-In at BTS Jung Kook's Residence on the Day of His Military Discharge Carín León Is Ready to Prove He's The 'Missing Link' Between Regional Mexican and Country Music Among the other rock acts to hit two billie are: Twenty One Pilots ('Stressed Out,' 'Heathens'), Imagine Dragons ('Believer,' 'Thunder'), Guns N' Roses ('November Rain') and Linkin Park ('Numb'). 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' was first uploaded to YouTube at 2009 and hit the one billion mark in 2019. Two months after its release, the song that defined a generation topped Billboard's Alternative Songs chart on Nov. 23, 1991 and peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. The unlikely long-for-pop-radio five minute hit featuring such obtuse lyrics as 'A mulatto, an albino a mosquito, my libido' and a visual in which band members Cobain, drummer Dave Grohl and bassist Krist Novoselic thrash about as anarchist cheerleaders whip teens into a frenzy in a smoke-shrouded gymnasium was the unlikeliest hits at a time when Bryan Adams, Michael Bolton, Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men ruled the charts. But the song helped the band's second studio album, Nevermind, climb the charts and end then chart king Michael Jackson's run at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart on Jan. 11, 1992 when it pushed his Dangerous album from the to of the heap. Check out 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' below. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
