How the music market capitulated to the past

In the past year, Russian popular music has not been able to jump off the needle of back catalogues. Everything that was truly a massive success came to 2023 from the past. About the results of the year – Igor Gavrilov.

At the beginning of the year, digital platforms recorded a surge of interest in the music of the “King and the Jester” group, which accompanied release of the series “The King and the Clown”. Seven tracks of “The King and the Jester” were included in the top 10 of “Yandex. Music” and took the top four lines of the chart. And the song “Sorcerer’s Doll” remained at the top of the charts all year.

In the last month of the outgoing year, thanks to TV series “The Boy’s Word” songs from “Tender May” and “Mirage”, Igor Krutoy (“How Should I Be”) and the group “Alliance” (“At the Dawn” in Basta’s version) burst into the playlists of listeners of all ages. Even the global hit “Pyala” by the AIGEL group is not a new song; it was released in 2020.

Old songs also brought the biggest money to foreign artists. The newly recorded album “1989” (2014) brought singer Taylor Swift first place on the Billboard chart and helped her increase her fortune to $1 billion.

Another sensation of the year is The Beatles’ song “Now And Then”, which was compiled from tracks recorded by living and deceased members of the quartet in 1977, 1995 and 2023. John Lennon’s archival demo, from which the musicians made a new song, helped them take first place in the British charts for the first time in more than half a century.

The sweetest piece of the holiday pie—the number one spot on the charts during Christmas week—was also not a new song, but Wham!’s 1984 “Last Christmas.” In the US she is only in fourth place, and in first (no surprises) is Mariah Carey with the song “All I Want For Christmas Is You”. The results are good for artists and creators, but sad for the industry. No matter how you try to win the Christmas marathon, the old hit will still win. This is how current algorithms and systems for calculating sales and streams work. An example is Cher’s new album “Christmas” and the single “DJ Play a Christmas Song,” released last October. The song did not reach the top ten in either England or the United States, and the album managed to get to the top only in the United Kingdom, where it had a consoling fifth place.

It’s not just Christmas that makes things difficult with new music.

Perhaps the hottest rotation on radio stations focusing on modern material in 2023 was for songs based on hits of the past.

We are talking about rethought tracks designed according to the mash-up principle. Throughout 2023, “Hold Me Closer” (Elton John and Britney Spears based on “Tiny Dancer” from 1971) and “Baby Don’t Hurt Me” (David Guetta based on Haddaway’s song “What Is Love”, 1993) remained on the air. ), “Praising You” (Rita Ora and Fatboy Slim based on Fatboy Slim’s 1999 single “Praise You”) and other songs interpreting popular tunes from the retro piggy bank. They are made into hits by listeners who were not even born in the year they were created. One of the most obvious reasons is the desire of copyright holders (authors and record companies) to amortize their back catalogs to the maximum. Why change something that works well when you can just declare it “new”?

Reworks of songs are becoming more and more sophisticated, the word “remix” is no longer enough for them. And now it’s also difficult to fit new material into the usual framework.

For example, what to do with Peter Gabriel’s album “i/o”, on which each song is presented in two versions – in a “dark” and “light” mix? If previously a musician released a certain “main” album, then released an expanded deluxe version of it, then a collection of remixes and some orchestral versions, then Mr. Gabriel does not give us a clue as to which versions of the songs are the main ones and which are variations on the theme. Decide for yourself, they say.

Actually, it’s the same with “Now And Then”. Beatlemaniacs had long known John Lennon’s original track and knew that during the period of work on The Beatles’ Anthologies, the rest of the group decided that there was no point in reworking it. But in the 2020s, their opinion changed. And now the “song” is a version shortened by a minute, but decorated with new string parts.

Roger Waters declared himself the sole author of Pink Floyd’s album “Dark Side Of The Moon” and released a re-recorded version of it, saying that half a century ago he was misunderstood and it was time to dot all the i’s. But what he released in 2023 is quite difficult to listen to if you are not a fan. And what, in this case, is considered the main option, the starting point? Should you agree with the author or vote with your heart?

Musicians are turbulent people; they constantly hesitate and make mistakes. And when their mistakes are pointed out to them by the guardians of morality and morality, some do not mind apologizing.

The word “apology” is almost the most important word in the musical year of 2023.

In Russia, there is now even a kind of “one-stop service” for apologizing for incorrect posts and dangerous texts – the “Safe Internet League.” Alena Shvets, Scally Milano, Instasamka and others repented there. Everyone continues their careers and releases new music. Even despite the fact that, as the whole country now knows, “the boys don’t apologize.”

However, public apologies are not exclusively a Russian practice. For example, the other day Kanye West apologized for his anti-Semitic statements last year, which left him without a contract with Adidas, Gap and Balenciaga. On December 26, a post appeared on his Instagram in Hebrew with the following content: “I sincerely apologize to the Jewish community for any unintentional disturbance caused by my words or actions. I did not intend to offend or humiliate, and I deeply regret any pain I may have caused. I commit to starting with myself and learning from this experience to ensure greater sensitivity and understanding in the future. Your forgiveness is important to me, and I am committed to making amends and promoting unity.” It looks as if Kanye West and the participants of Anastasia Ivleeva’s scandalous party used the same training manual.

By the way, a little earlier, Kanye West reposted the story of designer Gosha Rubchinsky with clothes from the new collection of the Yeezy brand owned by the rapper, which is now managed by Rubchinsky. Russian subscribers easily recognized actor Yaroslav Mogilnikov, Yeralash from the TV series “The Boy’s Word.” As Viktor Tsoi sang, “this is how the circle closes.”