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the tendency of artists “becoming sex symbols, actors, and basically lifestyle influencers while singing generically machine-crafted music” if not basically being the case for the entire history of recorded music, at least predates streaming by many decades. it’s also not exclusive to music and has a long history in basically every artistic industry.

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Absolutely. But now more than ever it's about the brand, and not the individual. But I think this primarily applies to mainstream music where the artist is likely to have a few hits over a couple years, only to fade out (unless they can build the brand). Go outside mainstream music, and chances are that you'll see something completely different.

yeah I agree that it's a phenomenon, I just don't think it arose recently because of streaming. if anything, streaming makes it easier to access artists' back catalogs. not sure the degree to which this increases the longevity of mainstream pop artists, but I don't see any obvious way that it contributes to the "problem".

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