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Comment by TekMol | Hacker News Reader

Do you guys know who the most popular artists of our time are?

Reading this article and its mention of celebrities I was like "Who are today's celebrities anyhow?"? And typed

    most popular artists 2024

into Google. It came back with:

    Taylor Swift
    The Weeknd
    Lady Gaga
    Drake
    Karol G
    Bruno Mars
    Beyoncé
    Eminem
    Charli XCX
    Harry Styles

I have heard 8 of the 10 names before. Never heard about "Karol G" and "Charli XCX".

I can only think of one song performed by one of them: "Paparazzi" by Lady Gaga.

Does that make me very disconnected with today's culture?

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Meanwhile I don’t listen to anyone on that list except for Charli XCX because I arrived at her music from a rave/hyperpop background and then became a stan with her last album Crash in 2022.

I was tired of BRAT though about 2 weeks after release because I listened to the teasers so much… then it blew up and even attached itself to VP Harris…

Amusingly, calling a devoted fan of something a "stan" is a reference to an Eminem song. A lot of these people claiming they don't know who Drake is would probably recognize the meme even if they don't know his music.

Also, not a response to you, but rather the parent, that Destiny's Child and Eminem both released their debut albums in 1997. Not being a fan is one thing, but saying you've never heard a single song of theirs goes a bit beyond being out of touch with "today's" culture unless you define today as this entire millenium and a few years of the last one, too.

I recognise some of these words

That's where that came from? Never heard of it and all I could think of was either the Bratz dolls or that "brat summer" was short for "bratwurst summer", neither of which made sense.

There are many cultures. You’re on HN, so my guess is you’re connected with today’s hacker culture. I’ve heard of 6 of those names, but can’t name any song from any of them. It just means I have my own interests.

Maybe if you're young (20s, early 30s)?

I recognize 8/10 as well, but like you, can't name actual songs from most.

Same would have been true if I was tested in the mid-90s (HS and college). Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Backstreet Boys - I know the names, but can't think of the names of songs. I'd test better on alt/grunge rock of the era - STP, Nirvana, REM, etc.

And I don't think I'm particularly lonely - I happily married, have a few office friends, and see normal friends regularly. I'm not as social as I was in my 20s, but I assume that's normal.

These artists are definitely popular, but I doubt they are the most popular. The list doesn't fully match up with the most streamed artists list on Spotify, for example.

Both Google results and Spotify "most streamed artists" stats are heavily gamed, but in different ways and by different groups, so no surprise they diverge.

Charli XCX is a standard-issue pop singer. She's a brunette. She's probably best known for doing the singing bits on "Fancy", the only Iggy Azalea song you know (if you know any at all).

I’m 4/10 on that one as far as name recognition. Similar to you, I can only could think of one song from lady Gaga. Eminem is the only one which multiple songs come to mind, not that I could name them.

I grew up on 90’s and early 2000’s college radio, and am now a Doom/psychedelic rock kind of guy, and spend a good amount of time and money curating what I love.

I am disconnected from pop culture. It has repeatedly failed to deliver what I enjoy, and typically comes bundled with advertisements so I have no reason to pay attention to it.

> Does that make me very disconnected with today's culture?

Just disconnected with pop culture. I only know 6 of the names on that list and can only name Brain Damage by Eminem off the top of my head. I don't know what Taylor Swift sounds like though I have probably heard a few of her songs in my day to day without noticing. Just don't worry about it and do what makes you happy.

I don’t listen to 8/10 of these musicians, but I’ve heard of all of them except for Karol G. So yeah; I’d say you are very disconnected.

I thought they were saying they _had_ heard of 8 in 10? Strangely Karol G was also new to me. I'll resist searching for the name - I enjoy not knowing things sometimes.

Whoops, either he edited his comment or I misread it. Probably my mistake.

Doesn't this just mean that some people don't connect with this kind of music. I don't. Possibly my loss but there's a lot of music out there and life is short.

I think the commenter meant disconnected from popular music culture, not disconnected from music entirely.

Same result here, never heard about karol G and Charli XCX but to be fair, I find most modern pop music to be very manufactured and boring. People like Max Martin can create a lot of hits but it makes the music rather uninteresting.

Just listened to Brat from Charli XCX and yeah, not missing much.

I feel that when it comes to Music, being in sync with pop music is more of a generation thing.

On the other hand, I wouldn't describe myself as lonely... I'm not super social (I've worked remotely for 13 years because I don't particularly like working in an office) but I do meet up with friends 2 times a week (used to be more but with a kid at home, there's less time).

Something that's been talked about every so often is that there aren't representative (generational) pop icons for the past few generations (probably from millenials onwards).

One theory from Japan, that I still remember and think is most likely, is that the democratization of entertainment since the 80s and especially from the 90s onwards with the invention of the internet has eliminated the very concept of pop culture.

Back in ye olde days a person's choices for entertainment were fairly limited, basically a small regional selection. People in the same locale ended up consuming the same entertainment and thus gravitated towards forming similar tastes and directing their fervor on that small selection of entertainment.

Entire generations identify with icons of their time like Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck, Marilyn Monroe, Ingrid Bergman, Elvis Presley, and so on. Entire generations sang "the song of their people" so to speak.

Today, though? Everyone can access any entertainment they want from anytime anywhere. The entertainment consumed by one person is very likely completely different from that consumed by a person right next to him; entertainment has been democratized. There is no longer a "song of our people" because everyone has a "song of me", there are no longer generational icons because everyone has their own icon.

The intense political push from the Left to make any form of social cohesion and loyalty undesirable also hasn't helped. The dismantling and removal of tradition, religion, and nationalism/patriotism from society means there can't be a "song of the people" from outside of entertainment either.

So no, I don't think you're disconnected with today's culture. Rather, today's culture doesn't value social cohesion and unity as much as it does freedom and power. Everyone has their own icon and song, everyone is their own generation.

> The intense political push from the Left to make any form of social cohesion and loyalty undesirable also hasn't helped. The dismantling and removal of tradition, religion, and nationalism/patriotism from society means there can't be a "song of the people" from outside of entertainment either.

Funny, because I don't think there is a "song of the people" on the right at all, while every leftist I know are all in on Charlie XCX and Brat Summer.

Lol

Maybe Gen Z, but I'd say Millenials definitely had their generational Pop icons. Those icons simply did not live a good life once they left the spotlight. Like, most people I know don't really want to talk about Brittney Spears nor Micheal Jackson, even if they loved their music.

But I agree with your core point. There is no "Spongebob" of animation for Gen Z (except for... Spongebob. Maybe). There's no Friends, nor Breaking Bad of the 2010's/2020's. There's barely any individual movies that break the cultural zeitgeist period.

>The intense political push from the Left to make any form of social cohesion and loyalty undesirable also hasn't helped. The dismantling and removal of tradition, religion, and nationalism/patriotism from society means there can't be a "song of the people" from outside of entertainment either.

we can have social cohesion without resorting to nationalism nor religion. It's just that when you give people infinite choice, we diverge at best to the pareto principle. But 20% of society not being in the know is still a lot of society you fail to connect with.

I'm a millenial myself (36 years old next year... I'm getting too old for this), and while I can think of some "popular" names of my generation like Linkin Park, Dragonforce, Emma Watson, Brittney Spears as you mentioned, Mario, Pokemon, World of Warcraft, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, The Simpsons, Futurama, and so on, none of them can compare to ye olde icons of ye olde generations like Star Trek and the people I mentioned before.

Celebrities and pop culture sensations of olden times defined entire eras that we can still clearly identify to this day, but that just doesn't happen anymore because large numbers of people aren't forced to coalesce around a small handful of works and figures.

>we can have social cohesion without resorting to nationalism nor religion.

Can we? The way I see it, in removing and villifying tradition, religion, and nationalism/patriotism they were simply replaced by inferior substitutes and surrogates. The chief examples being "science" ("Trust the Science.") and politics (Obama, Trump, Farage, et al.) as the receptacles of peoples' desires to be fervent about something.

>none of them can compare to ye olde icons of ye olde generations like Star Trek and the people I mentioned before.

Well a lot of that comes with time. None of the people nor ips you describe are more than 30 years old. Star Trek is over 50 years old. We don't know which are gonna last 20-30 more years. Pokemon is going strong, but HP has been dipping for a while, and The Simpsons is well past its prime.

I think it's also simply because we are more globalized. Is Pokemon and Harry potter bigger than Star Trek ever was? Absolutely. But it's also easier than ever to globally broadcast anything anywhere, especially when offering localization for more access. I don't see this as a bad thing.

>Can we? The way I see it, in removing and villifying tradition, religion, and nationalism/patriotism they were simply replaced by inferior substitutes and surrogates.

Sure. The world is larger and brands bigger than ever. But when things globalize, that creates a need for smaller, more local community values. Bringing back third places would help more than trying to make the next Star Trek.

Now, will people be receptive to such activity? I don't know. It's not up to me to figure out what people like or want. But those places being defunct answers the question for us without even trying. And I wager there's more than enough community to create out of those that do.

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