This story was published in Volume 1, Issue 2
By: Hannah Schuller
110,592.
That’s how many people were in front of me in the Ticketmaster queue to see Harry Styles at Madison Square Garden.
As a longtime lover of Styles, I indoctrinated every member of my family to join the “Ticketmaster war.” For four days straight, twice a day, everyone sat behind computer screens, scrambling to get tickets. What we were not expecting was how Sisyphean a task this became.
Day after day, we were greeted with the dreaded screen showing, “This show is sold out.” Our hope, which came from getting a spot in line lower than 25,000, was quickly shattered when we saw the ticket price of $1,000.
This couldn’t possibly be normal, could it? We had seen Styles perform before the COVID-19 pandemic, and it wasn’t half as difficult to get tickets. What changed? I turned the idea around in my head as I went to bed feeling defeated and empty-handed. The suspect at the end of my blame-pointed finger was social media.
Whether it is Spotify or Instagram, what we should be listening to is shoved down our throats on every platform. Social media took a monopoly over our individual music taste, and the appreciation for the art of music along with it.
One could open TikTok and see five different videos all with the same song playing. The whole lure of mindless scrolling doesn’t just pertain to visuals. When a chorus of a catchy song is playing over and over, the idea that you enjoy said tune enters your consciousness. The ability to form a unique opinion doesn’t stand a chance against the algorithm.
In 2024, TikTok partnered with Luminate, a music analysis company, to measure its influence on music. According to the data, 84% of songs on the Billboard Global were first trending on TikTok before claiming their spot on the chart.
If more than half of the Billboard top hits started on TikTok, that wipes smaller artists out of the race before it even starts. More than that, the platform dictates the global success of music. Have we all become ants, brainlessly following our faithful leader, TikTok?
There is no way to determine whether we really enjoy what is trending, or whether we have just fallen prey to the algorithm. In defeat, it is easy to turn solely to streaming platforms such as Spotify or Apple Music, but even those are becoming increasingly more social. With features like following, direct messages, the ability to see what your friends are listening to and Spotify Wrapped, music is becoming content.
The ability to instantly stream a song at any time is one of the great feats of the 21st century. However, Elise Colley, who has been working at Paradise Found Records on Pearl Street for nine years, disagrees. She found that we lose much of the artist’s intent when we only stream music digitally.
“You have the liner notes and the temporary tattoo. They sneak special pressings, and you have the back cover of the album,” Colley said, “which so many people miss, because they only listen on Apple Music … they have no idea what the artist’s whole intention with all of the pieces are. And as silly as it sounds, it’s kind of magic, or at least it is to us music nerds.”
We, as consumers via streaming, aren’t even getting the true experience of the music when we are unaware of something as seemingly mundane as the back cover of an album. Still, one of the most raw and authentic expressions of human experience is becoming muddled through our constant technological innovations.
The luxury of finding a song that speaks to your soul is losing the fight against the never-ending loop of TikTok sound bites and AI-generated Spotify playlists. So, were all the 11.5 million people on Ticketmaster true fans of Styles, or had they watched one too many TikTok dances to “Watermelon Sugar” and begun to think they truly enjoyed it?
