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Luminate Finds New Generations Want The Oldies
The cool kids // Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons // Illustration by Kate Walker
A new report from Luminate found that young people are gravitating toward music released before they were born — especially tracks from the ’90s.
Why It Hits: The report shows that the nostalgia economy remains a powerful force across entertainment. Thanks to the ubiquity of streaming, anyone can access high-quality versions of songs from any era — 73% of all music streaming in the US now comes from catalog titles. Young listeners just have to discover them. The growing popularity of artists from their parents’ generation could fuel a new wave of legacy acts… and best-selling tours.
Behind The Music: “Smells Like Teen Spirit” may be a new favorite among today’s teenagers.
64% of listeners ages 13-24 listen to music from the ’90s, 58% listen to music from the ’80s, 57% from the 2000s, and just 53% from this decade.
Additionally, 25% of listeners in that age group said music from the ’90s is their favorite, up from 18% in 2021.
Meanwhile, the share of young listeners who said music from the 2020s is their favorite fell from 55% to 44% over the same period.
Luminate found that the fastest-growing catalog songs by streams were released in the ’90s or 2000s, with the top tracks including Imogen Heap’s “Headlock” and Radiohead’s “Let Down” and “Creep.”
Encore: So, what’s really driving the resurgence of songs popularized during the heyday of MTV? Luminate points to films and TV shows featuring ’90s and 2000s bangers as needle drops, social media trends that propel songs through viral videos, and the growing popularity of analog listening formats like vinyl and CDs (that last one still amazes us).
But there’s another clear reason: elder millennials are now introducing their teenage kids to the music they grew up listening to. The best things in life are always passed down — and right now, few things are more appealing to young people than something secondhand.
The Future: Considering the massive boom in live music revenue, expect many of the biggest bands from the alternative, grunge, and nu-metal eras to dust off their guitars and hit the road.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.