We also heard the same thing during the fairly rapid transition from physical to digital paid-for sales in the mid-'00s. I recall reading some press suggesting that the download, for all its novelty and appeal to youth, was hardly reinvigorating a generally moribund music market, and that their sales at that stage weren't anything close to what CDs had been at their peak, nor cassettes, nor vinyl. Whilst that might've been a statement of fact, the format did eventually grow to overall annual totals far in excess of what'd been managed over store counters even in the heydays of physical in the late '70s and late '90s; it just took a few more years (until the early '10s) for it to peak (it then staged a rather more precipitous withdrawal from the market as it got cannibalised by streaming instead of course, but that's another story). Moreover, someone made the valid observation (possibly Alan Jones, possibly James Masterton) that with so many more individual tracks available digitally to buy, including increasingly large dollops of catalogue songs, and of course all B-sides and album cuts as well as just true 'singles', it would be inevitable that your average typical music buyer's spend would probably only go so far, and that they might well end up choosing to purchase more older or non-current titles rather than focus all their aural attentions on here-and-now releases. I think the example cited, which was very topical at the time, was Rihanna's 'Umbrella', which managed a still-impressive ten weeks atop the official chart, mostly on digital sales, but it was only shifting maybe 25-35,000 copies each week to do so. The author argued this was still pretty worthy when set against a market of millions of songs to choose from, as opposed to the mere 400-500 or so one might be able to source from stores in the physical era. So while the tallies seemed considerably lower than in the past, one wasn't quite comparing like with like.

I'd say it's the same in the streaming era too - with so many possibilities musically across all artists, eras and genres, and with only so much time able to be devoted to digital listening, any single title managing say 40K streaming-equivalent 'sales' units in a week actually looks pretty impactful, given the sheer depth, breadth and width of the competition. Perhaps it isn't really legitimate to expect current chart-toppers achieving their position largely through streams to ever manage too much more than 60 or 70K in a seven-day frame; which in my book definitely makes it a notable achievement when any track manages it - and does so sufficient to remain ahead of all the pack for almost 20 weeks! It's just that that level of attainment can't really be measured fairly alongside the sales-based equivalents of say, the '80s. It's two different types of consumption and we mustn't forget that although they've been spliced together and awkwardly massaged into a single figure to suit official chart compilation purposes, they're actually two different beasts and don't make good bedfellows.

As for monoculture, well, hasn't that been the allegation of every generation or decade's music since the dawn of rock?! It isn't entirely without foundation, but it doesn't mean it's a really fair assessment of current trends in music, or a key driver behind how tracks behave in our charts.

The charts usually represent youth culture. I'm a millennial, when I look at the chart I see the 1996-2001 Bubblegum pop era of my childhood. The 2001-2006 nu metal, emo, indie of my teens. Then the 2008-2020 EDM domination, But looking at the chart today I can't really say what the kids are doing beyond girls having a 'Diva' era with Taylor, Dua, Sabrina, Olivia, Billie (the other one) etc...Maybe its because I'm not Gen Z but what are they even in to? Viral songs? That only goes so far. They aren't averse to country pop but I've equated that to the Mumford, Lumineers, Ben Howard era the millennials had with Indie Folk. I'd say K-Pop but that doesn't really register either.

Edited August 6Aug 6 by Paramore

Gen Z likes heartfelt, introspective lyricism and more squeaky clean pop. They also tend to enjoy more minimalist production from what I can tell.