Video Killed the Radio Star

[Jac]

The  Buggles said it best..

a study in the 'Native communications' said  our collective attention span is narrowing... all because of Social Media.

It's been effecting the music industry.  Social Media is our instant gratification. It says' listeners simply will not spend time listening to an entire album or even 6 mins of a song to make their decision about an Artist.

Muscianwave article  dated 9, 2022 lists many problems one being that our attention span is shorter than ever, they said its 'all about the visuals.'

 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2023 by Jac
spelling

[Glammerocity]

I'd disagree that people don't spend the time. Attention spans might've shortened for certain things but we have more access to content because of the Internet competing for our attention and not all of it is as interesting as we seek, though it wasn't any more interesting when we were kids stuck in front of the 3-channel TV with no game console or Internet. As if we weren't susceptible to instant gratification pre-1980. If we could've fast-forwarded through Top of the Pops back then, we'd have watched 3 minutes out of the 30.

 

I've noticed that as well as the shorts on YouTube, there are groups with behind the scenes videos of some length, which fans will watch. There are live broadcasts the artists do, which we never had access to, and they can go on for over an hour or two. Some viewers might drop in and out, some hang on every word.

 

One of the things I like about kpop is the albums are mostly five or six songs, with only a few "full" albums. But I argue that's a good thing and more to do with the death of filler, which we were force-fed in the pre-MP3 era by major record companies, than attention spans. Even those classic albums of yesteryear have one or two tracks you never listen to. They needed ten songs to package an album back then, when most could've been five or six. As the old saying goes, never mind the quality, feel the width.

Edited April 1 by Glammerocity

[john]

I would mostly agree with @Glammerocity. People have short attention span for the first phase of discovery. One they discover interesting or, commonly, triggering content, people are prone to deep dive. It is that axiom about first impressions being made in the first few seconds. People work with tiers of attention, depending on them being hooked or triggered to watch/consume more. 

 

That first impression is made in less than 5 seconds. There are stages after that of typical engagement. There are lessons for any music or music video creator. First you catch attention, then you have to keep it and use additional hooks to deepen connection and extend attention further, building curiosity with new things to be curious about. If you can surprise and keep the surprises coming, while still delivering great music and great entertainment, you can do amazing things.