Creative Exhaustion (Sponsored by Blackstone)

On September 28th, Oasis took the stage for the final time at London’s Wembley stadium. For many, this unexpected reunion was seen as the reflection of a more vibrant age within British Culture. The diversity seen within the audience that night was a testament to Britpop’s influence and longevity, and truly captured the essence of a time when music was flooded with an overwhelming sense of creativity and excitement. Now, It feels like the industry has hit a wall. The conversations I have had of late, surrounding the art form itself, loosely circle around the idea that the industry has reached a period of creative burnout. The 1970s and 90s, saw the birth of punk and grunge as exciting offshoots of rock, while the 2000s and 2010s witnessed the dawn of the digital age, and was introduced to genres such as electroclash and hyperpop. However, the 2020s appears to be facing an identity crisis in regard to what is defining them musically. 

The growing dominance of private equity and its tightened grip on the industry, along with the exploitative revenue models of streaming giant’s, have left many to wonder if this has been the cause of such a slowdown in innovation. When old hits are simply being repackaged for modern listeners, and fewer monetary incentives remain for artists to partake in experimentation, one question seems to persist among critics and listeners alike: have institutional investments and streaming powerhouses killed the spark for disruption within modern music?

Publishing rights have now emerged as the new asset class that is attracting private equity investment in recent years. After amassing a reported $2.59 trillion in uninvested capital by the end of 2023, many funds have now begun to view music copyrights as a new profitable frontier.

In 2020, Blackstone’s music investment arm, Recognition Music Group, acquired a 50% stake in Rick James’ catalog. It only took a few years for this acquisition to begin to pay off. The firm had unearthed James’ hit single “Super Freak", bought in Nicki Minaj and a team of songwriters to build on the song, and repackaged this as a track for a younger generation. This resulted in the hit “Super Freaky Girl” sending Minaj to number one, and providing a healthy return for Recognition’s annual report. 

The approach isn’t unique to Blackstone either, it has come to reflect an ongoing trend across the industry. The strategy is simple: private equity firms are snapping up music publishing and image rights, and finding ways to make these newly acquired assets earn again. A classic song might be repackaged, remixed, or dropped into a viral moment, where it is reintroduced to a younger audience who struggle to understand how vinyls work. This regurgitation of old music for new listeners is a formula that can be seen across many of the funds who have involved themselves in the music business. Katy Perry’s “Firework” is under the ownership of the Carlyle Group, “Toxic” and “Cant stop the feeling” by Brittany Spears and Justin Timberlake are also one of the many assets under Blackstone’s management.. 

Although clearly profitable, this practice, and the funds involved, have been credited as a guilty party, involved in killing the ecosystem. Alongside flooding the mass market with vintage tracks, streaming companies, such as Spotify and Apple Music, have been providing artists with pennies for payouts-per-stream. Due to this coercive income distribution model, and revenue from music being a mere shadow of what it was in the 90’s, the economic incentive for bold, and brave artistry being produced has seemingly faded. All that seems to remain in circulation are recycled hits from the 80s or 90s, and pop songs that draw upon sounds starkly similar to their predecessors.

Amid the claims that music has become obsessed with its own past, my optimism has undoubtedly been tested. However, despite the arguments presented, I still hold the view that stylistic innovation is still very much alive and thriving within the industry; the dominance of corporate entities has resulted in a saturated mass market with repetitive sounding music, pushing artistic innovation to survive on the margins.

There was once a time when channels like MTV and magazines like i-D acted as cultural gatekeepers. They were monocultural artefacts that could turn niche, underground scenes into global movements overnight (such a case was seen in MTV's coverage of Nirvana in 1991, which introduced Seattle's grunge scene to a global audience). The producers and editors responsible for uncovering these innovative subcultures and putting them into the reach of households world wide didn’t just showcase new sounds; they orchestrated a sense of musical evolution. Today, these tastemakers have faded into the endless noise of the internet, making it easy to mistake their disappearance for creative drought. However, rejuvenation within music has not died, it just happens off camera. 

The internet has divided the cultural landscape into several different worlds and sub-cultures, where you will find that musical sub-genres are very much thriving. Artists like 2hollis and Jane Remover, figures who have risen from the “glitchcore” movement, have managed to merge internet-native production with heavy distortion and trap music aesthetics. The reimagining of R&B for a generation who are no strangers to cross-genre experimentation, can also be seen through acts like Dijon.

The mainstream may have fallen victim to the influence of corporate consolidation, where recycled hits and algorithmic tracks dominate most discourse, but innovation is not gone. It has simply changed its address. Creativity can now be seen in several different digital spaces, where artists have been able to experiment freely. Originality is now found on the fringes, as opposed to the main stage.

In a fractured landscape, the excitement of shared cultural moments, as seen in grunge’s disillusionment or Britpop’s patriotism, has now evolved into a network of niche communities and sub-genres, all creating their own distinctive sound and forming their own identity. It may seem as though corporations have caused a burnout in creativity, but originality is still pumping throughout the industry, now it just requires listeners to look beyond the algorithmic junk dominating the mainstream.