tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2395090220691101609.post3944328818821361412..comments2023-06-08T01:26:04.133-07:00Comments on A Fiercer Delight and a Fiercer Discontent: Testing the Simmons-Klosterman Hypothesisstanfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07591716618038804118noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2395090220691101609.post-30402837669273587832021-12-28T05:29:32.104-08:002021-12-28T05:29:32.104-08:00Great post, I'm glad I found it! Very informat...Great post, I'm glad I found it! Very informativeSarahttps://www.civilgeo.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2395090220691101609.post-21386849126182455512010-07-16T08:26:55.957-07:002010-07-16T08:26:55.957-07:00Joel W. I loved the description of the post script...Joel W. I loved the description of the post script as Keirkegaardian. Classic!<br /><br />Joel K. Hilarious. I actually am interested in what you listen to.<br /><br />Matthew, It sure is fun to know an economist. i love the idea of the diminishing value of an identity factor as it gains popularity. I also think you are right about 'debuts' not actually being debuts but the first album we have heard of.<br /><br />Thanks for the thoughts.stanfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07591716618038804118noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2395090220691101609.post-63056707323092044762010-07-12T09:50:37.306-07:002010-07-12T09:50:37.306-07:00Great post. A couple of things came to mind when ...Great post. A couple of things came to mind when reading about the trajectory of quality in music. I think that your assumptions about the sophomore slump may be influenced as much by the ubiquity of this perception as much as christian music of the mid-90s. And I can think of 3 reasons, one of which you alluded to, for this perception, two of which are related to the actual quality of the music, and one to its perception only.<br /><br />First, sophomore slumps may just be mean reversion. Debut albums tend to be really good because they are the debuts that you actually heard of. Plenty of bands produce mediocre music before some great stuff actually gets them the record deal. <br /><br />Second, the issue of the influence of the producers and distributors may be a wider phenomenon than just KLOVE. If a great record shows promise of commercial success, it may be that the record companies take more interest in and put more pressure on the band to produce music with broader appeal. Before a record appears on the charts, the record company has the incentive to encourage the band to produce music that will be most successful to a narrow, core audience, but with the first hint of radio airplay or commercial success, the company's incentives change; they will profit most if the band records stuff with broad appeal at the expense of core audience appeal.<br /><br />Third, there is the widely-held view among these core audiences that the above practice is more common than it actually is. That is, as a band's appeal broadens, the "identity value" (ie, the value I receive from using this band to shape or broadcast my personal social/cultural identity) of that band is diminished, sort of like currency inflation. If everyone likes Death Cab, I'm no longer as cool as I used to be for liking them. I need an excuse to stop wearing my death cab t-shirt and get a new favorite band. I could react to their commercial success by saying "yes, I've known that they were good, and I'm glad that top-40 listeners finally know the joy that I do of listening to them. I'm so glad they were plucked from obscurity." Or I could call them sell-outs and claim that they were ruined by the greedy capitalist record companies to whom they have sold their souls for the almighty dollar. The latter resolves the cognitive dissonance between the fact that I used to be a fan, but being a fan now no longer makes me cool. For identity value, I need to like bands that are hugely popular within a narrow subculture, but unheard of everywhere else. I need a little bit of conformity within my social group, but a lot of individuality to distinguish myself from everyone else outside of my social group. <br /><br />So I think that if a debut album is good enough to break into the mainstream, people (especially cool people, extra-especially professional cool people like Klosterman) have an incentive or bias against liking follow-ups because they do so at the expense of their cultural relevance. <br /><br />It was a joke with me among college buddies to respond to questions about *any* band with, "yeah, I liked their old stuff, but they kinda sold out," especially when it did not apply at all. It was just so cliché, I thought it was funny.Matthew Pearsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09804166290781587103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2395090220691101609.post-17350189265319032422010-07-11T19:12:13.443-07:002010-07-11T19:12:13.443-07:00I only listen regularly to two of the bands on you...I only listen regularly to two of the bands on your list, The Killers and Death Cab for Cutie, but I agree with you on both. I never really thought of plotting music this way, but am wondering where and with what bands our opinions would really diverge.<br /><br />It's possible that they never would, since we're both really smart and therefore our opinions are very reliable, but one never knows. ;)<br /><br />Great post.Joelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16401310219858196387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2395090220691101609.post-27989340158381367642010-07-11T16:42:53.107-07:002010-07-11T16:42:53.107-07:00As if this post did not have enough parenthetical ...As if this post did not have enough parenthetical thoughts, I had a fun related story. We went to Northern NY a couple weeks ago and were thrilled to find that our home town has a fantastic alternative radio station out of Kingston. (Don’t get me started on the fact that Watertown has good alternative radio and Sacramento does not.) Anyway, Amanda listened to it for a week before I got to town and when she picked me up from the airport she informed me that she was now a Pearl Jam fan. Her reason? “They sound just like Third Day.” I had to break it to her that the causality in that relationship might be inverted.stanfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07591716618038804118noreply@blogger.com