Cycles

It is interesting how many things work in a cyclical sort of way. Economists believe that there is an economic cycle, where there would be an economic crisis every decade or so. Basically, what goes up must come down.

This can, at times, be applicable to music. Maybe not a perfect, well-determined cycle, but it somehow follows a certain trend. For example, over a period of time, we have two broad classifications of music, the mainstream and the not-so mainstream, or some would call it, the underground. The mainstream will remain mainstream, as long as people are still intrigued by it. The not-so mainstream would remain as it is, as long as the popularity of the mainstream overshadows it.

Over time, as the crowd gets bored with the same kinda music or sound that they hear every other day, the popularity of mainstream would start to decline. Small groups of people would start searching for a different kinda sound, or as they would say, something fresh. They stumble upon the not-so mainstream and voila! They start to discover more about the music and their interests are piqued.

As more of these people switch over from the mainstream to the non-mainstream, we see a switch in popularity and as more artistes decide to ride on the rising popularity of the non-mainstream, the quality falls and the not-so mainstream will become the new mainstream music.

Those die-hard supporters of the once mainstream music, who are still ardent fans, would then regard their music as the new underground.



The above graph is just a rough illustration of the whole situation, assuming strict linearity, with the values on the left being the popularity and the numbers itself being plucked from a monkey's arse.

Well, of course, this whole illustration is purely theoretical without taking into account Murphy’s Law and all unpredicted events. It is like Life. I can tell you the average life expectancy of humans but in between, shit happens, you end up dying ‘prematurely’ or you probably outlive everybody else.

And yeah, to add, whack music disappears into oblivion once its popularity declines. Good music, never really dies off regardless of its popularity, it just manifests itself into something even better.