While streaming services have already expanded our musical libraries, in 2018 a new generation of artists created records with our digital habits in mind.
At the helm of a movement towards shorter songs was a group of young rappers, who were squeezing their rhymes into albums that barely hit the 30-minute mark. The 22-year-old artist Tierra Whack garnered critical acclaim in May when she released the 15-minute audiovisual project Whack World, comprising 15 one-minute songs. The one-minute length conveniently fit within Instagram’s 60-second video limit, something that Whack has hinted was intentional, and demonstrates how young artists are now taking an optimised-for-Instagram approach when creating music.
Actor and rapper Jaden Smith recently took this concept further, releasing an entire album on Instagram for his 10m followers. Launched on Smith’s 20th birthday, the album – an electronic reworking of five songs from his 2017 release SYRE – was initially exclusive to the platform.