> considerable correlation between the likelihood of recognizing a given song and its corresponding play count on Spotify
All of the Spotify top 100 are from 2011 or later, except for one from 1975.[1] Readers would be better off with the opposite of the headline.
That song from 1975 is an interesting case. Bohemian Rhapsody received mixed reviews at the time, and though it charted, was not a number one in the US. I'm not sure it was even the most widely known Queen song until Wayne's World. The recent biopic (and associated promotion) is undoubtedly giving it a brand new bump.
Klosterman argues in "But What if We're Wrong?" that future generations will have a pretty random understanding of our pop culture, judging from how poorly we tend to understand the past.[3]
Given enough time, some semi-random song like Bohemian Rhapsody will inevitably become a stand-in for all 20th century music, or at least all rock and roll.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-streamed_songs_on...
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/music/shortcuts/2017/may/07/elvi...
[3] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27068734-but-what-if-we-...
> Millennials recognise songs from music's 1960s-90s more than new songs
Actual article title:
> Millennials' still recognise songs from music's 1960s-90s golden age, study finds
Actual article content:
> By contrast, their recognition of musical hits from 2000 to 2015, while higher overall than the previous era, diminishes rapidly over time.
Hmm, that sounds more reasonable.