If TikTok is eventually banned in the US, at least Pavement will have a gold record to show for it.
The biting indie rockers from Stockton, beloved for their spiky guitar interplay and the dry wit of frontman Stephen Malkmus, released several albums beloved by rock critics in the '90s for the indie label Matador, and returned as festival favorites in The group's influence far outweighed its record sales, however, until the distant hand of the algorithm decided that Generation Z was ready for Pavement's B-side, “Harness Your Hopes.”
The song, first released on the CD-only EP “Spit on a Stranger” in 1999, didn't even appear on a proper album until the 2008 deluxe reissue of 1997's “Brighten the Corners.” It's a solid entry , although typical, to the arcana of Pavement's slacker-rock. However, after exploding on both Spotify and TikTok (where fans turned it into a charmingly ramshackle dance and form-control meme), the single took on a new life of its own.
The band and director Alex Ross Perry released a self-aware video, casting Sophie Thatcher in the '90s rock-obsessed thriller “Yellowjackets.” On Spotify, it earned 148 million streams, by far the highest number in their catalog and multiples over “Cut Your Hair,” the band's best-known single before this one.
On May 16, the song achieved the RIAA Gold rating, meaning it reached the sales equivalent of 500,000 units across all platforms. Malkmus was as confused as the public by the song's rise: “I heard it was on a playlist or something,” he told Stereogum. “I'm not a Spotify expert but, you know, one of those 'Monday Moods' or whatever they do.”
It's not the first time an obscure Gen X indie single has found a second wind through inscrutable streaming obstacles. Galaxie 500’s “Strange” had a minor but even more unexpected bounce there. That band's Damon Krukowski noted on his blog that Spotify's “data alchemist” Glenn McDonald reached out to explain the quirk.
“The rise in streaming of 'Strange' above all other Galaxie 500 songs began in January 2017, around the same time Spotify changed the 'AutoPlay' preset in each listener's preferences pane off to on. [you can still turn it off but of course fewer people do]”Krukowski wrote. “Autoplay selects 'similar songs' when whatever you've chosen to play (a playlist, an album, a song) ends. At that point, Spotify's recommendation algorithms take over and the system continues serving music based on how similar it is to whatever you've been listening to. [Glenn explained that there are many, many acoustic categories involved in that calculation.]”
“In other words, it would seem that 'Strange' began to be selected by Spotify's algorithms because they found it more similar to other bands' songs. than any other Galaxie 500 track,” he continued. It's probably mixed praise for an artist who values invention, but welcome, even if Krukowski is arranging for Spotify to pay better royalties.
For all the gray-haired parents who hate their kids' obsession with TikTok, it must be a balm to know that their tastes in indie rock have been validated once again.
