If TikTok is eventually banned in the U.S., at least Pavement will have a gold record to show for it.
The acerbic Stockton indie rockers, beloved for their spiky guitar interplay and frontman Stephen Malkmus’ bone-dry wit, released a number of rock-critic-beloved albums in the ‘90s for indie label Matador, and returned as festival favorites in the 2010s. The group’s influence far outstripped its record sales, though, until the distant hand of the algorithm decided that Gen Z was primed for the Pavement b-side “Harness Your Hopes.”
The song — first released on the CD-only E.P. “Spit on a Stranger” in 1999 — wasn’t even on a proper album release until the 2008 deluxe reissue of 1997’s “Brighten the Corners.” It’s a solid if typical entry into the Pavement slacker-rock arcana. Yet after blowing up across both Spotify and TikTok (where fans have made it into a charmingly ramshackle dance and fit-check meme), the single took on a new life of its own.
The band and director Alex Ross Perry put out a self-aware video, casting Sophie Thatcher of the 90’s rock-obsessed thriller “Yellowjackets.” On Spotify, it’s earned 148 million plays, by far the biggest tally in their catalog and multiples over “Cut Your Hair,” the band’s best-known single before this.
On May 16, the song hit the RIAA’s classification for Gold status, meaning it hit the sales equivalent for 500,000 units across platforms. Malkmus was just as confused as the public by the song’s ascent — “I heard it was on a playlist or something,” he told Stereogum. “I’m not an expert on Spotify but, you know, one of those ‘Monday Moods’ or whatever the f— they do.”
It’s not the first time an obscure Gen X indie single found a second wind via inscrutable streaming bumps. “Strange” by Galaxie 500 had a smaller 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 increase in streaming of ‘Strange’ above all other Galaxie 500 songs started in January 2017 — the same time Spotify switched the ‘Autoplay’ preset in every listener’s preference panel from off, to on [you can still turn it off but of course fewer people do],” Krukowski wrote. “Autoplay selects ‘similar songs’ when anything you have chosen to play — a playlist, an album, a song — finishes. At that point, Spotify’s recommendation algorithms take over and the system continues to provide music based on its resemblance to whatever you have been hearing. [Glenn explained that there are many, many acoustic categories involved in that calculation.]”
“In other words, it would seem that ‘Strange’ started to be picked out by Spotify’s algorithms because they found it most similar to other bands’ songs than any other Galaxie 500 track,” he continued. That’s probably mixed praise for an artist who values invention, but welcome — even if Krukowski is organizing for Spotify to pay better royalties.
For all the graying parents out there who loathe their tweens’ TikTok obsession, it must be a balm to know their tastes in indie rock have been validated all over again.
