By Farhad Manjoo: “Chris Molanphy, who writes a brilliant music chart-watching column for Slate, told me that streaming has led to quirkier hits that seem to come out of nowhere, and that stick around for longer — cuts like Gotye’s ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ from 2012, or 2017’s ‘Despacito,’ by Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber, which spent a then record-tying 16 weeks at #1. ‘In the 1980s, the whole music industry was more top-down regulated — retail managers at record stores and program directors on radio had their own agendas, and they had a much bigger hand in what got popular,’ Mr. Molanphy said.”
