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I can assure you that Satie’s music was very, very well-known and popular (even though most people wouldn’t recognise his name) long before YouTube existed. Mo

I can assure you that Satie’s music was very, very well-known and popular (even though most people wouldn’t recognise his name) long before YouTube existed. Most people don’t intentionally listen to 100-year-old music, sure, but you’re underestimating how much we absorb this stuff as background music in ads, movies, TV shows etc. Most classical music is very niche but a few pieces become cornerstones of popular culture -- think of “flight of the bumblebee” or the William Tell overture. Satie has a disproportionate number of hits. His style is exceptionally simple, distinct and timeless.

amrocha 1y ago
That’s not my argument. Even if his music was “absorbed”, it doesn’t mean people know who he is. I’d argue that most people under 30 who know Erik found him through youtube. If you’re older I can understand why it seems perplexing but it’s true in my experience.
- iainmerrick 1y ago
  Yes, of course, YouTube is super popular. By definition, that’s the medium through which a huge number of people experience culture. And YouTube itself has shaped and redirected culture. But what you said was: Youtube is probably hugely responsible for Erik’s modern popularity. That makes it sound like people weren’t aware of this music before YouTubers started picking it up. That’s very much not the case. If you’re just talking about name recognition rather than the music itself, I suppose that’s possible as I don’t think his name was all that widely known. You’d have to show that it is more widely known now, though. My guess would be that his music is familiar to quite a large fraction of people, but that most still don’t know his name. I’m not trying to be snobby about this -- there’s plenty of catchy classical music I really like where I can only vaguely guess at the composer. I just happen to know and like Satie. It helps that a lot of his music is relatively easy to play for an amateur pianist like me.
mdrzn 1y ago
I actually discovered Satie's music by listening to a track that used Gnossienne n°1 as a sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-sS_Ts2Bjc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-sS_Ts2Bjc From there went deep in research on whosampled.com.

amrocha 1y ago

That’s not my argument. Even if his music was “absorbed”, it doesn’t mean people know who he is. I’d argue that most people under 30 who know Erik found him through youtube. If you’re older I can understand why it seems perplexing but it’s true in my experience.

iainmerrick 1y ago
Yes, of course, YouTube is super popular. By definition, that’s the medium through which a huge number of people experience culture. And YouTube itself has shaped and redirected culture. But what you said was: Youtube is probably hugely responsible for Erik’s modern popularity. That makes it sound like people weren’t aware of this music before YouTubers started picking it up. That’s very much not the case. If you’re just talking about name recognition rather than the music itself, I suppose that’s possible as I don’t think his name was all that widely known. You’d have to show that it is more widely known now, though. My guess would be that his music is familiar to quite a large fraction of people, but that most still don’t know his name. I’m not trying to be snobby about this -- there’s plenty of catchy classical music I really like where I can only vaguely guess at the composer. I just happen to know and like Satie. It helps that a lot of his music is relatively easy to play for an amateur pianist like me.

mdrzn 1y ago

I actually discovered Satie's music by listening to a track that used Gnossienne n°1 as a sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-sS_Ts2Bjc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-sS_Ts2Bjc From there went deep in research on whosampled.com.