Chris Dalariva

Not just the sound of the songs, but the entire way music is created, distributed, and consumed.

A lot of us remember having shelves full of records and CDs, but today most music lives on a phone and it's delivered instantly through a streaming service.

That shift in technology hasn't just changed how we listen, it's changed the music itself in surprising and profound ways.

Chris Dallariva is here to explain how it all happened.

He's senior product manager at the music streaming platform AudioMac.

He's also a musician and a writer who's been featured in The Economist, Business Insider, and The Wall Street Journal.

He writes the acclaimed newsletter Can't Get Much Higher, and he is author of a book called Uncharted Territory, What Numbers Tell Us About the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves.

Hey, Chris, welcome to Something You Should Know.

Thanks for having me.

I'm really happy to be here.

So when I think about popular music, popular songs, it seems that a significant number of those songs are about love and heartbreak and romance and people falling in love.

And is that my perception or is that really true?

And so what was that trend?

Was it a trend or was it just a coincidence?

I mean, that was the time when, you know, the late 50s, early 60s, when James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause, teenagers had this reputation, this kind of bad boy reputation.

Was that it?

One of the things that always interests me is why some songs and some artists become hits and others don't in this sense.

And you can see it like on American Idol.

There are a ton of great singers in this world.

And there's a ton of great songs in this world.