To All the Songs I’ve loved before…How Evergreen songs are earning their price tag

At Blokur we recently released our 2020 Songwriters Review which shines a light on the songwriters behind the top charting songs of 2020. The report includes stories and profiles about the songwriters and trends driving music listening in 2020, including a feature on classic hits that have re-entered the charts and are driving the recent increase in catalogue acquisitions. But what makes these songs so valuable?

Evergreen songs — songs that manage to withstand the test of time, and never seem to lose their acclaim. We’ve seen the never-ending popularity of Bohemian Rhapsody, landing Freddie Mercury a solid spot as one of the top 100 songwriters on Blokur’s 2020 Songwriters Review. But with the ever expanding industry continuously bringing in new contenders, what exactly is it that keeps these classic hits, and their writers, on the charts?

The key, in fact, actually is their newer counterparts. Song sampling sees old fan-favourites integrated within the new wave of music as it comes. For instance, Queen have recently had the beat of Another one bites the dust sampled in the recent chart topper Butter by BTS.

evergreen songs bts another one bites the dust

And it doesn’t stop there — contemporary stars have been reaching even further into the past. In 2019, we saw the return of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein via Ariana Grande, as she revived My favourite things in 7 Rings, which went on to hold one of the top spots on the Billboard Top 100 for eight weeks. In the same vein, the guitar melody from Sting’s Shape of my heart was found to have been sampled in Juice WRLD’s Lucid dreams. But is this the sole reason as to why we continue to see old favourites on the charts today?

While the act of sampling does play a large role in prolonging the shelf life of these songs, it’s not the only one. We’ve found that song covers also have an impact on their popularity. Take the resurgence of Paul Simon for example. Rock band Disturbed re-released Simon and Garfunkel’s 1964 song The sound of silence, which also found a spot on the Billboard top 100, and was even nominated for a Grammy for “Best rock performance.” This eventually led to Simon featuring as one of Amazon music’s top 10 charting songwriters of 2020. 

Rock has always been favourable when it comes to Amazon. In fact, rock, country, and alternative make up for around half of their top charting music. That being said, the rock songs you’d find at the top of the list have mostly been released sometime in the last century. This could be for a number of reasons — such as the age range of the audience. We’ve found that the age demographic on Amazon was between 35–49, which is somewhat older than on other platforms eg. Spotify. This explains the popularity of more nostalgic pieces, rather than newer releases even within the same genre. 

Consequently, the value of these songs increases with their resurrection. So it’s no surprise that their catalogue acquisitions have increased, resulting in an even larger increase in usage. For instance, earlier this year, investment and management company Hipgnosis spent over $1b on acquisitions alone, alongside UMG, who spent approximately $300–400m solely on the Bob Dylan catalogue. 

All in all, this just illustrates how amidst contemporary streaming culture, true chart resilience, and resistance to the effects of time, comes from none other, than a masterfully done song.


For more details on Evergreen Songs or on the top songwriters of 2020, download Blokur’s 2020 Songwriters Review.