Search API Returning Obscure Tracks Only for Broad Genres

[perrym137]

Plan

Premium

Country

US

My Question or Issue

Until recently, searching for tracks via year and or genre would return generally popular tracks. Now genres such as "rap" with or without a year tag return tracks with mostly 0 popularity. Was this changed intentionally?

Search Query:
GET https://api.spotify.com/v1/search?offset=0&limit=5&query=genre%3A%22rap%22&type=track&market=US

Issue:
This query for the genre "rap" consistently returns extremely low-popularity tracks, none above a popularity score of 6 (out of 100).

Example Results (all from this call):

• "Wanna Know - Radio Edit" by Obie Trice – Popularity: 4
  https://open.spotify.com/track/53sQEERwLbA2ypbTpGhJHZ

• "Right Back" by Freeway – Popularity: 3
  https://open.spotify.com/track/1rBzl3PPk0MfTbGBZ81sCT

• "Super Balller" by Lil Blacky – Popularity: 4
  https://open.spotify.com/track/1aSy5A4AKR62hUSBpshSLJ

• "Drag Nutz" by KP SKYWALKA – Popularity: 6
  https://open.spotify.com/track/2JFy4Aq3VHnbFf41YBQ9qF

• "Que Rebuscas" by Gyanma – Popularity: 5
  https://open.spotify.com/track/3vNRWAxiGMC8DNrCu8FCZN