I hate every single modern song and I can’t put my finger on why!

@CherriesAndBerries5 I wonder if you're into a particular genre and maybe haven't found the modern stuff?

I really like "pink pony club" because I find it has a cabaret vibe. It wouldn't be out of place in a 1940s film in a way.

Do you like Sam Fender at all? If it's older music that you like, I get a strong Springsteen and Killers vibe from him.

It’s true, the dirge put out there by the industry is bland, deliberately made to appeal to the masses by being as samey as possible, auto turned, increasingly ai produced, soulless, joyless, dull…

There’s loads of great music out there if you dig deeper and turn away from what the industry is forcing you to listen to. Try some independent artists who are doing what they want to do without being told what to do. My life totally changed for the better when I found Ren, and from him The Big Push, Skinner Brothers, Chinchilla, and so many great hardworking talented people. Went to a smaller festival this summer and watched 30+ fantastic alternative artists and bands, all doing their thing with often little support from the ‘industry’ (which only wants to churn out more identikit Sabrina Carpenters). There’s loads out there but you have to find it. It’s fun once you do.

I remember hating most popular music in the 80s. All the synthesiser stuff. I liked the alternative scene, post punk but it wasn't played much on the radio. The fun was in going into record shops and flicking through all of the albums til you found something that looked interesting, then getting them to play it in the shop.
Music improved in the 90s
I've no idea what's in the charts now, and no desire to find out either. There's so much good stuff out there that there's no need to bother with chart stuff.

Too fast

It’s also the singing for me. What happened to just singing the actual note and moving on? Every single note now has to have vibrato apparently,

if it isn’t full of “oOoOoOoOoOoOoO” and vocals that are all over the place warbling and woOoOoOoing then apparently that means the artist is a crap singer.

Don’t get me wrong, it takes an immense talent to control your vibrato completely and it has its place. But nothing makes me feel like a song is more butchered than when it is just vibrato and nothing else (looking at you Cynthia Erivo, who destroyed defying gravity with a million vibrato).

Most pop is crap, designed to be consumed quickly. No intros, just bang, straight in, catchy chorus, full of buzzwords and artificial relatability.

Not much more than advertising jingles really.

It’s because most pop music is boring as fuck nowadays. But there’s plenty of other genres out there and there are still bands making good music. I say bands because it’s safer to explore bands as such a high proportion of solo singer-songwriters currently fall into the boring as fuck category.

I think there is some very good pop, but also quite a lot of songs that sound like a lot of slick production in search of an actual song.

I quite like some of the 'hyperpop' Charlie XCX type stuff but it is very 'dense' and deliberately overproduced and I can imagine it easily feeling like too damn much.

Definitely the auto tune and tinny production.

Music used to be art, now it's business. There is a lack of soul in modern music IMO.

We were just discussing this ther other night whilst watching old episodes of Top of the Pops - DH and I look at the 80s with rose tinted glasses but we only remember the good stuff and not the bad stuff!

It was also quite striking how much variety there was in the charts then compared to now.

I like rock music and newer rock stuff doesn't do it for me - something about the production recently, everything seems to have a really muddy sound with the guitars and the drums all blending together and the same effects on the vocals - even when I can tell I might like the song itself I just can't get on with the way it's made to sound if that makes sense!

It’s because you are listening to ‘popular music’. It’s music by numbers in that genre

You've just become an old fogey who hates what 'kids these days' are into. It sneaks up on some people. Commiserations!

There hasn’t been a big change in a long long time now - we need the new punk/grunge/house to shake everything up

Can’t stand the autotune that seems to be thrown on loads of stuff. Probably some over engineering to digitally make things sound more in-time and less natural.

Pink Pony Club is terrible and seems to appeal to middle-aged men from what I can see.

I can’t believe how much young people seem to love pop-dance one hit wonders from the 90s! I never thought that songs that were pretty cheesy and throwaway at the time would still be a thing 30 years later 😁

I like the odd new pop song but everything seems to be designed to be backing music for some kind of social media video. I blame Ed Sheeran as he seemed to be the first person to make loads of bland songs that are designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator whilst also releasing in 20 formats so they filled up the charts.

I’m 100% with you on Pink pony club. Just… why? It’s so boring.

I’m 35 and like most of the new music I hear on Capital. I like a wide range of old music too.

You need to listen to the stuff that's not "popular". There's so much great music out there if you look for it.

Yes this! 'Pop' is probably geared to younger people anyway (there's probably a formula). Your tastes will change as you get older. Also you might find you can relate more to artists of a similar age to you. A good song is angood song, but it can feel different sung by anteenager vs a 40 year old. There is LOADS of great new alternative music out there at the moment - I recommend Big Thief and Bon Iver (brilliant new album), Cameron Winter, CMAT etc Just because it's new doesn't mean you should discount it.

I struggle to even name current artists...I hear songs but have no idea who sings them...unless my dc specifically tell me. I think top of the pops and listening to the charts kept a lot of people in the loop...now I know nothing.

My 16yr old plays bass guitar and is into mostly rock music but listens to all sorts of genres. However, he also hates all the formulaic modern stuff and thinks it’s absolutely crap.

He listens to music from the 1930’s onwards and probably stops around 2005. 🤣

Also completely agree with Perhapsanothertime's analysis of how our music taste/exposure changes.

They were still playing 80s music on the radio in the 00s, even on Radio 1. I think the issue is that once music is about 20+ years old they have stopped playing the mediocre stuff and also the tracks that everyone got sick of because they were overplayed and what remains are the true classics from that era. So it's easy to think how brilliant the 80s/00s music was compared with today, because you're seeing the "greatest hits" rather than the full range.

Never heard this but I absolutely agree and I know it has happened to me.

When we are kids we only have access to our parents music (I was brought up on electronic 80’s and 90’s dance - both of which I love) then once we’re at school with peers we start to be exposed to the current music - parties, what people are singing at school, we start to listen to the radio etc and hear new things and we’re receptive to it and like it.

For me that continued into my 20’s, I would listen to the radio on way to work etc, be very current and know what was in the charts.

Then once I got into my 30’s I was more and more reluctant to listen to the radio. I think in part it was to do with how easy Spotify became to listen to. I’ve had it since 2007, but it was PC only back in the day. I started to reminisce more and listen to quite a bit of noughties music as it reminds me of growing up and feels comfortable to me. If I ask Alexa for a radio station it’s always Kisstory, Heart dance, Heart noughties etc.

I like to listen to music I know and like, and I don’t have to capacity now to choose to listen to something I don’t know. I tend to find my new music from Netflix shows, occasionally hearing something in a shop and Shazamming it, Spotify suggestions etc. so when it takes me by surprise!