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

True, I was listening to blues, punk and grunge, and Kurt Cobain was a good few years dead by then, but there were also plenty fo kids who loved the popular chart stuff. I'm not seeing that with the kids in my life today, and I think today's popular music is comparatively worse than any other time period I know much about!

Is it because there aren’t any decent new bands any more? Everyone in the charts seems to be a singer/songwriter these days so you don’t really get a balanced range of music being played, especially since some have 2 or 3 songs in the charts at the same time - and let’s face it, they are no “Bowie’s” (ie. every song different!)

Back in the day, you would have all sorts of bands, interspersed with the occasional solo singer, like this chart from the mid 1990’s:
https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-chart/19950528/7501/

I think it entirely depends on what kind of music you like. There have been countless new indie releases this year alone that avoid the ‘bland’ trap that SOME chart music can fall in to. I don’t say that to dismiss chart music just to mention that there is way more out there. Maybe pick up a copy of ‘uncut’ magazine or check out some tour dates near you for inspiration. I’m going to see Horsegirl in London tonight (3 young women from Chicago) and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m late 40s - don’t give up!

That’s the most ludicrous generalisation, there is SO much great music out there. Literally in your hand.
The stuff that’s popular isn’t for you if you’re over 25. But there are so many other avenues of music, my kids have introduced me to some excellent stuff, as has YouTube.
As for old songs on radio 1, they’ve always played old things occasionally, but music is consumed different these days to the 70/80/90/00, with the advent of streaming apps and tiktok old stuff often comes up for a new generation. One of the most popular songs on TikTok at the moment is a Connie Francis song from 1962!

Yes, but what did you listen to as a teen? I remember being obsessed with The Doors and Jefferson Airplane in the 90s. I think eschewing mainstream is part of being a teenager!

I don't think it is just getting old though. None of the teens I know like much of the current music either. They're currently raiding my grunge and blues collections!

Well, I'm a lot older than you OP, but I have stopped listening to new music. I think it's significant that music used in advertising is often 30-40 years old. That would be the equivalent to them using Vera Lynn songs when I was your age.

I feel the same about books and the new novels everyone raves about.

And we had the same issues with manufactured music in the 80s - Stock, Aitken and Waterman, anyone?

I think there's lots of great music around at the moment. I think platforms like YouTube, and even the dreaded TikTok allow unknown musicians to break through. I'm constantly finding interesting new music - but then again, I don't listen to the radio. That does seem a bit 'samey' these days. Oh, and I'm 47, so I don't think it's just an age thing.

When we sat through the trailers before Minecraft Movie recently, out of the 7 trailers, only one film was not a remake or sequel to an existing franchaise.

It reminded me why I rarely make it to the cinema anymore.

Modern music just feels bleughhh to me. I was a teenager in the 80's and I'm still listening now at 56 . The only good bands /artists from the 90's are David Gray, dido and.... elbow!!! I have two teenage sons and they prefer the 80's music 🎶 🤣

I also find that even with upbeat songs, there's a kind of weird, depressing undertone to them.

It's called getting old.

It happens in stages. First the music on Radio 1 will sound like horrible noise. The DJ's will be unbearable.

Then you startt o listen to Radio 2 and discover the DJ's you like on Radio 1 when you were younger are all on there. Then eventually they will be replaced with younger DJ's who are unbearable and play music which is not music at all but in fact just unbearable noise.

And then one day you find the car stereo is tuned to Radio 4 and you quite like it........

As someone who was well into adulthood by the 80s, I can confirm that they absolutely were playing songs from the 60s, even on Radio 1. What I can't believe is that in 2045, they'll be playing anything from 2025. It's all so underwhelming.

This! Not much innovation in pop music at the moment, and no-one playing real instruments. Everything is autotuned and mass-produced to within an inch of its life.

Same effect in film - Hollywood has become ultra risk averse and chases very limited markets, so sequels, franchises, Disney remakes, crap CGI/AI animation, Marvel universe, and horror films that young men will watch; and a few “female friendly” big movies, but nothing innovative or edgy in any way, not even the big family friendly films of the 80s or 90s.

Everything synthetic and heavily targeted to well-known product that sells.

The 80s had a lot of Duos like The Pet Shop Boys and Eurythmics because of synthesisers becoming more affordable and enabling pairs of people to create rich and experimental music on limited means.

It's a shame that further advances in technology are becoming stiffling.

Op- what’s the oldest songs you like? Is it just music from this year you hate or last year too, or the last 5 years?

As PP said, a lot of pop music hasn’t dramatically changed in the last 10-15 years so pop songs from the mid to early 2010s don’t sound glaringly “old” when played on the radio now. When did the change in music enjoyment hit you?

could it be - you’re late 20s, radio 1 always had “15-25” as its target audience, you are now not the person this sort of music is being written and recorded for, but music from 10 years ago hits better as you were the audience for it then, and it’s more you are remembering it rather than finding it newly now.

One of my radios is playing up and will only tune into BBC local radio, and actually they're good at picking up on more interesting emerging new music amongst the decades old classics. It's not the death by Dua Lipa that drove me off Radio 2, and I'm enjoying the break from adverts on Greatest Hits (and I was missing being exposed to some new content)

I have a music producer friend who says it’s to do with fashionable studio production techniques, and modern songwriting style…Apparently most modern pop music is written by jamming lots of hooks together in the same song, and is written by committee (a few different songwriters collaborating). Add to that the invention of AI in post production and everything ends up sounding completely homogeneous.

I imagine new artistes probably start out sounding original but then just get funnelled in to the pop music sausage factory and have all the creativity shaved off the edges. You’d never get a Kate Bush, or Eurythmics keeping creative control of the production process nowadays. The artists that want to do so have to rise up through a more alternative route of gigging/funding their own tours etc.

Did you see that Kate Nash has turned to Only Fans to fund her latest tour? I’m in no judgement about her decision to do so, but it tells you all you need to know about the industry - sell your soul, or sell your titties!

Stop listening to the radio and stop listening to 'popular' playlists on Spotify. Mix it up, listen to different genres of modern music. You have the whole world's music available to you.

You are surely being exposed to the wrong kind of modern song? There are so many artists out there that aren't getting the kind of exposure that the artists you mentioned are but are great nonetheless. I advise you to get on the bbc sounds website and find some of their programmes that are about new music and new artists. I guarantee you'll find something you like.

There's always new to you music to explore too - it doesn't have to be modern but I bet there are loads of artist from previous decades that you haven't even discovered yet!

Too much over-production and writing by committee. Very formulaic. There's little commercial freedom to allow acts to be genuinely fresh and original.

Music is created to blend on Spotify playlists. Solo acts and "co-labs" are easier to manage than the dynamics of bands. The music industry is lazy and playing at commercially safe, not creative.

Sound is mixed to sound ok streamed on tinny phones, not to blossom on giant sound systems (RIP 80s stacker systems)

We've also got a generation of young adults raised in schools with very depleted access to the arts. That affects who can get into music and reach a break-through stage.

I wondered if it was just me getting middle-aged, but watching youtube analyses by people who actually know about music, it's not just me and my lifestage performing to cliché. There genuinely are reasons why so much current music is dull.

Overproduction and auto tune on vocals.

Music by robots ! It's all so samey as well...

Everyone sounds the same now. I listen to 80s music a lot.

Open-earedness (yes really) does wane as you age. Lots of studies.