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

[CherriesAndBerries5]

(To start, this isn’t me trying to be ‘edgy’ I just genuinely don’t understand!)

I’m 28 and I love music. I listen to a huge range of music. I like indie and rock and also dance and fun songs.
I also have some awful dance and pop songs that I absolutely love! I know there were some really cheesy pop songs in the 10s and some I absolutely love. There are some rap songs that I enjoy too.

However… there’s not a popular song out there right now that I don’t absolutely despise. Most songs I have to turn off when they come on. And I don’t understand why because is it really much different to some of the songs in the 10s that I was indifferent to?

What I don’t understand is how all my friends are loving and singing along to all of it?

Lose control by teddy swims? God awful.
Beautiful things by benson Boone? I have to turn it off.
Too sweet by Hozier? One of the most dull and boring songs I’ve ever heard.
Tipsy? Fucking irritating.
Pink pony club? The most bang average song I’ve ever heard, why is everyone raving about it???

I’m not sure I can put my finger on it, I am open to listening to all sorts and I’ve always liked most songs but why do I hate every single one now (and why does everyone love them)??

You’re turning into your dad. It happens to us all eventually.

I like nearly all the songs you list.
i like max mcnown too

I can’t stand Hozier, but not sure whether it’s because the man’s an utter knob towards women (the ones with opinions) on social media, or because his music comes under the category I’ve invented called ‘Whiney men songs’.

Theres an awful lot of that type around. My teenagers seem to love 90s music at the moment. It makes me feel momentarily cool.😎

Things I notice about the majority of the songs at the moment; the lyrics have very little content. There have always been some songs like that, but very few seem to have anything thoughtful or even poetic or clever. There is nothing like the kind of lyrical content you'd get from a band like The Police, for example. There doesn't seem to be much structure, or change, they are just kind of flat, and samey within the songs. There is no momentum, you don't feel you get anywhere. No build up of tension with a resolution.

This is such a good point. I read a piece on this and how a lot of songs now are just about love and relationships, he/she/you/me/I, falling in love or breaking up. Yes songs have always been about this but about storytelling too.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1FY3FTLsyr/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Stock, Aitken and Waterman? I remember them! The sheer MEDIOCRITY of their songs, which were often big hits.

to be fair, SAW produced some absolutely brilliant pop songs

Exactly this! I don’t know if I got it across in my previous comment well.

There is too much put into “power vocals”. Like they are the be all and end all.

I honestly wonder if it’s enhanced. I know some strong strong singers in real life and they sound nothing like that. It’s a different quality of sound, somehow.

I don’t think it’s the manufacturing as there’s always been manufacturing, it’s the feeling that the songs and lyrics have been put through some algorithm to ensure they’re similar enough to other successful songs there will be a market for them, but disimilar enough that someone’s not going to get sued. The fun and cheekiness and the energy isn’t there, it’s all knowing and fourth wall breaking and being edgy by talking about sex or swearing.

I like kpop - it’s all over the place in a good way and the acts are incredibly talented, but it is manufactured.

This is almost exactly what I was typing, but you got there first! There is LOADS of amazing new music around, almost too much to listen to. Manufactured bands and music is not new, I do think there is a generic sound that is a bit more all encompassing now, made worse with suto tuning and AI, which has made things worse on mainstream outlets, so the key is to just avoid those.

Yes! I roam YouTube to find interesting music nowadays. Don't think I've listened to the radio in at least 10 years and I used to be hooked to Radio 1 back in the day... (I'm middle-aged)

Personally it’s because they are , by and large, just an awful noise , cannot imagine people in 40/50 years still listening to the drivel that is much of todays music.

My 12 year old's Spotify play list is not far off what mine would have been if Spotify had been around when I was 18. I often tell him he needs to find some more current bands to listen to, but he complains that I was so lucky to grow up in 'the golden age of music' and how the bands from the 90's and 00's were so much better. I can't disagree! The main bands I still listen to now are either not together any more or old like me and on the most part, still making great music!

This happens as you get older.

You’re getting old op. Once the music leaves you behind that’s a sure sign.

All the songs you’ve mentioned are great so it’s definitely you.

And then you find it irritating, but there's some rather nice stuff on Radio 3. Not just classical, either.

There's very little I like that's newer than around 2004.

We had workmen in, all in their 20s I reckon, and all the tunes they had on were around the same era ie stuff their parents would have been listening to!

Today's music is generally overproduced, over choreographed, sterile songs sung by good looking puppets hand picked by the record companies with a team of songwriter's, producers, social media reps around them.

When I was a teen there wasn’t much on the radio I liked either. Everything we listened to was rock or punk music, albeit pretty mainstream rock and punk that would play at reading and Leeds. So if you are listening to the radio and wondering why you don’t like it you may have to get off the radio and look into some more alternative music because it’s always been a bit crap!!

I like most of the songs in the OP, I'm 48.

Before autotune, we had the whole not the original singer because of their looks stuff, Milli-Vanilli, Black Box springs to mind. Even C and C music factory.

I am out of touch so by the time I hear something new, it really isn't. I do really like Raye, there's a big difference between her live vs recorded. Personally I think her live performances are better

That's not the issue though. As previous poster pointed out, they're playing 20 year old tracks on radio1, that never happened 20 years ago. Whey were not playing 80s music when I was 20

I don't think the music has "left" op, she still loves music

I get what you mean and there is actually a video on YouTube saying most modern songs are produced by the same three people.

If I want to listen to modern music (I’m an oldie) I listen to BTS, they are truly talented with some fantastic songs, it doesn’t even matter that I don’t speak Korean (or for some songs, Japanese). Intelligent pop music.

So many people on this thread saying stuff my parents said in the 90s 🤣 all about how modern music all sounds the same, it’s all manufactured, where are the real songwriters, where are LENNON AND MCCARTNEY DAMMIT?! There is loads of good stuff around, plus there is also loads of dross too. Go back to the charts in 1995 and you’ll see the same - bangers from Oasis and Blur, but also Scatman and Robson & Jerome. T’was ever thus (apart from the golden years of 1984-86 where virtually every single song in the charts was a classic, and still is!)

There’s also a large element of nostalgia for what people think is the best era. I think 70s music is absolutely awful, but I have friends in their 60s who love it as it reminds them of being young, free & having fun. My ‘era’ is 90s as I’m 50, but I listen to so much music I’m not stuck in ‘it’s all been downhill since the 90s’ ruts! Personally I hated the 00s, but thought the 2010s were great - I loved a lot of songs from about 10 years ago.

My DC and their friends love music and go to gigs regularly. Recently seen Sam Fender (amazing, absolutely amazing), Wunderhorse, Taylor last summer (who is phenomenal) and off to see Noah Kahan and all the summer festivals coming up. They listen to a lot of dance / drum & bass too as well as singer songwriters. There’s loads out there.