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 are growing older. That’s the reason.

Another factor is pwobablwy the way dey awl pronounce tings loik a liggle fairy baby fwom noo yoik in da nointeen fifties.

My car radio is permanently tuned to 70s and 60s stations. The difference between those ears and today's music is painful.

I love Wunderhorse. My dad (who lived music) used to watch Jools Holland etc with me and say how everything was ripped off from the 60s. No lw I say how it's ripped off from the 90s 😆
Still lots of great original stuff out there.

They’re not really pop though, the ones you listed, they’re more … I don’t know, cool than pop, like you the people who drink craft beer and don’t really dance! I’m 45 and love older pop but think in the last few years people like lizzo, Olivia Rodrigo, taylor swift, duo lipa, Charlie xcx have done amazing things to bring pop back

For anyone wanting a lyrically-clever, catchy poppy tune - have a look at this one from an unsigned band:

it is a combination of liking what you grow up with and shit modern music production.

Autotune has killed music. And the trend for the breathy, hardly-there-voice that female artists have been doing for years is now being adopted by male artists. Urgh.

And bands have died a death. There are barely any bands who do the band thing of growing up together, writing their own songs and playing live in sweaty venues and honing their craft. Well, there are bands like that - but they don't breakthrough because the big music companies don't like that.

During the Stock Aitken Waterman years we also still had decent older bands around, and decent new bands coming up, as an alternative. And tbh, i look back with nostalgia at some of those

but where do you look and how do you find?

it's all very well saying that, but do you have recs?

I've recently been seeing (because she was support for other artists i like) Amy Montgomery. She is old-school rocky. Her band is called Preyers. If you like rockier music give her a go.

They were, the Beatles and stones. Status Quo took the BBC to court because they were removed from the play list in the mid 90s. At the same time the BBC sacked the older, original djs and only played current music from them on.

Try BBC Radio 6 Music
lots of good indie/alternative stuff

I think it's auto tune - I've seen people on youtube do comparisons with auto tuned and non auto tuned verions of songs. No auto tuning you can hear that singer uniqueness and a lot more emotion.

DD2 16 had small party in exam period and they were dancing to songs - many of which shocking I tend to listen to via alexa when doing jobs - Rip tide was one - 2013 - summertime sadness 2012. So not as old as many suggest but not really recent last few year songs.

One of her friends who really into music listens to Green Day - but more their older stuff - which nearly 20 years.

I suspect there's good stuff out there but it's finding it and many TV ads or you tube clips use older songs now.

I've also seen documenataries where old musician pin point period when corporate money took over industry and people on yotube pointing out lack of bands these days - as apparently music industry not so keen on them at moment.

There are clearly problems and I think it's more than MN getting old - but as other posters have said there issue in american film indurtry - I'd say in TV land and in book publishing.

Not the point of the post but how do people know what is currently popular with the youth?

I only know one of the songs listed in the OP 😳

I have 6 music on the radio a lot but it’s mostly stuff targeted at middle aged folks like myself.

How do I find out what, say, mainstream and less mainstream 17-year-olds are into?

Yes. And they still do.

Pop music is no longer merely about what's current. There's a canon - a heritage and a cultural history - that goes back sixty years. My kids and all their friends who hang out at our house - 19 to 23ish - are as familiar with the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Motown, Blur, Chic, Arctic Monkeys as they are with the music being made today. And there's a lot of good music being made today.

However, because of the way that music is consumed today (neither of my daughters has ever paid for music in a shop) the charts aren't necessarily representative of new music as a whole.

Actually they never were. I recently looked at the Top20 for 1973 - the year of some of the most successful albums ever released - and the singles chart, I have to tell you, was really embarrassing.

You can’t hate Sabrina Carpenter ‘Espresso’

you just can’t !!

Listened to a couple you list. And I'll quote Jack Good the man who created itvs first pop music programme, Oh Boy! "they didnt even play in tune before I came along". Like the people who produced those songs, he missed the point, the excitement, the spontaneity, the ooomphh has been taken out of them. They are polished, rounded off and sound like a thousand other songs from the last 25 years.

Rubber Bullets and Can The Can weren’t embarrassing!!

but Suzie Quattro was so inspiring for girls like me.

Thanks to this thread now listening to Sam Fender.

I get lazy with music. I have Spotify but tend to listen to my favourites, or my all women playlist (have crowdsourced some of that - it is eye opening)

It galls me that i like rock music (thanks, mum) i love really good pop too. But mostly what i listen to are male voices. But the little girl breathy thing gets on my nerves.

Okay, not universally embarrassing. But look at this lot... There are maybe 10 of this Top50 - Bowie, Slade, I'd probably admit to liking Mud - that wouldn't cause me to put a pillow over my head. But it's hardly representative of the best new music of the year.

https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-chart/19731111/7501/

Top of the Pops was ace - you could get Sisters of Mercy, Sonia, Bon Jovi, Kim Wilde, Sinitta and Iron Maiden all on the same show. They should bring it back!

I miss the days when songs were written by one or two people!

I hate anything with Autotune. It really detracts from the voice, it makes voices sound similar, and there's a strange distortion that I hear.

Dua Lipa has to be the most overrated artist. Not a very pleasant voice and auto tuned to death.
Cannot believe she headlined Glastonbury last year either!

Deacon Blue have new stuff out - I love their single Late ‘88.

My daughter has no idea about any chart music. It’s all 80s and alternative!

That surprises me because of the way music is listened to now

Everyone is lost in their earbuds listening on their own

So I grew up listening to my parents and older siblings choices plus whatever was on the radio. So I was listening to music from the 1950s-70s
Then when I had my children it was the 80s-90s

Then I regressed and only listen to the music I like from there with very rare hearings of 'new' stuff - like Teddy Swims

I have never liked or understood rap or anything else that doesn't have a tune and words I understand. And obviously it' not written for people of my age

Have a listen to radio 2 at the weekend. POTP Sunday evening for example.

i agree with another poster. My DC late 20s/30s like a mix of music and were brought up with 60/70/80 as well, as the current stuff that was around