I drove my mom to work this morning. I took her car, which means I had to listen to the radio instead of playing music from my phone, because she doesn't have an aux and Bluetooth is annoying to set up. On the way there, a new song from A Great Big World came on, and I got excited. I was a big fan of Say Something, Already Home, and Hold Each Other, so I was excited to have new music from them. That excitement lasted about 10 seconds, and then I realized their new song (titled "Younger") is exactly the same as every other modern pop song.

Every popular song nowadays songs exactly the same, and I blame the Chainsmokers. It was fine when they were the only ones doing it, but ever since Closer, every musical artist in the world has copied their style. I'm not sure what the technical name is for the type of "instrumentals" they use. I put "instrumentals" in quotes, because I'm fairly certain they don't use a single real instrument, just a computer. Regardless of what the proper term is, those computer sounds have found their way into every song released in the past three years, including "Younger".

The method is simple. Start with a short verse. Then your pre-chorus, which is usually a few lines that includes the name of the song. Then your actual chorus, which is a section of computer sounds with no words, followed by a word or two from the pre-chorus (usually the title of the song), then another section of the same computer sounds, and the same word or two from the pre-chorus again. Repeat that two more times (but replace the third verse with a bridge instead) and your song is complete.

Every song on the radio sounds like this now, and I hate it. What happened to lyricism? What happened to instruments? What happened to choruses that you can sing BECAUSE THEY ACTUALLY HAD WORDS IN THEM, instead of having to hum? People rip on rap music all the time because rappers have "no talent" or it's "not real music" but at least they actually write words and put effort into their songs. I could write a modern pop hit in five minutes.

Anyone else feel the same way? If not, please feel free to tell me why I'm wrong.

(Damn, how did I become a grumpy old man complaining about "back in my day" so quickly?)

Well, this style of music isn't something new. It's just that now it's mainstream.

Ever since the 70s and more prominently the 80s, electronic sounds were taking the world by storm. Many popular bands from that era started to include synthesizers in their hits, and they stayed through the 90s as dance music properly exploded. The 21st century has just followed that, and thus electronic sounds are now nearly omnipresent.

I must say, though, that I don't like electronic sounds become prominent in a band that doesn't really promote the use of synthesizers or mixers. Those can just stay on the sidelines to support the music, letting the lyrics to stand out and be sung by everyone. The best example is the song Celebration, by Madonna, most specifically the videoclip version.

If a DJ is making the song, then it can include as many computer sounds as they want. If the musician, or one or more members of the band, play synthesizers and other electronic instruments, then they can include as much of that as they want. But bands, musicians or singers that don't actually play or use those instruments shouldn't include them in high numbers, because that's not the kind of music they make, they're known for something else than just playful tunes.

The good old days where synthesizers were only abused by techno bands and never replaced the lyrics in the mainstream genres are long gone. It's sad, but sometimes music evolves the wrong way, and nowadays we have lots of examples about such wrong ways.

EX Palen : Yeah, I know electronic music isn't new, I was referring to the types of songs you discussed later on in your post. Electronic sounds in general aren't what I have a problem with, there are a lot of songs that implement them very well. What I hate is that every song out there follows the same exact formula, and forces these annoying instrumental choruses into songs that would be so much better without them.

I agree the fact that the current style of music being given to those over the radio is mostly the same, and arguably trash when it comes to actual music theory, as they are very, very simple ideas that are made to feel familiar to people, hence the reason why it sounds the same to those who don't favor this style of familiarity. However, the fact that the internet exists makes it so much easier to find new music and listen to people who are barely known, making it easy to invest yourself in a genre or two that you prefer, so I don't see too much of a problem with those songs being similar, because I can easily find music that suits me.

All I can say is that a majority of today's music is nothing but pure cabbages now a days, Like you mentioned, it's basically the same thing over and over and over again, and I hate that, I like when music has more variety in each of their songs.

Plus another thing that ticks me off about modern music is the lack of effort that the so-called "musicians" make in their music, most of the mainstream songs played today, especially pop songs, I can make an entire album in like 15 minutes, and boom, done, where most of the bands I listen to has taken them like days to weeks just to complete one song perfectly.

Another thing I mentioned is the Mainstream, sorry, I don't follow cabbagesty Mainstream bands, yeah, you might play a bunch of their cabbages on MTV (although they don't even play music videos anymore, even despite that they are called a "Music" channel), VH1, YouTube, iTunes, or any other source of music media, but sorry, it's not my cup of tea, nor ever will be. The closest things I listen to in the terms of "MainStream" is if they were big in the MainStream between 1996-2003 (basically, at the Turn of the Millennium), not before nor after, but other than that, that's it.

It's plain and simple; the only thing wrong with modern music is Justin Beiber. He looks like Junior from CarnEvil, he has a very notable petty criminal record, and his all of his songs are the absolute worst of all-time and simply nothing comes even close in terms of sheer crapiness.

I should clarify that I'm crapping all over the modern, punk-like, post-bullethead Justin Beiber. The original bullethead Justin Beiber is actually really good. Eenie Meenie was really awesome (though Sean Kingston was also involved in that, but Justin was no hinderance), Baby is funny and silly yet pathetically overhated (It's not that bad.), his singing voice was good, and he had a good reputation complete with no petty crime records or hanging around s***ty women.

That being said, he's like Conker the Squirrel; he used to be good but one of many (He was just another young boy celebrity at the beginning.), so to make him stand out, he became trashy, raunchy, vulgar, and overall crappy. It's sucks that people like his modern incarnation because it's really f***ing terrible for the reasons I've explained earlier. To end this, he's done nothing good since, but a hell lot of bad.

In order for a song to be released, it has to be approved by the artist's record label. Once an artist has signed, if the label refuses to issue a recording for a song, the artist is basically gagged by the label until they're released.

You're right - a lot of music is very similar nowadays. I like some mainstream stuff, but the "generic, off-brand, no name" bubble gum pop gone slightly techno, is what's guaranteed to get repeat plays. eventually that will fade away, as a new fad comes around.

when in doubt, conway twitty your way out.

You're not wrong about any of that at all. I have my own problems with it, like those radio pop songs playing at fun fairs, and not just generic radio pop songs, but generic radio pop songs that teach the listener how to do blowjobs. And that was played at a fun fair, with CHILDREN!!

I wanted to tell myself that I was making this up, but I'm sadly not. I heard it with my own eyes. I haven't even touched upon the laziness of lyrics yet, however, since most of those cases are just ''song name song name song name song name'' over and over again, I just can't find a way to talk about this without repeating what others said about such songs.

Still, I hate this kind of music, especially when my family and other people I go to have that kind of awful garbage spoon-fed to them via the radio. If I listen to it, it's because I can't turn the radio off, or I'm somewhere in the city... which means I have to listen to more awful songs like a singer blaming everyone else for what he does or a boy taking advantage of a dramatic fight between a couple just to get a girl.

If you look up Thoughty2 on YouTube, he has a great video on why modern music is absolute garbage. I already knew this before I watched it, but it's fun annoying people with facts about it, since they get really defensive. I listen to indie stuff like Darwin Deez and Steam Powered Giraffe. They're modern, yet still really creative and fun. I doubt you'd hear either on the radio, and that's a good thing.

I don't know man, there's a lot of songs that just sound the same and have super bland lyrics, aka most mumble rappers and a bunch of autotune tracks (though there are some good ones too of course).

But ever once in a while I'll hear a new song, generally a popular one, and actually enjoy it. Can't think of any at this moment but there are a few top artists that I actually think are quite good.

I still prefer songs from the 2000s over the recent ones in general as some of my favorite artists were most active then. It's mostly their songs I'll actively go back to, whereas the modern ones are mostly a case of "oh if its playing now I'll listen I guess".

I can agree most songs now a days aren't that great or sound really similar to other songs but it's never really affected me much cause I spend most of my time listening to either game osts or anime openings.

I detest all new music except Lizzo. I saw her rise up from obscurity here in Minneapolis as a back up singer to Har Mar Superstar and a rapper with Doomtree. She deserves all the credit she gets.