Why is there such a decline in the quality of popular music?

To interact with this page you must login. Signup

Who asked this?

ask a person to answer this question Ask to answer

Browse questions

music

creativity

understand

tynamite

The reason why pop music is getting worse nowadays in the 21st century, is not because we've grown up so we're not in touch with the younger generation's demographic. But instead because the record labels have started to water down music genres outside pop, to make music homogenized*.

---> *What does that mean?
Homogenized is a process in which the fat droplets are emulsified and the cream does not separate. The emulsion contains a lot of small amounts of fat, within the whole emulsion. This is very much like the music industry today.

When the internet came out, the record labels got scared, because then it could mean that John Smith working in McDonalds, could possibly get rich and famous from his music by using the internet. The internet brought a new distribution model to music, that made it massively cheaper to distribute music and have up and coming musicians make money.

The record labels did not like this. They liked the monopolising stranglehold they had over the music industry, and they did not want John Smith from McDonalds to get rich off his music on the internet. If average people ever found a way to profit from music whilst retaining their copyrights, the major record labels would go extinct.

So they did something about it.

Instead of competing with the unsigned musicians by investing money into good acts and scouting for legitimate music, they decided to do something worse. They decided to get musicians to water down the music they already made, so that it would appeal to a wider audience.

Think about it.

In the 1990s, we had our Snoop Dogg, Alliyah, Nirvana, and N'Sync.
There was chart music that was pop music, and chart music that wasn't.

Nowadays in the 21st century, that doesn't exist anymore.
This is not because of piracy so A&R's can't afford to sign talent and take risks. Statistics show that the record labels are making more money than ever.

It's because the record labels nowadays are watering down music, making it homogenized.

Nowadays bands like Metro Station and Panic At The Disco storm the charts, and hip hop is starting to sound like dance music with catchy hooks. I bet you any money that Wiz Khalifa don't write his songs.

All chart music nowadays is becoming 1 genre, because music is now being watered down, to make it homogenized.