Music is a core part of our lives; we listen to music in the car, in the shower, it’s in videos and on our social media posts, and we pay hundreds of dollars just to listen to our favorite artists live. But if music is so important, why is it that so much of it has become unbearably monotonous in recent years? We’ve gone from having hundreds of artists, all with their own unique styles making songs that appeal to one unique niche or another to radio stations playing what feels like the same songs made by different artists day in and day out.
This new wave of artists making music that sounds similar is nothing new, but in the age of social media where we’re constantly hearing these songs in TikToks, Instagram posts, and imbedded into tweets, it’s become an overwhelming issue. Turning on the radio feels like subjecting yourself to hearing the same song 10 times within 20 minutes and it’s exhausting. The pop stations cycle through the same 3 styles of song: whispery sad person singing about one breakup or another, overzealous commercial music, and RnB samples under someone singing about how hot they are. There’s nothing wrong with these styles, but when everyone is doing the same thing, it gets overwhelming and listeners get bored fast.
This isn’t only a problem within the pop genre though, rap music is all the same with someone singing about sex, drugs, violence, etc. alternative music has entered an era where everything is this sort of post-emo pop-rock sound, and country music has become almost entirely country-pop love songs. At some point we have to ask ourselves how artists haven’t seized this opportunity to create something different, something that stands out and sounds different from everyone else in their niches. Listeners won’t be interested in these styles forever and even if sales aren’t going down, there’s definitely more people out there interested in hearing something fresh and new than there are people out there who would rather everything continue to sound like a big melting pot of vague concepts and ideas.
Take for example, Adela, people are loving her music right now, and while some of it is very similar to other songs out right now, a lot of it is very original and fresh. Her music has its own flavor while still fitting into the genre of pop. One of the best things an artist can do for themselves is exactly what Adela has done, which is create her own style while not letting the confines of her genre force her into a box. In the age of social media, where artists are constantly learning from other artists even if they’re halfway across the world and in turn creating music that’s practically indistinguishable from each other, Adela is a very refreshing new sound. Hopefully other artists after her will continue to break away from these constricting boxes and create new, exciting music.
This is not a dig at artists who make similar music because they’re obviously doing something right if their music is still so popular. This is just calling attention to something that’s become increasingly obvious in recent years; we cycle through the same few styles of songs, with the same few artists, and no one makes huge waves in the music scene or breaks the mold. And those who do make something new or interesting are quickly forgotten and left to gather dust by the general public, and if they do manage to stick around they only end up losing what made them so interesting, either because their style becomes the norm or because they end up falling right into the same styles we hear from everyone else every single day.
As consumers, we should want to hear more interesting music, more artists who have such a specific sound that we know exactly who it is when their music comes on. Michael Jackson is probably going to stay the biggest pop star to ever grace the stage forever, not because he’s been immortalized in just about every way possible, but because his music is so unmistakably Michael that there’s no way anyone could ever confuse him for someone else. That is what makes a musician special, not their follower count or the label they’re signed to or how much money they have or make off of their music. Music should be personal, we shouldn’t be fighting over who’s music is better when someone on the outside looking in wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference.