Is pop music really dead?

[Fita]

The year is 2008. You turn the TV on and it's playing the video of Katy Perry's 'I Kissed a Girl' with bunch of girls including Ke$ha having fun in a slumber party. It's the same year where Womanizer, Circus and Gaga's Just Dance are getting released.

Now, of course, we don't have the same TV channels showing the hottest and newest music videos - the internet is all over the place and that's a point to consider. But why the nowaday's artists don't get us excited anymore? Was it because we were younger? Or is it pop music really dead or just asleep?

Edited April 10 by Fita

[princessmimi]

I remember 2008 so well.

It was my fave year of my teen years and one of the last exciting years of pop music.

 

In my opinion pop music has been dead since at least the mid to late 2010s.

Honestly the last time pop music was fun and exciting to me was in 2016 and that was also the year Britney released Glory.

Idk if that's a coincidence but that's how I feel.

[nux1989]

Not just pop, the whole music industry has changed.
People don't see music as a source of entertainment like they used to do.
The celebrity business model that used to be dominating "pop star" category had shift from selling music . 
However, the income for music industry are actually growing, just not star-focused like it used to be.
 

 

[trip to my touch]

true dat.

2011, 2013 and 2015 were good too but thats about it...

 

[BPI]

The generation has changed (for the worse), today people prefer to sell and stay viral for a few days. It's hard to find someone who makes a mark.
For example, Swift, she churns out 100 albums, 700 songs, is incredibly successful, but no song is memorable, if you stop someone on the street and ask them to sing one of her songs, they have a hard time remembering it.

[Propagandalf]

54 minutes ago, BPI said:

The generation has changed (for the worse), today people prefer to sell and stay viral for a few days. It's hard to find someone who makes a mark.
For example, Swift, she churns out 100 albums, 700 songs, is incredibly successful, but no song is memorable, if you stop someone on the street and ask them to sing one of her songs, they have a hard time remembering it.

And the saddest thing is: Max Martin is still involved with the creation of Swift's songs... 

 

The days when we were waiting for an album release and buying the physical media are past us and that took a lot of the charm away... 

Last artist I did this was Stephen Sanchez and of course Britney with her memoir. Nice feeling. 

Edited April 10 by Propagandalf

[TommyX]

Pop music is alive! You just have to look for it. There is no more mainstream media who serves you pop girls on a golden plate. 

 

[BlackoutBaby]

Taylor Swift is doing well, even if I find her rather bland.

Beyonce has a pop country album which some people seem to be enjoying. To me however nearly everything Beyonce does sounds and looks like a rehash of something that's already been done. Her catchiest songs take samples from songs done decades ago, by more genuinely innovative artists. Same with many top artists of the last few years. The only one I can find half interesting is Lana but again - she's a derivative artist. 

There was a time in the 80s when you counted down the days to new top 40 with excitement because virtually every week there would be something groundbreaking or an instant classic. Michael Jackson and then Madonna were constant game changers who were reinventing the entire landscape of pop music. I feel we may never see those days again - just lesser copycats of originals. But maybe we are just showing our age, getting old n grumpy...

[jordeezy river red]

5 hours ago, BPI said:

The generation has changed (for the worse), today people prefer to sell and stay viral for a few days. It's hard to find someone who makes a mark.
For example, Swift, she churns out 100 albums, 700 songs, is incredibly successful, but no song is memorable, if you stop someone on the street and ask them to sing one of her songs, they have a hard time remembering it.

Her music had been lackluster since Reputation tbh 

[itsxrichiexbish]

new releases just aren’t the same any more… hardly anybody does vids any more… with the physical media dying there’s nothing concrete to look forward tooo… everything just always happens to just be there available when released… no excitement it’s crazy 

[descg]

Is not dead but is not at level as decades ago. Also there is another pop-ular genres like Regeton, Trap, K-pop... 

[BadBunny]

Pop music does feel bleak and lacks identity these days but that's not to say other genres aren't thriving. The industry is going to continue to evolve. IMO, the golden years of pop music were from the mid 90s to the early 2000s. 

[FFBetterThanBlackout]

I'm 15 and I honestly prefer listening to stuff from the late 2000s and mid 2010s, but I don't think pop might neccesarily be dying. The late 2010s gave us a lot of amazing albums!

- Emotion

- Witness

- Glory

- Dua self-titled

- Future Nostalgia

- Chromatica

- reputation

-ANTI

- Dangerous Woman

- thank u next

- Lemonade

- Melodrama

- List probably goes on and on

2021 onwards didn't really give us much yet, but we did get stuff like Renaissance, This Is Me... Now, Eternal Sunshine (which in my opinion, may be AOTY), Tyla, Cowboy Carter and Something We Can Give Each Other. Pop is a genre that always changes and I believe that it is exactly what is doing right now, finding its place. With stuff like TikTok potentially getting banned, many comebacks being rumoured (Katy teased KP6, Rihanna teased R9, Meghan confirmed Timeless, Dua confirmed Radical Optimism...) and new artists with actual star quality such as Tyla and Tate McRae keep debuting, we could see a revival on the genre.

Before we got the wave of masterpieces in the late 2000s and early 2010s such as Blackout through Femme Fatale, Katy's OOTB through PRISM, Kesha's Animal through Warrior, Lady Gaga's The Fame through ARTPOP, Xtina's Bionic, Rihanna's GGGB through Unapologetic... I could go on. But before we got everything, we had "seat-warmer" popstars and albums that kept us pop fans excited before the magic happened. This was the age of Gwen Stefani's LAMB, Fergie's The Dutchess and Nelly Furtado's Loose - amazing albums that kept us in check before they let everything out. I think if we wait a few years, pop will truly flourish again! 

[kevin.]

if you think pop is dead you don't listen to the right music

i think it's better than ever in a lot of ways

Edited April 10 by kevin.

[kevin.]

4 hours ago, jordeezy river red said:

Her music had been lackluster since Reputation tbh 

reputation is her best album

[Fita]

44 minutes ago, kevin. said:

if you think pop is dead you don't listen to the right music

i think it's better than ever in a lot of ways

send us the right music, sis 

[Bigno]

On 4/9/2024 at 9:48 PM, nux1989 said:

Not just pop, the whole music industry has changed.
People don't see music as a source of entertainment like they used to do.
The celebrity business model that used to be dominating "pop star" category had shift from selling music . 
However, the income for music industry are actually growing, just not star-focused like it used to be.
 

 

Exactly. This is not a genre thing. Genres come and go and are endlessly reconstructed and decosntructed. Music and entertainment have and are changing. In my opinion, that is great. Thr industry is rotten to the core. Let it all burn for as long as needed.

[gagamariah87]

I think it was more easy in the 80s/90s/2000s to create something new and exciting. Nowadays everything has been done already ...twice! You cannot invent the wheel again when it's already there.