Open Spotify or scroll through TikTok, and you’ll probably hear the same few songs over and over again. They’re catchy, short, and designed to grab attention instantly. A chorus might play for just a few seconds before looping again, perfectly fitting into a 15-second video.

These songs dominate charts, trends, and playlists, but at the same time, many listeners are starting to question them. Why do so many songs sound similar? Why do they feel shorter, simpler, and sometimes less meaningful? 

With the rise of streaming platforms, social media, and artificial intelligence, modern pop music is changing faster than ever before. In a survey conducted by The Bite, 72% of AISB student respondents said they believe trending pop music is getting worse, with many pointing to repetition, lack of originality, and music being made for trends rather than meaning. 

However, research shows that music today is not necessarily worse, but instead simpler and more focused on production and popularity. In this feature, we explore student opinions, expert insights, and online research to truly answer the question: Has pop music actually gotten worse, or is it simply changing to match how we listen today?

Why the AISB Community Thinks Pop Music is Getting Worse

At AISB, pop music is everywhere. Whether it’s playing through headphones in the hallway, blasting at a Lunch Lounge, or trending on TikTok, it’s a constant part of students’ daily lives. However, despite how often students listen to it, many feel that its quality is declining.

Seventy-two percent of students said that modern pop music is getting worse, showing a clear sense of decline in quality. 

What’s interesting is that even with all this criticism, pop music is still popular. In fact, 71% of students say that they listen to pop music regularly, some even daily.

Even if students think modern pop isn’t as good as it used to be, they’re still surrounded by it all the time. Just because something is popular doesn’t always mean people think it’s high quality.

Their preferences also represent this. Sixty-one percent of students said they prefer older pop music, while 38.9% said they enjoy both equally.

Notably, no one chose only modern music, suggesting that students often view older music as more meaningful or simply better. At the same time, the fact that many still enjoy both indicates that modern pop isn’t completely disliked; it’s just judged more harshly.

When asked about the biggest problems with modern pop music, students kept mentioning the same things: repetition, lack of originality, and too much focus on trends. Many felt that songs today sound too similar, with simple lyrics, and predictable structures.

Grade 10 student Zoey L. says: “Modern pop music tends to be about the same topics: romance, sex, being rich, and such.”

Grade 11 student Eleanor M. explains: “Modern music has gotten shorter because of a desire for it to be easily adapted to trends”

Students feel music is no longer being made mainly for listening, but instead as background music for short, visual content. As a result, many songs focus more on being catchy and going viral over being meaningful or complex. 

Some also criticized the reasons behind modern music. 

Grade 9 student Vic P. states:

Artists often create their songs with moneymaking in mind and not giving the song a soul, showing that many students feel the music industry cares more about profit and popularity than real creativity.

Students also feel that artists themselves are becoming less unique.

Grade 11 student Marta I. adds: “Most pop artists these days are dampening their personalities, and this makes all the music sound like it came out of the same person.”

Pointing to a bigger issue: not only do songs sound more similar, but artists seem less individual too, making modern pop feel less original overall. 

Why Do Students See Pop Music in Decline?

Clearly, students believe that modern pop music is getting worse due to simple lyrics, repetitive structures, songs sounding too similar, and the fact that songs are made with the goal of becoming viral on social media. 

Why do students think this? Who is giving them this impression?

When asked about certain artists who play a role in decreasing modern pop music quality, one artist that students frequently mentioned is Sabrina Carpenter.

Sabrina Carpenter is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Starting her career in the entertainment industry by acting on Disney Channel. Recently, she has moved on to the music industry where she created albums like “Emails I Can’t Send” (2022), “Short n’ Sweet (2024), and most recently “Mans best friend” (2025), which included hit songs like “Manchild”, “Espresso”, “Please Please Please”, and many more. 

Sabrina Carpenter has had multiple hits on social media, and she is known amongst many as being a “TikTok Artist”, someone whose discography gains large amounts of attention on social media.

Even though she still is popular and vocally strong, some listeners feel like the songs follow the same structure and don’t really stand out from one another. This follows the argument that modern pop songs are too similar and follow the same structure. 

Another name pointed out by students and a large section of the internet when asked about artists that contribute to the decline of pop music, has been a girl group named Katseye. 

Katseye is a girl group formed through a competition show – Dream Academy – under HYBE and Geffen Records. The group consists of six members – Sophia, Yoonchae, Daniela, Megan, Lara, and Manon, who debuted in 2024 with their single “Debut”. They are known for combining K-pop style with a global pop sound aimed at an international audience. However, recently they have had a massive change in their group’s style that has received a lot of backlash.

All over social media, especially TikTok, multiple videos have surfaced of Katseye songs receiving criticism, with the majority of the videos having a lot of likes and positive engagement from people agreeing with the hate. 

Much of the criticism surrounding them focuses less on the artists themselves and more on the actual style of their songs, particularly the lyrics, which people claim are crafted to sound catchy and viral rather than musically complex. A notable example of low-quality lyricism in Katseye’s music is their choruses.

The songs that receive the most criticism are their 3 most recent songs:

• “Pinky Up” released in April of 2026.
• “Internet Girl” released in January of 2026
• “Gnarly” released in April of 2025:

Looking at these examples, the lyrics are extremely repetitive and very simple. being a perfect example when talking about modern pop music, feeling less original, and having an overall decrease in quality. 

In the previous examples, the lyrics were the main focus point. However, lyrics are not the only thing that make a song; the melody plays a part too.

In the YouTube video “The 2026 Grammys…Proof Music is Getting Worse” by Rick Beato, a music producer and multi-instrumentalist with over 5 Million Subscribers, he compares recent Grammy nominees to older songs from 1984. One of the biggest differences highlighted is how much simpler the melody of the songs has become. 

Older songs like Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” or The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” had stronger melodies, more interesting chord changes, and songs that actually built up and went somewhere. In addition, they were made by singular artists, not a laundry list of producers.

A lot of newer Grammy songs, such as “Anxiety” by Doechii, “APT” by Rose feat Bruno Mars, and “Golden” from the Netflix movie K-Pop Demon Hunters, use fewer chords, repeat the same hooks over and over, and follow really predictable patterns.

Rick Beato’s video also mentions how many modern hits use parts of older songs through interpolation – basically reusing old melodies or ideas instead of creating something completely new. 

For example, “Anxiety” was sampled from Gotye’s song “Somebody That I Used to Know” which was sampled from “Seville” by Luiz Bonfa. This can make new music feel less original and more like recycled versions of older songs. 

However, the idea of reusing music is not entirely new. As music teacher Eric Murray explains:

Ever since hip hop and ever since we had sampling, people are taking other people’s stuff and then repurposing it. Songs get recycled, and then recycled again. That’s really common.

How TikTok and Streaming are Shaping Music

To understand why modern pop music feels this way, it’s important to look at where music is being discovered and consumed. For most students, platforms like TikTok and Spotify play a huge role. 

Survey results show that 44.4% of students discover trending music through TikTok, Instagram, and streaming platforms, which shows how much these apps influence popularity. 

At the same time, 55.6% of students said TikTok is a good source for finding music, so even though students criticize its impacts, they still rely on it.

The issue is that these platforms aren’t just changing how music is discovered, they are actively shaping how it is created. A significant 66.7% of students believe that songs are made to be shorter or more simplistic in order to go viral. 

Grade 10 student Charlotte G. writes:

The songs made for TikTok and Instagram are worse than the songs made for purely listening pleasure. Some songs only have one good part, which is good for TikTok, but not great for full song listeners

Students are noticing how music is being shaped for social media, where short, catchy, attention grabbing content performs best. On TikTok, for example, songs are often reduced to just a few seconds – the part with the strongest hook or most memorable lyric. 

This causes artists to focus more on creating one viral moment instead of building a full, well-structured song, which can make songs feel more repetitive, with simple lyrics and strong hooks designed to grab attention quickly.

Similarly, the video “You’re Not Crazy: Pop Music IS Getting Simpler” posted by Mic the Snare (367K subscribers) on YouTube—which takes information from a study from Queen Mary University of London about the decrease in pop music—shows a noticeable decrease in melodic complexity over time, alongside an increase in rhythm-focused production, especially in music from the 2000s onward. 

The video explains that modern music uses fewer notes, less variation, and more repetition, which makes them easier to remember and, in many cases, more addictive. This simplicity isn’t random; it matches the way people listen to music today. Songs with repetitive hooks and clear patterns are more likely to do well on streaming platforms because listeners can quickly recognize and replay them. 

However, this does not necessarily mean that music is getting worse. Instead, it suggests that complexity has shifted. While older music is focused more on melody and instruments, modern music tends to focus on beats, production, and sound design. 

The Rise of AI Music

Along with social media and streaming, another big factor changing modern music is the rise of artificial intelligence. AI-generated music is becoming more common, and some songs have even made it onto major charts.

According to an article titled “That New Hit Song on Spotify? It Was Made by A.I.,” published in The New Yorker, tools like Suno and Udio let people create full songs instantly, even if they have no real musical training or traditional musical skills. Some creators have even made over a hundred songs in a single year using these tools. 

This is a huge shift in the music industry. Music is no longer something only trained artists can make, now almost anyone can create it. While this makes music more accessible, it also raises concerns about quality and originality.

A lot of A.I generated songs are described as “repetitive,” “flat,” and “lacking emotion.” They often miss things like strong build-ups, meaningful transitions, or the emotional depth people expect from music. Even so, many listeners struggle to tell the difference. One study found that people could only correctly identify AI-generated music 53% of the time, showing how blurred the line between human and machine-made music has become.

Students at AISB seem to feel the same way. 

Grade 10 student Antonio F. says: “I keep seeing these AI musicians with some really bad music that somehow gets millions of streams.”

Others pointed to issues such as “unoriginal lyrics,” “bad beats,” and a general lack of creativity. Many seem to connect A.I music with lower quality and reduced authenticity.

While A.I can help increase and accelerate the process, the concept of borrowing and reusing elements in music has existed for decades. In this sense, A.I is not completely changing music, it is intensifying existing trends.

At the same time, A.I does offer some benefits. It allows more people to create music, removes barriers, and opens up new creative possibilities. However, these advantages come with trade-offs, particularly when it comes to originality and emotional depth.

 A.I is transforming music production by making it faster and more accessible, while also raising the important questions about creativity, authenticity, and quality.

Is Music Really Worse, or Just Different?

Despite all the criticism, not everyone agrees that modern pop music is getting worse. Some people believe it’s not getting worse – it’s just changing.

Research shows that modern songs tend to use simpler melodies, fewer chords, and more repetition. At first glance, this might seem like music is becoming less creative or less complex. However, this simplicity may actually serve a purpose.

Music teacher Eric Murray explains that:

Pop music is like fast food; it’s just easy, and it feels good. Sound-wise, when you have simplified things, it’s easy for us to digest it. Many musicologists argue that one of the reasons why things have simplified is because it’s a human tendency to like easily digestible things. 

This implies that simpler pop music isn’t automatically a bad thing. It may just reflect the way people naturally respond to music, especially in a fast-paced world where people want something quick, familiar, and easy to connect with.

Additionally, complexity in music hasn’t completely disappeared, it has simply shifted. Mic the Snare explains how modern music often focuses more on production, beats, and sound design rather than traditional melody and instrumentation. In other words, songs may sound simpler, but they can still be complex in different ways.

Responses from a survey conducted by The Bite, also show that opinions are mixed. While many students believe music is getting worse, others disagree. 

Grade 7 student Selin T. explained that: “Trending pop music isn’t getting worse; it’s just changing. Every generation has its own style, there’s still a lot of creativity and diversity in today’s pop music.”

“Good music” is subjective, what one person sees as repetitive, someone else might see as catchy, modern, and easy to enjoy.

In the end, the idea that pop music is getting worse may not really be about the music itself, it may be more about changing tastes and expectations.

The Final Verdict: Is Music Getting Worse?

So, is modern pop music actually getting worse? The answer is not completely simple. 

A lot of students at our school believe it is – 72% said modern pop music is declining in quality, mainly because songs feel more repetitive, less original, and too focused on trends instead of real creativity.

TikTok, Spotify, and even A.I have changed the way music is made, often pushing artists to create shorter, simpler, songs that can go viral quickly.

At the same time, that does not automatically mean music is bad. Some people argue that music is not getting worse, it is just changing. Instead of focusing on complicated melodies and instruments, modern music puts more attention on beats, production, and sound design. What sounds “worse” to one person might just feel more modern and relatable to someone else.

Music teacher Eric Murray compared modern music to fast food: easy, quick, and made to be enjoyed instantly. That does not always mean it has no value, but it does explain why so much music today feels designed for fast consumption rather than lasting impact.

In the end, maybe the real issue is not that music is worse, but that the way we listen to music has changed. We scroll faster, skip faster, and expect songs to grab us in seconds. Music is adapting to that. Whether that is ruining music or simply evolving it depends on who is listening.

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