Why's bad music so popular?
Just looking at a list of the most popular hit songs from the past ~5 years, and oof, it's so bad. Many of the songs were universally acknowledged as bad when they came out. Why?
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ANSWERS: 5
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I blame it on tainted similac in the 80's!
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The numbing of the finer senses.
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Because music is subjective. But yes I agree that most popular music is bad.
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bostjan the adequate 🥉 I agree, but also disagree. LOL. Taste and appreciation in music is subjective, but there are many many objective aspects. For example, in popular music, the quality of the music can be quantified by music sales. Music sales in general have taken a huge dive since this perceivable nosedive in the quality of music, so it's not just me. Music criticism tends to generally agree. The popularity of "classic" pop and rock as subgenres also speaks to this. Todays "popular" music is simpler lyrically, simpler melodically, simpler chordally, simpler harmonically, less successful with critics, less successful with sales, less successful with multimedia, etc., yet it is promoted more vehemently by the music industry.
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Lucifer was known as the archangel of music in Heaven. When he tried to be equal with Yahweh and take His place Lucifer was expelled from Heaven. He came to this world and became Satan, the Devil. Today because the Devil is in control of much of this world, he controls the secular music. Because the Devil controls the music, he is able to make so much of it "bad".
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Moving Violation
There is no such devil or tooth fairy you have been hoodwinked all your life! Dec 01 2023
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People have different tastes to you. The most popular music at any given time is mostly popular with young people. Many (older) people probably didn't like the music you liked when you were younger. I have come to the conclusion that most popular music isn't aimed at me!
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bostjan the adequate 🥉
Not really, though. The music when I was young was generally still pretty bad. There is good music coming out now, aimed at younger audiences, but it's not really getting as much media attention as the bad music. And music critics generally agree. It's really not merely about taste. Something is objectively off. After I posted this question, I did some secondary research on the topic and it turns out that there is an actual reason why this happened, but it's perhaps too long-winded for a single paragraph format such as this. -
Professor Yaffle
The most popular music of any given time is rarely the best music of the time, the best music is usually less mainstream (in my opinion). -
bostjan the adequate 🥉
Agreed. But that's not really the point I'm trying to get at. So, are you familiar with Billboard charts - the metric for how successful a song is? Prior to 1991, the Billboard Hot 100 was a function of sales. Since 1991, it has been a function of radio airplay. Prior to 1991, radio stations decided which songs to play based upon three things: their audience's feedback, their disc jockey's favourites, and the chart performance. From 1991 to 2001, the input shifted more towards chart performance and channel format. In 2001, specifically after the 911 attacks, corporations took over song programming with the justification being that songs such as "Walk Like an Egyptian" by the Bangles would be offensive. So now the music industry corporations that own the artists' work also own the radio stations and also decide the programming which also decides how high on the charts a song will perform. If you think about this, it means that the listener has no say anymore (or so little say that it is negligible) in how high a song charts and therefore how well it performs. -
Professor Yaffle
Living in the UK as I do we have our own charts, which I believe are still based on sales (now including downloads), as far as I know, not airplay. We had our own airplay censorship during the Gulf War, "Boom-Bang-A-Bang" by Lulu was effectively banned from the airwaves & the bands Massive Attack & Bomb The Bass weren't played either...
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Linda Joy 
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