I've thought about and lamented this for a long time, but if you think about it, there were sappy love songs for so long, yet this suddenly stopped after ones like "Hero" (Enrique Iglacias), "There You'll Be" (Faith Hill) and "I Knew I Loved You" (Savage Garden) around 2001/2002. Maybe early 2003 at the very latest. That's over a decade ago now, what do you think caused them to go away and still haven't really returned.

Yes there've been love songs since, but none of those super sentimental, slick produced adult contemporary ones. It's usually something slow all the way through (i.e. "Let Her Go") or soulful ("When I Was Your Man"). The ONLY recent one at all might count is "Listen To Your Heart" and that was a Roxette cover!

"Hero" by Enrique Iglacias is not sappy at all, the song topped many charts in the US including the Billboard adult contemporary chart for fifteen weeks, and after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the song was one of the few songs chosen by radio DJs in New York to be remixed with audio from police, firefighters, civilians at Ground Zero and politicians commenting on the attacks.

"Hero" by Enrique Iglacias is not sappy at all, the song topped many charts in the US including the Billboard adult contemporary chart for fifteen weeks, and after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the song was one of the few songs chosen by radio DJs in New York to be remixed with audio from police, firefighters, civilians at Ground Zero and politicians commenting on the attacks.

Sorry, perhaps you misunderstood what I meant. Yeah Hero worked well for a 9/11 tribute, but it came out earlier in the year (it sure sounds like he was singing it to a girl he wanted to be with) and it's an emotional ballad nonetheless...

And the early 2000s was the last era those types of songs were popular. Regardless of what the subject is about, I'm talking more about the SOUND. :)

Sorry, perhaps you misunderstood what I meant. Yeah Hero worked well for a 9/11 tribute, but it came out earlier in the year (it sure sounds like he was singing it to a girl he wanted to be with) and it's an emotional ballad nonetheless...

And the early 2000s was the last era those types of songs were popular. Regardless of what the subject is about, I'm talking more about the SOUND. :)


I miss those types of songs too. 2000 and 2001 were the last years they were prevalent. It's as if it's too "uncool" to make a love song. I blame a lot of rap culture. The misogyny and looking at women as "hos" instead of people to have relationship mentality has been there throughout the last decade.

I guess rap and hip hop culture took over by then and it was looked at as 'uncool'. That's unfortunate because most of the songs from 2002 until now aren't as well respected as before 2002.

Not adult contemporary, but pop ballads have been coming back for a few years. Some examples include Rihanna's "Stay", A Great Big World's " Say Something", Miley Cyrus's "Wrecking Ball" (ew), and Christina Perri's "Jar of Hearts", "A Thousand Years",  and " Human". There are more, but I can't think of any. AC Pop love ballads went away for a reason: They were boring.

Seriously, All ballads from 1997-2001 sound exactly the same. There were only a few that actually stood out and sounded inspired. Talk about manufactured. The only ballads I actually like from that era were Christina Aguilera's "I Turn to You" and Savage Garden's "Truly Madly Deeply".

Not adult contemporary, but pop ballads have been coming back for a few years. Some examples include Rihanna's "Stay", A Great Big World's " Say Something", Miley Cyrus's "Wrecking Ball" (ew), and Christina Perri's "Jar of Hearts", "A Thousand Years",  and " Human". There are more, but I can't think of any. AC Pop love ballads went away for a reason: They were boring.

Seriously, All ballads from 1997-2001 sound exactly the same. There were only a few that actually stood out and sounded inspired. Talk about manufactured. The only ballads I actually like from that era were Christina Aguilera's "I Turn to You" and Savage Garden's "Truly Madly Deeply".


The 1997-2001 ballads sound more emotional. Wrecking ball doesn't make me feel anything genuine like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzTNsFcbdmI

Not adult contemporary, but pop ballads have been coming back for a few years. Some examples include Rihanna's "Stay", A Great Big World's " Say Something", Miley Cyrus's "Wrecking Ball" (ew), and Christina Perri's "Jar of Hearts", "A Thousand Years",  and " Human". There are more, but I can't think of any. AC Pop love ballads went away for a reason: They were boring.

Seriously, All ballads from 1997-2001 sound exactly the same. There were only a few that actually stood out and sounded inspired. Talk about manufactured. The only ballads I actually like from that era were Christina Aguilera's "I Turn to You" and Savage Garden's "Truly Madly Deeply".


Nah, sorry gotta disagree...THOSE kind of slow songs are boring. :D It has the same tempo and sound all the way through.

Sure the sappy ones are a bit cheesy, but they have a good melody and there's more emotion in them. Maybe I'm just biased since I heard so many of them as a kid (i.e. 80s and early to mid 90s) but I like melodic slow songs. Some of my 80s favorites (just for a comparison point) are:

Can't Fight This Feeling- REO Speedwagon
Human Nature- MJ
Drive- The Cars
I Wanna Know What Love Is- Foreigner
Stuck On You- Lionel Richie
Live To Tell- Madonna
Mandolin Rain- Bruce Hornsby
Joanna- Kool and The Gang
Don't Dream Its Over- Crowded House
Against All Odds- Phil Collins
The Flame- Cheap Trick
Piano in the Dark- Brenda Russell
Sailing- Christopher Cross
How Can I Fall- Breathe
Foolish Heart- Steve Perry
True- Spandau Ballet

The first half of the 90s had tons of good ones too, like Jon Secada.

The 1997-2001 ballads sound more emotional. Wrecking ball doesn't make me feel anything genuine like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzTNsFcbdmI


I also really liked the Backstreet Boys' "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely". However, it was songs like pretty much anything from Boys II Men and Savage Garden's " I Knew I Loved You" that killed the genre. There were still plenty of ballads after 2001. These were interesting and were more varied in production and that made them stand out more. Here's my list:

Ashanti - Foolish (2002)
Kelly Clarkson - A Moment Like This (2002)
Xtina - Beautiful (2002)
3 Doors Down - Here Without You (2003)
Beyonce - Me, Myself, and I (2003)
Christina Aguilera - The Voice Within (2003)
Usher - Burn (2004)
Usher - My Boo (feat. Alicia Keys) (2004)
Hoobastank - The Reason (2004)
Daniel Powter - Bad Day (2005)
James Blunt - You're Beautiful (2005)
Gwen Stefani - Cool (2005)
Kelly Clarkson - Because of You (2005)
Lifehouse - You and Me (2005)
Rihanna - Unfaithful (2006)
Christina Aguilera - Hurt (2006)
Beyonce - Irreplaceable (2006)
Alicia Keys - No One (2007)
OneRepublic - Apologize (2007)

I'll probably add more later, but you get what I mean. I don't like "Wrecking Ball" either, but I really like "Human" from Christina Perri.