Right now we are in the midst of a teen pop era that doesn't seem to want to end.  One Direction, Justin Bieber, 5SOS, and the gazillion Carly Rae Jepsen clones dominate music today.  Today, unless you are a pre-teen female, you will have a difficult time really enjoying what is coming on Top 40 stations.  Does anybody think music will make a turn towards a more mature direction in the near future?  I don't know, maybe Top 40 has always been targeted towards the same age group and I am just getting old.  It definitely seems like music was a lot better in the Lady Gaga era (2009-2011).  It dealt with more mature themes and pure EDM had a greater influence (I don't consider today's teen pop EDM, it's barely even electropop). 

In general, music starting in 1999 has been very tween oriented.

I agree, I really miss 2009-2011 electropop music when it sounded more original & fresh in its peak especially 2010 music! The music from those years were so great that you go to football games, basketball games, or parties and still hear some of those to this day. I really miss it when Black Eyed Peas, T.I., Adele, Ke$ha, etc. were in their prime instead of now where it's been Ariana Grande, Iggy, One Direction, and all these other teenybopper artists. Although you'll still get great hit songs from Katy Perry, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, or Drake once in a while.

This could largely be due to the fact that underground artists and bands are a lot easier to share and discover through the help of technology.  In the past, it was difficult to discover quality music unless you watched MTV or listened to radio stations, so even the musical greats like Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Biggie, etc. had to rely on mainstream outlets in order to be discovered.  Now that you don't need the support of major corporations or radio stations that look for certain standards in order to make your name known, top 40 stations have basically evolved into feeding machines for the masses only, without much variety.  The majority of people who tune in are those without the curiosity to explore the avenues of classic and independent music, or who just don't need especially high standards.  Occasionally there's something that catches the entire world off-guard, but for the most part the mainstream music scene has been reduced to pure formula.

In general, music starting in 1999 has been very tween oriented.


Yep, it's been increasingly aimed at under-20 somethings since the late 90s. It seems like the target age range of pop music has historically been 15-35 year olds but now it's more like 10-20 year olds.

It's a lot of times the artists that crowds like. The fact that people want Lady Gaga, Kesha, Katy Perry, and Justin Bieber to come back shows that people want the same old familiar things. They don't want something new or interesting. I don't want fun party music anymore. I want stories to be told in my music. Not fingers mashing notes on the keyboard while being told to "throw my hands up in the air".

I don't know. Honestly it's quite defeating how extremely conservative the music industry and the masses have become. The days of revolutionary overnight changes are a 20th century phenomenon - they're gone for good. We'll never have another "Smells Like Teen Spirit", another "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang", another "Walk This Way", another "Staying Alive", another "I Want to Hold Your Hand", or another "Heartbreak Hotel". Nothing will ever be so fresh that it changes the musical landscape and kickstarts the next big trend for the following several years. Any changes that do come are gonna be gradual, and nothing will be as passé as it used to be. You'll never see another strong backlash or negative reaction to what is no longer in vogue ever again, hence why things will never go completely out of vogue like it used to be in the 20th century.


That's realer than Real Deal Holyfield
And now you hookers and hoes know how I feel
But if it's good enough to break off a proper chunk
I'll take a small piece of some of dat funky stuff

I like today's music??? I'm almost 18 and I looked at the Billboard top 10 right now and I have no problem with any of the songs.

I wish we had more synthy 2010 music, but that's just me.

Pop music is slowly starting to mature with Sam Smith and his peer group.

I have to say, I like some of today's songs. I'm starting to get more interested in country (it's the only thing resembling rock we have left), and we have some new types of music coming in. I think this current teen pop era that we are in is affecting virtually every form of music out now. Therefore, the whole musical landscape seems to be aiming at 13-17 year olds right now, although I expect that to change soon/eventually.

Think about it, how do you think generation X felt in 1999 and 2000 when Y2K teen pop was all the rage? To them it felt like every song was aimed at little kids. tv himself said he hated 1999 and 2000, and thought that music got better in 2001; it wasn't until several years later he said that he could look back and find some good songs from those two years.

It's a lot of times the artists that crowds like. The fact that people want Lady Gaga, Kesha, Katy Perry, and Justin Bieber to come back shows that people want the same old familiar things. They don't want something new or interesting. I don't want fun party music anymore. I want stories to be told in my music. Not fingers mashing notes on the keyboard while being told to "throw my hands up in the air".


Anything would be better than the current status quo.  Today's music isn't the "fun party music" of the late '00s/early '10s nor is it the deep, story driven music that was popular in the 1990s and 1960s.  Today's music is basically evolved versions of what was coming on Radio Disney in the 2000s.  13-year old girls are the target audience and nobody else need apply.  There has also been no progression since 2013.

I don't know. People just seem to like it for some reason, even though it just seems terrible since 2012. If anybody really needed to give a crap about reviving some trends from the late 90s, be my guest. I think it would've be more better getting obsessed 90s kids running today's music now.

I still think music is pretty good, well depending on the artist.
I personally like Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Katy Perry, Iggy Azalea (a few of her songs are decent), Taylor Swift , Kendrick Lamar, etc. but I agree there's a lot of teeny bopper stuff on the radio as well, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, One Direction, 5SOS, Becky G, etc. I think we are entering the peak of the new teeny bopper era

One thing this thread tells me though is that Gen Y is truly aging out of the target audience of music. Like seriously the youngest Yers are in their late teens and the oldest are now in their mid 30's! The oldest are obviously not in the target range and the youngest (myself) are now slightly aging out of the target audience. It's crazy to wrap your mind around when you think about it

In general, music starting in 1999 has been very tween oriented.


music today is for tweens and teenagers.

gone are the days when music was made for 18-34 year olds, I think that was back in the 80's.

In general, music starting in 1999 has been very tween oriented.
Well 2001-2002 was the same as 1997-1998 basically except for Michelle Branch, Vanessa Carlton, and Avril Lavigne replacing the Lilith Fair Singers(Paula Cole, Alanis, and Sara M.) 2003-mid 2007 I don't think  it was directed at tweens(Wikipedia defines that at ages 10-13) it just seemed directed at males because of rap music's  popularity then.  Yes I still listened to the radio in the 2000's ad I was in my 20's at the time. I think 2011 or 2010 it became very teen oriented.

Well 2001-2002 was the same as 1997-1998 basically except for Michelle Branch, Vanessa Carlton, and Avril Lavigne replacing the Lilith Fair Singers(Paula Cole, Alanis, and Sara M.) 2003-mid 2007 I don't think  it was directed at tweens(Wikipedia defines that at ages 10-13) it just seemed directed at males because of rap music's  popularity then.  Yes I still listened to the radio in the 2000's ad I was in my 20's at the time. I think 2011 or 2010 it became very teen oriented.


2011 if you're referring to Rebecca Black or somebody else, but I'd say by 2012, there was some teen music from 2010 with Justin Bieber and maybe another artist or two but it definitely wasn't dominant yet during that year it was still distinctly tons variety of mature music everywhere towards all audiences throughout all of 2010.

gone are the days when music was made for 18-34 year olds, I think that was back in the 80's.
No there were people in the 30's and even 40's that liked 90's music but just not Grunge. Stuff like Gin Blossoms and Soul Asylum I do think people in their 30's and 40's did listen to when it was current back then.

2011 if you're referring to Rebecca Black or somebody else, but I'd say by 2012, there was some teen music from 2010 with Justin Bieber and maybe another artist or two but it definitely wasn't that teen oriented yet during that year it was still distinctly mature throughout all of 2010.
So mid 2008-2011 those were the "in between years" between Glam Rap(mid 2008 with Lil Wayne to 2011) with teen-pop.

It's a lot of times the artists that crowds like. The fact that people want Lady Gaga, Kesha, Katy Perry, and Justin Bieber to come back shows that people want the same old familiar things. They don't want something new or interesting. I don't want fun party music anymore. I want stories to be told in my music. Not fingers mashing notes on the keyboard while being told to "throw my hands up in the air".
Yeah I thought about that a couple days ago that they are no songs that tell stories anymore. Are any of these songs made now gonna be remembered in 30 years? Probably not. I mean you play tracks from the 70's(Al Green), 80's(Anita Baker) or the 90's(Smashing Pumpkins) and the music would sound memorable.

"Throw Your Hands Up in the Air" was a saying that used in rap songs in the 80's and 90's.

Anything would be better than the current status quo.  Today's music isn't the "fun party music" of the late '00s/early '10s nor is it the deep, story driven music that was popular in the 1990s and 1960s. Today's music is basically evolved versions of what was coming on Radio Disney in the 2000s.  13-year old girls are the target audience and nobody else need apply.  There has also been no progression since 2013.
Todays music sounds like a mash-up of 80's Pop/R&B and 90's Acoustic(Lilith Fair and Grunge Music.) Let me explain... it sounds like 80's Pop/R&B because of the production and obviously its a brand of Dance-Pop(i.e. Trap is popular)but it sounds sanitized in a stripped down 90's way. That combination just doesn't sound good together.

I want the sound of distorted guitars back in popularity.

No there were people in the 30's and even 40's that liked 90's music but just not Grunge. Stuff like Gin Blossoms and Soul Asylum I do think people in their 30's and 40's did listen to when it was current back then.


I mean music that we guys over 30 and 40 grew up with.

I want the sound of distorted guitars back in popularity.


I want the funk back.

I want the funk back.
OPf0YbXqDm0 ?

So mid 2008-2011 those were the "in between years" between Glam Rap(mid 2008 with Lil Wayne to 2011) with teen-pop.


Katy Perry's Teenage Dream album was the beginning of '10s teen pop.  To me at least, it was less electropop and edgy than her first album and more geared towards tweens.  Rebecca Black was a foreshadow of how shallow music could get.  Up until mid 2012 however, there was still a wide array of different genres and more mature music in Top 40.  Teen pop really exploded into the dominance that it is today when Carly Rae Jepsen released "Call Me Maybe."

Katy Perry's Teenage Dream album was the beginning of '10s teen pop.  To me at least, it was less electropop and edgy than her first album and more geared towards tweens.  Rebecca Black was a foreshadow of how shallow music could get.  Up until mid 2012 however, there was still a wide array of different genres and more mature music in Top 40.  Teen pop really exploded into the dominance that it is today when Carly Rae Jepsen released "Call Me Maybe."


Hardly.  Teenage Dream packs twenty times the punch of any EDM album released since 2012.  The beats on that CD are actually varied and catchy, and the melodic structures have honest-to-goodness personality.  It shares far more in common with Lady Gaga and Ke$ha's early work and isn't the watered-down kitsch that consumes the entire top 40 nowadays.  There's a reason it tied Michael Jackson's Bad for most #1 singles on a single album.  There's no way a song as groundbreaking as E.T. or Firework would be conceived anytime now.  Frankly, Teenage Dream is the quintessential album of early 2010s pop, before electropop evolved into the direly generic style that has defined the mid-2010s.

Also, how is the album less electropop than One of the Boys?  The only song that truly even qualifies as electropop on the latter is Hot n Cold.  Otherwise, it's predominantly a pop rock album in the vein of Kelly Clarkson.

Honestly I think you're done. That sounds quite harsh but it's true, as you are now 30 years old. Marketers don't want to appeal to you anymore. Even when music does become mature again (and it will), you're going to find it unappealing. A person like me on the other hand is probably going to very much enjoy what is new and fresh. With you, on the other hand, are past your impression ability age, so as time goes on you'll actually start to miss the aughts.

Hardly.  Teenage Dream packs twenty times the punch of any EDM album released since 2012.  The beats on that CD are actually varied and catchy, and the melodic structures have honest-to-goodness personality.  It shares far more in common with Lady Gaga and Ke$ha's early work and isn't the watered-down kitsch that consumes the entire top 40 nowadays.  There's a reason it tied Michael Jackson's Bad for most #1 singles on a single album.  There's no way a song as groundbreaking as E.T. or Firework would be conceived anytime now.  Frankly, Teenage Dream is the quintessential album of early 2010s pop, before electropop evolved into the direly generic style that has defined the mid-2010s.

Also, how is the album less electropop than One of the Boys?  The only song that truly even qualifies as electropop on the latter is Hot n Cold.  Otherwise, it's predominantly a pop rock album in the vein of Kelly Clarkson.


I have a question, do you think 2012 has more in common with music from 2009 or today?

I have a question, do you think 2012 has more in common with music from 2009 or today?


Definitely today. Songs such as Calvin Harris's "So Close", "Let's Go", "We Found Love", other songs such as "Call Me Maybe", "Payphone", "Lights", "Wild Ones", "Glad You Came", "Good Feeling", "Whistle", "Good Feeling", "(Blow Me) One Last Kiss", "It's Time", "Ho Hey", "So Good", "Your Body", and "Burn It Down", among so many others.

Granted, there are some songs that are closer to the styles of 2009, such as "Stereo Hearts", "Ass Back Home", "Too Close", "Not Over You", "Pound the Alarm", and "Boyfriend", among others. However, I will say though that 2015, frankly, is not that different from 2009. There are still many similarities, but with a good amount of differences.

Also, how is the album less electropop than One of the Boys?  The only song that truly even qualifies as electropop on the latter is Hot n Cold.  Otherwise, it's predominantly a pop rock album in the vein of Kelly Clarkson.


So do you think "I Kissed a Girl" could have been a hit song in 2003?

Honestly I think you're done. That sounds quite harsh but it's true, as you are now 30 years old. Marketers don't want to appeal to you anymore. Even when music does become mature again (and it will), you're going to find it unappealing. A person like me on the other hand is probably going to very much enjoy what is new and fresh. With you, on the other hand, are past your impression ability age, so as time goes on you'll actually start to miss the aughts.


I'm almost 42 years old and I agree that marketers don't want to appeal to us old school music lovers, that's just the way it is and the way it will be, sad but true.

Honestly I think you're done. That sounds quite harsh but it's true, as you are now 30 years old. Marketers don't want to appeal to you anymore. Even when music does become mature again (and it will), you're going to find it unappealing. A person like me on the other hand is probably going to very much enjoy what is new and fresh. With you, on the other hand, are past your impression ability age, so as time goes on you'll actually start to miss the aughts.


Wait, are you addressing me?  I'm only 23 years old, not 30, even though I suppose I wish I had grown up 7 years earlier instead.  Also, I don't think it's simply a matter of age and not just quality, because I've occasionally heard top 40 songs from very recent times that I thoroughly enjoy (i.e., Best Day of My Life, Happy), but they're just so few and far in-between nowadays, due to the complete lack of variety.


I have a question, do you think 2012 has more in common with music from 2009 or today?


More in common with today, as music was just slightly ahead of the curve in the transition from the early to mid-2010s.  The freshness that defined 2009-2011 was now fully overtaken by uninspired hooks and formulaic musical progressions.  2009 still had bands like Green Day and Daughtry dominating the rock charts, and while electropop was definitely a serious presence that year, it was completely standardized in 2012.  Not much has changed in music since three years ago, aside from the occasional disco revival mega-hit.


So do you think "I Kissed a Girl" could have been a hit song in 2003?


Probably not, but it also would have seemed outdated as early as 2011.  It's sort of a strictly late 2000s song, in that regard.

Definitely today. Songs such as Calvin Harris's "So Close", "Let's Go", "We Found Love", other songs such as "Call Me Maybe", "Payphone", "Lights", "Wild Ones", "Glad You Came", "Good Feeling", "Whistle", "Good Feeling", "(Blow Me) One Last Kiss", "It's Time", "Ho Hey", "So Good", "Your Body", and "Burn It Down", among so many others.

Granted, there are some songs that are closer to the styles of 2009, such as "Stereo Hearts", "Ass Back Home", "Too Close", "Not Over You", "Pound the Alarm", and "Boyfriend", among others. However, I will say though that 2015, frankly, is not that different from 2009. There are still many similarities, but with a good amount of differences.


You make some strong points, but I will admit a few of those song you mentioned on the top like Good Feeling, Call Me Maybe & Wild Ones,  do sound a bit dated compared to today

Wait, are you addressing me?  I'm only 23 years old, not 30, even though I suppose I wish I had grown up 7 years earlier instead.  Also, I don't think it's simply a matter of age and not just quality, because I've occasionally heard top 40 songs from very recent times that I thoroughly enjoy (i.e., Best Day of My Life, Happy), but they're just so few and far in-between nowadays, due to the complete lack of variety.

More in common with today, as music was just slightly ahead of the curve in the transition from the early to mid-2010s.  The freshness that defined 2009-2011 was now fully overtaken by uninspired hooks and formulaic musical progressions.  2009 still had bands like Green Day and Daughtry dominating the rock charts, and while electropop was definitely a serious presence that year, it was completely standardized in 2012.  Not much has changed in music since three years ago, aside from the occasional disco revival mega-hit.

Probably not, but it also would have seemed outdated as early as 2011.  It's sort of a strictly late 2000s song, in that regard.


Thats a good point! But remember that teen pop, with the exception of Justin Bieber & One Direction, was still very little compared to today. Plus Kesha & Lady Gaga were still relevant and performing in concerts and such.

Plus Dubstep was still popular & EDM was still sort of niche for the most part. I don't really recall EDM becoming big, in the sense of mainstream, until late 2012/early 2013.

So 2012 could sort of go either way for me, but personally I would say 2013 was when things were starting to become more like today when it came to what certain genres were popular

Here's some songs from 2012 (based on the first 50 from the Billboard Hot 100) that sound more 2009-2011ish (at least IMO):

'Somebody That I Used to Know'

'We Are Young'

'Lights'

'Stronger'

'We Found Love'

'Starships'

'Wild Ones'

'Sexy & I Know It'

'Wide Awake'

'Good Feeling'

'Whistle'

'The Motto'

'Where Have You Been'

'Take Care'

'Boyfriend'

'Party Rock Anthem'

'Young, Wild & Free'

'As Long As You Love Me'

'Turn Me On'

'Moves Like Jagger'

'NI**GAS IN Paris'

'Someone Like You'

'Scream'

'Domino'

'Gangnam Style'

'International Love'

'Without You'



Songs from 2012 that sound more like today from the same list:


'Call Me Maybe'

'Payphone'

'Glad You Came'

'What Makes You Beautiful'

'Set Fire to the Rain'

'Some Nights'

'One More Night'

'Driveby'

'Everybody Talks'

'Titanium'

'I Wont Give Up'

'It Will Rain'

'Mercy'

'Too Close'

'Part of Me'

'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together'

'Blow Me'

'Good Time'

'Give Your Heart a Break'

'The One That Got Away'

'Feel So Close'

'Rack City'

'Home'


Here is the link to the list if you want to see it for yourself!


http://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/2012/hot-100-songs

I disagree that "Call Me Maybe" sounds 2009-2011ish.  I believe that was THE song that pioneered the Mid '10s sound.  Also, a lot of those songs you listed as being from 2012 but having the older sound were actually from 2011.  "Party Rock Anthem" was probably one of if not the biggest hit of summer 2011.  "International Love" was pretty big during the fall of 2011 but not so much after the calendar rolled over to 2012.

I disagree that "Call Me Maybe" sounds 2009-2011ish.  I believe that was THE song that pioneered the Mid '10s sound. Also, a lot of those songs you listed as being from 2012 but having the older sound were actually from 2011.  "Party Rock Anthem" was probably one of if not the biggest hit of summer 2011.  "International Love" was pretty big during the fall of 2011 but not so much after the calendar rolled over to 2012.


Ok that was actually mistake on my part my bad lol.

And on your second point, the reason I listed those songs was because I was going by the Billboard Top 100 which you could check out right here http://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/2012/hot-100-songs

So I wasn't trying to be opinionated when listing these songs, based on what was popular in 2012 a lot of these while yes came out in 2011, carried over into 2012

Wait, are you addressing me?  I'm only 23 years old, not 30, even though I suppose I wish I had grown up 7 years earlier instead.  Also, I don't think it's simply a matter of age and not just quality, because I've occasionally heard top 40 songs from very recent times that I thoroughly enjoy (i.e., Best Day of My Life, Happy), but they're just so few and far in-between nowadays, due to the complete lack of variety.


Actually I was addressing bchris02. He is too old to have a relevant voice in mainstream music. I, on the other hand, am at an age where my voice probably matters more than ever. I'm almost 20. #Infy, you still have a chance!  ;)

(P.S. - You're 23 years old? Are you a Virgo?)


Here's some songs from 2012 (based on the first 50 from the Billboard Hot 100) that sound more 2009-2011ish (at least IMO):

'Somebody That I Used to Know'

'Call Me Maybe'

'We Are Young'

'Lights'

'Stronger'

'We Found Love'

'Starships'

'Wild Ones'

'Sexy & I Know It'

'Wide Awake'

'Good Feeling'

'Whistle'

'The Motto'

'Where Have You Been'

'Take Care'

'Boyfriend'

'Party Rock Anthem'

'Young, Wild & Free'

'As Long As You Love Me'

'Turn Me On'

'Moves Like Jagger'

'NI**GAS IN Paris'

'Someone Like You'

'Scream'

'Domino'

'Gangnam Style'

'International Love'

'Without You'



I'd put Lights, Whistle, and We Found Love in the bottom list than the top one. Lights has more of a euphoric electro feel to it that is closer to today than the more straightforwardly sharp synths of the 2009-11 era. Whistle sounds pretty close to the songs on his new EP "My House" (speaking of which, the title track is quite similar to Whistle but with more of a '90s throwback feel!). We Found Love is definitely more like today, as that song basically kicked off the festival big room electro house craze of today, although it seems to be declining right now.

As a matter of fact, the entire pop culture landscape of today feels like it's in limbo. Like the 2010s equivalent of 1980 and 2000, we're in a period of stagnance and decline of current and old trends but before the refreshing and rejuvenating trends of the following year kick in and make things more lively and edgy and new again.

Honestly I think you're done. That sounds quite harsh but it's true, as you are now 30 years old. Marketers don't want to appeal to you anymore. Even when music does become mature again (and it will), you're going to find it unappealing. A person like me on the other hand is probably going to very much enjoy what is new and fresh. With you, on the other hand, are past your impression ability age, so as time goes on you'll actually start to miss the aughts.


You're probably right.  That's also why I am so fond of the 2009-2012 era as it was "my" era.  I still like some songs that are coming out now but for the most part it isn't my music.  If I was 15 and female I am sure I would love today's music.

As for you, at 23 you really only have a few more years.  Top 40 is primarily marketed towards people under age 24.  After that age, people slowly age out of it.  2012 was the year it really hit for me.

You're probably right.  That's also why I am so fond of the 2009-2012 era as it was "my" era.  I still like some songs that are coming out now but for the most part it isn't my music.  If I was 15 and female I am sure I would love today's music.

As for you, at 23 you really only have a few more years.  Top 40 is primarily marketed towards people under age 24.  After that age, people slowly age out of it.  2012 was the year it really hit for me.


What I bolded here is true! Typically you are at your peak when it comes to pop culture usually around age 14-17/8, so your high school years for the most part. I actually consider age 11 to age 22 give or take as your 'youth' period, because of that. Basically when you begin secondary school at or around age 11 and when you graduate, or are around the age, from college at around 22. Age 23-25 are your transitional years, as you start to massively age out of the target audience (though you could start to aging out as early as age 18). So since you are 27 (I think), your peak would have been from 1999 when you turned 11 through 2011 when you was 22. You was 23 in 2012, so while not the prime target range still young enough to enjoy the music at the time. However when 2013 came around, your interest in modern music changed because this was the transition year from Late Y Music to Early Z Music, and you was already out of your peak so the changed seemed much more obvious to you. I was 17 at the time and I still enjoyed music for the most part, heck I enjoy/ed 2014 & 2015. Bu I have noticed a lot of mediocore teeny bopper music, which doesn't really appeal to me as a college student, so even I'm starting to feel a little of it

I'd put Lights, Whistle, and We Found Love in the bottom list than the top one. Lights has more of a euphoric electro feel to it that is closer to today than the more straightforwardly sharp synths of the 2009-11 era. Whistle sounds pretty close to the songs on his new EP "My House" (speaking of which, the title track is quite similar to Whistle but with more of a '90s throwback feel!). We Found Love is definitely more like today, as that song basically kicked off the festival big room electro house craze of today, although it seems to be declining right now.


(Ellie Goulding) Lights? If so, then that was from 2011.

As for you, at 23 you really only have a few more years.  Top 40 is primarily marketed towards people under age 24.  After that age, people slowly age out of it.  2012 was the year it really hit for me.


Actually I'm 19, almost 20. You're talking about #Infinity.


What I bolded here is true! Typically you are at your peak when it comes to pop culture usually around age 14-17/8, so your high school years for the most part. I actually consider age 11 to age 22 give or take as your 'youth' period, because of that. Basically when you begin secondary school at or around age 11 and when you graduate, or are around the age, from college at around 22. Age 23-25 are your transitional years, as you start to massively age out of the target audience (though you could start to aging out as early as age 18). So since you are 27 (I think), your peak would have been from 1999 when you turned 11 through 2011 when you was 22. You was 23 in 2012, so while not the prime target range still young enough to enjoy the music at the time. However when 2013 came around, your interest in modern music changed because this was the transition year from Late Y Music to Early Z Music, and you was already out of your peak so the changed seemed much more obvious to you. I was 17 at the time and I still enjoyed music for the most part, heck I enjoy/ed 2014 & 2015. Bu I have noticed a lot of mediocore teeny bopper music, which doesn't really appeal to me as a college student, so even I'm starting to feel a little of it


That is completely not true and you are judging an entire marketing business and a musical mindset by only the current trend. You need to go back and study the past several decades (1920s to present) to really see the traditional target audience mindset. 1920s-1940s popular music was aimed at the 20-40 age range, popular music became very youth-oriented in the 1950's, which continues today. There are brief fads where teen pop bubblegum music is cool, and we are in that now.

Read this article. It says the hormones that make you positively responsive to music peak in your early 20's. It starts at 14, and 24 is the last year of it. So actually, the teen years are the rise, the early 20's are the peak. I think this makes perfect sense. I'm not in my early 20's just yet, but as I get deeper into young adulthood I get more and more into mainstream music. I actually like popular music much more now than I did in the first half of the 2010's. There are still plenty of songs I despise (which show how bad the early '10s were), I'm also really loving some new songs. I think 2015 music is more mature than 2014 and 2013. Also, everyone I know likes the music of their college-years more than their high school years (except those who peaked in high school). So yeah, with first hand experience I definitely think this is accurate.

http://m.mic.com/articles/96266/there-s-a-magic-age-when-you-find-your-musical-taste-according-to-science

As for you, at 23 you really only have a few more years.  Top 40 is primarily marketed towards people under age 24.  After that age, people slowly age out of it.  2012 was the year it really hit for me.


The funny thing is, I was extremely disinterested in top 40 music from 7th grade to 10th grade, during which I should have been most invested, due to the overwhelming presence of abysmal snap music and other juvenile, cheap-sounding songs.  I started following the top 40 again in 11th grade, after snap was completely dead and when fresh electropop was dominating the charts.

(P.S. - You're 23 years old? Are you a Virgo?)

A late Leo, so almost!

As a matter of fact, the entire pop culture landscape of today feels like it's in limbo. Like the 2010s equivalent of 1980 and 2000, we're in a period of stagnance and decline of current and old trends but before the refreshing and rejuvenating trends of the following year kick in and make things more lively and edgy and new again.


Or 1990, especially.  The 80s-style songs were definitely on the decline, but the year wasn't totally colorized with early 90s-style music yet, despite the debut of Mariah Carey and the expansion of house music.

Also, I wouldn't consider 2000 a year of stagnance, considering it had albums like The Marshall Mathers LP, Kid A, Parachutes, and Stankonia.  Not to mention, blink-182 was already big, the Neptunes became huge in the autumn, and teen pop was still in its peak (its decline was really early 2001 to early 2002).  I don't think the musical transition from the late 90s to early 2000s felt like purgatory as was the case between the 70s and 80s, as well as the 80s and 90s.  As the early 70s were to the late 60s, music from the early 2000s largely expanded upon the trends that had grown popular during the millennial era, as opposed to repudiating them, despite a few movements respectively beginning and ending.  Whereas the music industry felt like it had basically run out of steam in 1990, the year 2000 was still very colorful and felt like part of the peak of its musical era.

That is completely not true and you are judging an entire marketing business and a musical mindset by only the current trend. You need to go back and study the past several decades (1920s to present) to really see the traditional target audience mindset. 1920s-1940s popular music was aimed at the 20-40 age range, popular music became very youth-oriented in the 1950's, which continues today. There are brief fads where teen pop bubblegum music is cool, and we are in that now.

Read this article. It says the hormones that make you positively responsive to music peak in your early 20's. It starts at 14, and 24 is the last year of it. So actually, the teen years are the rise, the early 20's are the peak. I think this makes perfect sense. I'm not in my early 20's just yet, but as I get deeper into young adulthood I get more and more into mainstream music. I actually like popular music much more now than I did in the first half of the 2010's. There are still plenty of songs I despise (which show how bad the early '10s were), I'm also really loving some new songs. I think 2015 music is more mature than 2014 and 2013. Also, everyone I know likes the music of their college-years more than their high school years (except those who peaked in high school). So yeah, with first hand experience I definitely think this is accurate.

http://m.mic.com/articles/96266/there-s-a-magic-age-when-you-find-your-musical-taste-according-to-science


Interesting article.  I can definitely relate to it.  14 was the age I really started getting into Top 40.  I knew and liked songs even back in the '90s but it wasn't until 1999 going into 2000 that I really got into it.  Likewise, I look back at 2009 as being the best year of my life for music and that was the year that I turned 24.  2010 and 2011 were almost as good but in 2012 I really started to lose appreciation for a lot of stuff that was coming out.  It also so happens that 2009, 10, and 11 were the best years of my life so I have strong fondness for the music of that era.  Incidentally, I didn't really like the music of my college years as well as I liked music of my high school years (2000-04) and post-college years (2008-2011).  Music of the mid-aughts was better than today but it wasn't as good as the early 2000s or the late '00s/early '10s.

I do think the fact that music is so youth-oriented plays a big part in it also.  We haven't really had a lot of new music marketed towards 25-40 year olds since the ballads of the late '80s and '90s.  Back in the jazz age music had much wider appeal.  It wasn't until the rock era of the late 1950s that it became primarily for teenagers and college-aged youth.

The funny thing is, I was extremely disinterested in top 40 music from 7th grade to 10th grade, during which I should have been most invested,


Actually that's around the time you should have been getting started, and 7th or even 8th grade is too early (see my post above).


Also, I wouldn't consider 2000 a year of stagnance, considering it had albums like The Marshall Mathers LP, Kid A, Parachutes, and Stankonia.  Not to mention, blink-182 was already big, the Neptunes became huge in the autumn, and teen pop was still in its peak (its decline was really early 2001 to early 2002).  I don't think the musical transition from the late 90s to early 2000s felt like purgatory as was the case between the 70s and 80s, as well as the 80s and 90s.  As the early 70s were to the late 60s, music from the early 2000s largely expanded upon the trends that had grown popular during the millennial era, as opposed to repudiating them, despite a few movements respectively beginning and ending.  Whereas the music industry felt like it had basically run out of steam in 1990, the year 2000 was still very colorful and felt like part of the peak of its musical era.


It's all relative. I don't like the early 2000's too much ('90s were better), but looking at the year end charts of the most popular songs from '00-'03 you can see there was a shift and rejuvenation in 2001, or at least an upgrade. There were several new things going on in '01 that were either rising or nonexistent in 2000. 2000 was also much mellowed and featured less uptempo jams (which is why many people consider it quite boring). I don't think Ja Rule, Ashanti, Fat Joe, Fabolous, Lifehouse, 3 Doors Down, "Rocksteady" era No Doubt, Nickelback, Avril Lavigne, Christina Millian, Alicia Keys, and Eve could have been big in the '90s. Those are distinctly early '00s. Sure there are some songs that could blend with the '90s (Incubus's "Drive" and Shaggy's "Angel" sound straight out of 1997), but I see 1997 and 1998 as quite different from the early aughts.

Actually that's around the time you should have been getting started, and 7th or even 8th grade is too early (see my post above).

It's all relative. I don't like the early 2000's too much ('90s were better), but looking at the year end charts of the most popular songs from '00-'03 you can see there was a shift and rejuvenation in 2001, or at least an upgrade. There were several new things going on in '01 that were either rising or nonexistent in 2000. 2000 was also much mellowed and featured less uptempo jams (which is why many people consider it quite boring). I don't think Ja Rule, Ashanti, Fat Joe, Fabolous, Lifehouse, 3 Doors Down, "Rocksteady" era No Doubt, Nickelback, Avril Lavigne, Christina Millian, Alicia Keys, and Eve could have been big in the '90s. Those are distinctly early '00s. Sure there are some songs that could blend with the '90s (Incubus's "Drive" and Shaggy's "Angel" sound straight out of 1997), but I see 1997 and 1998 as quite different from the early aughts.


Ja Rule had been popular since 1998, when he had a guest verse on Jay-Z's Can I Get A... Ashanti's signature song, Foolish, has the same beat as the 1995 remix of Biggie's One More Chance, not that her music was really that different from millennial-era Brandy, Monica, and Destiny's Child, anyway.  Fabuolous was pretty much an heir to the Bad Boy rappers of the late 90s. 2000s-style post-grunge began with Creed's Higher, which was popular at the end of 1999. 2001 obviously had a lot of popular new artists, but it didn't really feel like a "totally different era" musically from 1999-2001.

It's all relative. I don't like the early 2000's too much ('90s were better), but looking at the year end charts of the most popular songs from '00-'03 you can see there was a shift and rejuvenation in 2001, or at least an upgrade. There were several new things going on in '01 that were either rising or nonexistent in 2000. 2000 was also much mellowed and featured less uptempo jams (which is why many people consider it quite boring). I don't think Ja Rule, Ashanti, Fat Joe, Fabolous, Lifehouse, 3 Doors Down, "Rocksteady" era No Doubt, Nickelback, Avril Lavigne, Christina Millian, Alicia Keys, and Eve could have been big in the '90s. Those are distinctly early '00s. Sure there are some songs that could blend with the '90s (Incubus's "Drive" and Shaggy's "Angel" sound straight out of 1997), but I see 1997 and 1998 as quite different from the early aughts.


I agree there was definitely a shift in 2001.  Teen pop was finally on its way out.  'NSync became more mature and urban-influenced on their third album compared to the first two.  Britney and Christina became more sexually provocative.  '90s-generation post grunge had all but disappeared and Nickelback debuted with "This Is How You Remind Me".  Lil Jon debuted during the summer of 2001 with "Bia Bia" which sounded like something from 2005.

I am hoping if 2015 is this era's 2000, then 2016 will be parallel to 2001, bringing back more mature music.

What I bolded here is true! Typically you are at your peak when it comes to pop culture usually around age 14-17/8, so your high school years for the most part. I actually consider age 11 to age 22 give or take as your 'youth' period, because of that. Basically when you begin secondary school at or around age 11 and when you graduate, or are around the age, from college at around 22. Age 23-25 are your transitional years, as you start to massively age out of the target audience (though you could start to aging out as early as age 18). So since you are 27 (I think), your peak would have been from 1999 when you turned 11 through 2011 when you was 22. You was 23 in 2012, so while not the prime target range still young enough to enjoy the music at the time. However when 2013 came around, your interest in modern music changed because this was the transition year from Late Y Music to Early Z Music, and you was already out of your peak so the changed seemed much more obvious to you. I was 17 at the time and I still enjoyed music for the most part, heck I enjoy/ed 2014 & 2015. Bu I have noticed a lot of mediocore teeny bopper music, which doesn't really appeal to me as a college student, so even I'm starting to feel a little of it

Chris is actually almost 30! ;D

I do think the fact that music is so youth-oriented plays a big part in it also.  We haven't really had a lot of new music marketed towards 25-40 year olds since the ballads of the late '80s and '90s.  Back in the jazz age music had much wider appeal.  It wasn't until the rock era of the late 1950s that it became primarily for teenagers and college-aged youth.

I guess it depends on the kind of music the youth would get interested in. Just like funk-disco was more for the black community till the white guys got into the music too.

Chris is actually almost 30! ;D


LOL I thought he said once he was born in 88'. Maybe thats a different person

By the way, ArcticFox, how are 7th and 8th grade too early to appreciate top 40 music?  Most people start to go through puberty well before they hit 14.  Do most kids seriously still listen to Raffi and Red Grammer in middle school, as your logic implies?  I remember first really getting into pop songs around 2001 (though I think I had basically already outgrown kids music by that point), when the Shrek soundtrack came out, and my younger sister was already into Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys at age 6.

http://www.avclub.com/article/new-study-shows-people-stop-listening-new-music-33-218752

Here's another interesting article related to the one ArcticFox posted.  If its true, then I have about three more years before I will not be able to tolerate Top 40 at all.  I am not sure I believe that, especially if we've moved past teen pop by then.  However, I am certain no music will ever again have the impact that the music I listened to between the ages of 14 and 24 did.

By the way, ArcticFox, how are 7th and 8th grade too early to appreciate top 40 music?  Most people start to go through puberty well before they hit 14.  Do most kids seriously still listen to Raffi and Red Grammer in middle school, as your logic implies?  I remember first really getting into pop songs around 2001 (though I think I had basically already outgrown kids music by that point), when the Shrek soundtrack came out, and my younger sister was already into Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys at age 6.


I agree! I started getting invested into pop culture when I was in middle school. I started to listen to a lot of rap & emo music around that time as well (I was going through a phase...). However, I think around 14 is where you enter your peak in your youth because you enter high school at that age and most people enter the peak of puberty around that time as well. I would say your peak last until you are about age 18/19 years old, but you are still apart of the target audience until your early-mid 20's.

Actually that's around the time you should have been getting started, and 7th or even 8th grade is too early (see my post above).


By that logic I would've never experienced 2009 or even half of 2010 music which has been my favorite of the decade so far so I have to call complete BS on that statement. I've been in the pop culture of the music coming out regularly since 2007, which is the year most of my kid culture was already over, even though I didn't hit puberty until late 2008/early 2009. Although I guess it depends on the particular person though. Personally, the music that I enjoyed the most in my whole lifetime so far, as long as I've been in the target audience for music, that impacted me the most, were the ones that came out throughout my 8th and 9th grade years of school.

I agree! I started getting invested into pop culture when I was in middle school. I started to listen to a lot of rap & emo music around that time as well (I was going through a phase...). However, I think around 14 is where you enter your peak in your youth because you enter high school at that age and most people enter the peak of puberty around that time as well. I would say your peak last until you are about age 18/19 years old, but you are still apart of the target audience until your early-mid 20's.


Which is why I consider 14-17 as the peak of your teenage years depending on your age most of high school, or even 15-18 for some if they were that age throughout most of high school. Age 13 while it's the first year you're technically a teenager, I don't consider it as my core teen years because I was still middle school aged full time and a lot of things I'd discover in high school I didn't learn about yet. Also I feel like there's no difference between being 12 & 13, both are middle school aged full time in their late childhood/early teen stage.

By the way, ArcticFox, how are 7th and 8th grade too early to appreciate top 40 music?  Most people start to go through puberty well before they hit 14.  Do most kids seriously still listen to Raffi and Red Grammer in middle school, as your logic implies?  I remember first really getting into pop songs around 2001 (though I think I had basically already outgrown kids music by that point), when the Shrek soundtrack came out, and my younger sister was already into Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys at age 6.


Wow :o there are definitely exceptions for sure. You can discover any pop culture at any age, whether it's geared towards the kid audience, preteen/teen, or young adult audience. Everybody is different. Personally I didn't get into music exclusively until 2007 when I was 11, but hey somebody claims music of their time since they were 6 years old, it should be perfectly find with anybody ;)

Wow :o there are definitely exceptions for sure. You can discover any pop culture at any age, whether it's geared towards the kid audience, preteen/teen, or young adult audience. Everybody is different. Personally I didn't get into music exclusively until 2007 when I was 11, but hey somebody claims music of their time since they were 6 years old, it should be perfectly find with anybody ;)


Well I remember listening to Britney Spears, Christina Augellierra, BSB, NSYNC, & Destiny's Child with my older sisters when I was 3-5 years old. We had a boom box at the time and when ever family or friends came over we would insert the CD or Cassete into the boom box and listen to some tunes!

Though I do agree with you, that I really didn't follow music trends like I do today until I was 11-12 years old

From what I know, this type of marketing has been in place for many decades, at least from around the 1940s onward.

From what I know, this type of marketing has been in place for many decades, at least from around the 1940s onward.


Bring Crosby and the Andrews Sisters were targeted towards tweens?  News to me.

From what I know, this type of marketing has been in place for many decades, at least from around the 1940s onward.


You are right, back in the 40s and 50s there was Frank Sinatra and other teen pop stars that were popular based on their looks rather than their talent. But starting with the teen explosion of the late 90s, especially by 1999, it dominated and became the main mainstream music. At least back then they had a mix of everything.

Bring Crosby and the Andrews Sisters were targeted towards tweens?  News to me.


They were targeted more towards the old people cause that's what they grew up with.

Anything would be better than the current status quo.  Today's music isn't the "fun party music" of the late '00s/early '10s nor is it the deep, story driven music that was popular in the 1990s and 1960s.  Today's music is basically evolved versions of what was coming on Radio Disney in the 2000s.  13-year old girls are the target audience and nobody else need apply.  There has also been no progression since 2013.

This so much. I want the Kanye, Kid Cudi, Shad, Lady gaga, Rihanna music of the late 00s. The radio has been on all day in my house and very few songs are danceable or contain any interesting lyrics or pull. It's just the same watered down EDM beat used over and over by several artists.

I noticed many of the biggest radio stations here in Toronto love playing "old school" music in between todays music, sometimes back to back. Even they know we're tired of these current crop of artists.

Wow :o there are definitely exceptions for sure. You can discover any pop culture at any age, whether it's geared towards the kid audience, preteen/teen, or young adult audience. Everybody is different. Personally I didn't get into music exclusively until 2007 when I was 11, but hey somebody claims music of their time since they were 6 years old, it should be perfectly find with anybody ;)

I was into NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, R Kelly, Nelly, Smash Mouth, Creed, Allyiah, TLC when I was 5! Also listened to classic jazz, old school R&B, soul, and rock as well.

This so much. I want the Kanye, Kid Cudi, Shad, Lady gaga, Rihanna music of the late 00s. The radio has been on all day in my house and very few songs are danceable or contain any interesting lyrics or pull. It's just the same watered down EDM beat used over and over by several artists.


This is also the way I feel.  Also, today's music is to real EDM what Aaron Carter was to hip-hop.  ArcticFox is right that age does have something to do with disliking current Top 40 (after age 24 the older you are, the less likely you are to enjoy it), but I think with today's music there is a little more to it than that.  There is actually some great stuff out there right now, you just won't hear it on Top 40 radio.

This is also the way I feel.  Also, today's music is to real EDM what Aaron Carter was to hip-hop.  ArcticFox is right that age does have something to do with disliking current Top 40 (after age 24 the older you are, the less likely you are to enjoy it), but I think with today's music there is a little more to it than that.  There is actually some great stuff out there right now, you just won't hear it on Top 40 radio.


True a lot of good music out now is found underground. Btw, since you was a teen for much of the late 90's/early 00's how did you like the music at the time? Also which era did you feel was better the Millennoum era (1998-2002) for your youth or the Electropop era (2008-2012) of your college/post college years?

Perhaps the question should be "Can music get any less mature than it is right now?"  :-\\

True a lot of good music out now is found underground. Btw, since you was a teen for much of the late 90's/early 00's how did you like the music at the time? Also which era did you feel was better the Millennoum era (1998-2002) for your youth or the Electropop era (2008-2012) of your college/post college years?


I really can't put one against the other because both were special in their own way.  Both eras were during times of my life of great personal growth and massive change.  The 1998-2002 era was when I started getting into music.  I would have to say I didn't like a lot of the teen pop initially because after all, where I lived it was "gay" if you were a boy and liked NSync. However, it did grow on me over time. I secretly listened to Britney Spears.  I never really liked the Backstreet Boys as much back then.  I would say I probably enjoy them more today than I did when they were popular.  What I really enjoyed from that era was the hip-hop and R&B artists that were starting to push their way into Top 40.

One thing that was different back then is less access to music other than what was being played on the radio.  Internet radio was almost non-existent.  There was no Pandora or Spotify or XM.  Are today's teens as big on Ariana Grande and Becky G as GenY youth were for N'Sync and Christina?

I secretly listened to Britney Spears.


Same way I feel about Katy Perry ;D

I noticed many of the biggest radio stations here in Toronto love playing "old school" music in between todays music, sometimes back to back. Even they know we're tired of these current crop of artists.

I guess the sounds of the 50's and 60's are being pushed aside, just remember what your parents grew up with?

I really can't put one against the other because both were special in their own way.  Both eras were during times of my life of great personal growth and massive change.  The 1998-2002 era was when I started getting into music.  I would have to say I didn't like a lot of the teen pop initially because after all, where I lived it was "gay" if you were a boy and liked NSync. However, it did grow on me over time. I secretly listened to Britney Spears.  I never really liked the Backstreet Boys as much back then.  I would say I probably enjoy them more today than I did when they were popular.  What I really enjoyed from that era was the hip-hop and R&B artists that were starting to push their way into Top 40.

One thing that was different back then is less access to music other than what was being played on the radio.  Internet radio was almost non-existent.  There was no Pandora or Spotify or XM.  Are today's teens as big on Ariana Grande and Becky G as GenY youth were for N'Sync and Christina?


That's pretty cool. Yeah some of my earliest music memories come from that era. I used to listen to my sister's discman when I was 5-7 years old plus I would watch TRL with my siblings after school sometimes. So yeah I remember all of these guys, but I was a kid at the time so too young to fully appreciate it.  :\'(

Also to answer your question, I'm not too sure. Most girls my age are in college so they are developing their own tastes in music. However having a few friends still in high school & keeping up with the new trends, I would say it is pretty similar. I'm not sure on the exact same level, but it's pretty close. I also think the demise of One Direction and the rise of 5SOS is similar to the the demise of BSB and rise of NSYNC. However I think 'my time' was at its peak when I was in high school, which for the most part was the Electropop era.

I was into NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, R Kelly, Nelly, Smash Mouth, Creed, Allyiah, TLC when I was 5! Also listened to classic jazz, old school R&B, soul, and rock as well.


I was always into the 70's and 80's, the music I grew up with.

That's pretty cool. Yeah some of my earliest music memories come from that era. I used to listen to my sister's discman when I was 5-7 years old plus I would watch TRL with my siblings after school sometimes. So yeah I remember all of these guys, but I was a kid at the time so too young to fully appreciate it.  :\'(

Yeah that's how I feel about the early to mid '90s.  I remember some of the songs from that era but I was too young to fully appreciate it.


Also to answer your question, I'm not too sure. Most girls my age are in college so they are developing their own tastes in music. However having a few friends still in high school & keeping up with the new trends, I would say it is pretty similar. I'm not sure on the exact same level, but it's pretty close. I also think the demise of One Direction and the rise of 5SOS is similar to the the demise of BSB and rise of NSYNC.

I think 5SOS is one of the better bands in Top 40 today.  They are a heck of a lot better than Ariana Grande or Becky G or any of the other bubblegum pop artists.  Maybe I like them because their sound isn't far off from what was popular in the mid aughts.


However I think 'my time' was at its peak when I was in high school, which for the most part was the Electropop era.


I wouldn't necessarily say that.  I loved the music when I was in high school but didn't care for it as much from 2005-2007 before really getting back into it in 2008.  In the mid-aughts though I stepped away from Top 40 and went through a techno/trance kick.  I still liked some of the hip-hop coming out during that era, especially in 2007.

I guess the sounds of the 50's and 60's are being pushed aside, just remember what your parents grew up with?


My parents grew up with Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Sippie Wallace, Ma Rainey, and Rudy Vallee.

I really can't put one against the other because both were special in their own way.  Both eras were during times of my life of great personal growth and massive change.  The 1998-2002 era was when I started getting into music.  I would have to say I didn't like a lot of the teen pop initially because after all, where I lived it was "gay" if you were a boy and liked NSync. However, it did grow on me over time. I secretly listened to Britney Spears.  I never really liked the Backstreet Boys as much back then.  I would say I probably enjoy them more today than I did when they were popular.  What I really enjoyed from that era was the hip-hop and R&B artists that were starting to push their way into Top 40.

One thing that was different back then is less access to music other than what was being played on the radio.  Internet radio was almost non-existent.  There was no Pandora or Spotify or XM.  Are today's teens as big on Ariana Grande and Becky G as GenY youth were for N'Sync and Christina?

So you weren't into grunge or hardcore hip hop/gangsta rap when you were a kid?

So you weren't into grunge or hardcore hip hop/gangsta rap when you were a kid?


No I wasn't.  I had very strict parents that wouldn't let me listen to gangsta rap.  I didn't get into hip-hop until the Eminem era.  I was only five years old during the grunge era and didn't have much knowledge of pop culture outside of what my parents liked, which was mostly stuff from the '70s as well as "soft rock" ballads of the late 1980s and early 1990s. 

That's pretty cool. Yeah some of my earliest music memories come from that era. I used to listen to my sister's discman when I was 5-7 years old plus I would watch TRL with my siblings after school sometimes. So yeah I remember all of these guys, but I was a kid at the time so too young to fully appreciate it.  :\'(

Also to answer your question, I'm not too sure. Most girls my age are in college so they are developing their own tastes in music. However having a few friends still in high school & keeping up with the new trends, I would say it is pretty similar. I'm not sure on the exact same level, but it's pretty close. I also think the demise of One Direction and the rise of 5SOS is similar to the the demise of BSB and rise of NSYNC. However I think 'my time' was at its peak when I was in high school, which for the most part was the Electropop era.

Thanks to WWF/WWE, I loved the post grunge, nu metal, and metacore rock of the early-mid 00s. Also a big thanks to 106 and park and my Uncle for the rap and R&B music!

Yeah that's how I feel about the early to mid '90s.  I remember some of the songs from that era but I was too young to fully appreciate it.

I think 5SOS is one of the better bands in Top 40 today.  They are a heck of a lot better than Ariana Grande or Becky G or any of the other bubblegum pop artists.  Maybe I like them because their sound isn't far off from what was popular in the mid aughts.

I wouldn't necessarily say that.  I loved the music when I was in high school but didn't care for it as much from 2005-2007 before really getting back into it in 2008.  In the mid-aughts though I stepped away from Top 40 and went through a techno/trance kick.  I still liked some of the hip-hop coming out during that era, especially in 2007.


Yeah the mid aughts were pretty bad looking back. I feel the early 00's were the best part of the decade when it came to music. Though I do have some fond memories from the late 00's era, especially the 2008-2009 period. The mid aughts were all about Crunk rap, which while a guilty pleasure of mine, was overplayed AF ten years ago...

I wouldn't necessarily say that.  I loved the music when I was in high school but didn't care for it as much from 2005-2007 before really getting back into it in 2008.  In the mid-aughts though I stepped away from Top 40 and went through a techno/trance kick.  I still liked some of the hip-hop coming out during that era, especially in 2007.


Am I the only one who feels like the style of 2007 music was like the predecessor of the great era of music that was coming around 2008-2011? 2007 being the first full year I was into the pop culture of music coming out regularly being 11 years old at the time was amazing. We Takin' Over (DJ Khaled) and Crank That (Soulja Boy Tell 'Em) just screams nostalgia overload when I think of that year. There's much more to 2007 music but I need a refresher since it's been a hell of a long time ago. I remember like yesterday going to some of the football games in 2007 freestyling to many of the music from that year. It was decent to me.

Am I the only one who feels like the style of 2007 music was like the predecessor of the great era of music that was coming around 2008-2011? 2007 being the first full year I was into the pop culture of music coming out regularly being 11 years old at the time was amazing. We Takin' Over (DJ Khaled) and Crank That (Soulja Boy Tell 'Em) just screams nostalgia overload when I think of that year. There's much more to 2007 music but I need a refresher since it's been a hell of a long time ago. I remember like yesterday going to some of the football games in 2007 freestyling to many of the music from that year. It was decent to me.


That style of music was more the culmination of '00s music in my opinion.  2007 was the ultimate ringtone rap year and I remember the Houston sound in particular being big that year. Music that year doesn't really have a lot in common with the music of 2009-2011.  In terms of rock, 2007 was the peak of scene culture.

That style of music was more the culmination of '00s music in my opinion.  2007 was the ultimate ringtone rap year and I remember the Houston sound in particular being big that year. Music that year doesn't really have a lot in common with the music of 2009-2011.  In terms of rock, 2007 was the peak of scene culture.



Yeah 2007 is probably the LAST core 2000's year, especially when it came down to music. I also notice this was when some of the earliest 10's trends first came onto the scene; massively popular social media, the IPhone, skinny jeans, the hipster look (though overshadowed at the time by emo), shows like Big Bang Theory and the resurgence of Marvel movies at the time and the beginning of the Transformers movie franchise (for better of for worst!)

That style of music was more the culmination of '00s music in my opinion.  2007 was the ultimate ringtone rap year and I remember the Houston sound in particular being big that year. Music that year doesn't really have a lot in common with the music of 2009-2011.  In terms of rock, 2007 was the peak of scene culture.


Yeah, I know 2007 music has NOTHING in common with 2009-2011, but I mean like the feel of 2007 music, the energy you get when listening to it, the excitement of it, that party/mature tone music you know what I'm saying, it was kinda like a perfect start for me to get into music. Before the electropop era began and some more epic ones would make its debut around the 2009-2011 period. With 2014 last year and 2015 so far, I just don't feel that energy and excitement, you have some few exceptions but.... like the Whip-Nae-Nae song for example has been real popular this year which appeals to young kids 8-P. For some reason it just doesn't have that energy and appeal like the freestyle and party music that was around in the late 2000's/early 2010's I really miss. This even applies to many hip-hop songs too that I thought was miles better in that period. Maybe it's just me though. 

The funny thing is, I was extremely disinterested in top 40 music from 7th grade to 10th grade, during which I should have been most invested, due to the overwhelming presence of abysmal snap music and other juvenile, cheap-sounding songs.  I started following the top 40 again in 11th grade, after snap was completely dead and when fresh electropop was dominating the charts.

A late Leo, so almost!

Or 1990, especially.  The 80s-style songs were definitely on the decline, but the year wasn't totally colorized with early 90s-style music yet, despite the debut of Mariah Carey and the expansion of house music.

Also, I wouldn't consider 2000 a year of stagnance, considering it had albums like The Marshall Mathers LP, Kid A, Parachutes, and Stankonia.  Not to mention, blink-182 was already big, the Neptunes became huge in the autumn, and teen pop was still in its peak (its decline was really early 2001 to early 2002).  I don't think the musical transition from the late 90s to early 2000s felt like purgatory as was the case between the 70s and 80s, as well as the 80s and 90s.  As the early 70s were to the late 60s, music from the early 2000s largely expanded upon the trends that had grown popular during the millennial era, as opposed to repudiating them, despite a few movements respectively beginning and ending. Whereas the music industry felt like it had basically run out of steam in 1990, the year 2000 was still very colorful and felt like part of the peak of its musical era.
Yeah true.

Ja Rule had been popular since 1998, when he had a guest verse on Jay-Z's Can I Get A... Ashanti's signature song, Foolish, has the same beat as the 1995 remix of Biggie's One More Chance, not that her music was really that different from millennial-era Brandy, Monica, and Destiny's Child, anyway.  Fabuolous was pretty much an heir to the Bad Boy rappers of the late 90s. 2000s-style post-grunge began with Creed's Higher, which was popular at the end of 1999. 2001 obviously had a lot of popular new artists, but it didn't really feel like a "totally different era" musically from 1999-2001.
Both "One More Chance(Remix)" and "Foolish" are sampled from an 1980's song called "Stay" by Pop/R&B Group "Debarge".

Yeah Creed's 2nd CD "Human Clay" sounded different from their 1997 release "My Own Prison". I remember when "My Own Prison" was popular(both CD and song) in my senior year of HS in 1997-1998. Their singles off of "My Own Prison" I used to listen to on the radio.

Bring Crosby and the Andrews Sisters were targeted towards tweens?  News to me.


I think it was after Crosby, i.e., the 1950s, and the market was teens, although the market for tweens came only a decade later:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenybopper

The origins may have been earlier, but still after Crosby:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_soxer

and still across many decades.

You are right, back in the 40s and 50s there was Frank Sinatra and other teen pop stars that were popular based on their looks rather than their talent. But starting with the teen explosion of the late 90s, especially by 1999, it dominated and became the main mainstream music. At least back then they had a mix of everything.


I think there has always been enough stars with talent. It's just that the market grew considerably, and with combinations of more performers and various media (especially visual) then it became inevitable for popularity to be influenced heavily by marketing.

My parents grew up with Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Sippie Wallace, Ma Rainey, and Rudy Vallee.


My parents grew up with the 50's Doo-Wop era.

My parents grew up with the 50's Doo-Wop era.

Mine grew up with soul singers like Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Four Tops, Temptations, Chi Lites, The Spinners, Diana Ross, The Ojays and classic rock like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zepplin, Queen, Kiss, Lynyrd Skynrd, Doobie Brothers, The Ramones, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, The Who, AC DC as children.

Then disco, new wave, old school rap, hair metal in their late teens and 20s. My Dad even listened to the classic jazz singers when he was a kid and a younger adult. Just like me! 8)

My parents grew up with the 50's Doo-Wop era.
Mine were in the same era, but with British artists as their favourites.

Mine grew up with soul singers like Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Four Tops, Temptations, Chi Lites, The Spinners, Diana Ross, The Ojays and classic rock like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zepplin, Queen, Kiss, Lynyrd Skynrd, Doobie Brothers, The Ramones, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, The Who, AC DC as children.

Then disco, new wave, old school rap, hair metal in their late teens and 20s. My Dad even listened to the classic jazz singers when he was a kid and a younger adult. Just like me! 8)


Same with my parents, especially my mom. She was a child of the 60's during the Motown & British Invasion Era, a teen of the 70's during the Punk & Disco Era, & a young adult of the 80's during the New Wave & Metal Era

Absolutely. Very soon, perhaps.

Wow :o there are definitely exceptions for sure. You can discover any pop culture at any age, whether it's geared towards the kid audience, preteen/teen, or young adult audience. Everybody is different. Personally I didn't get into music exclusively until 2007 when I was 11, but hey somebody claims music of their time since they were 6 years old, it should be perfectly find with anybody ;)
This. Like OF and Infinity, I also got into music at an early age thanks to my family. it's why I'm able to recall songs from the mid-late 90s very well despite being very young. Heck, I can recall Gen X music still being current at the time while the Y music broke through.

As for the article posted here I read about a week ago, I have to disagree with that it starts at 14. To me, most people begin getting into music at 10/11 as by then they are in puberty already and are transitioning into adolescence. In addition to that, music reflects upon people, so when they listen to a song that has a relate-able feeling, it can impact them significantly.

Then disco, new wave, old school rap, hair metal in their late teens and 20s. My Dad even listened to the classic jazz singers when he was a kid and a younger adult. Just like me!

My Father grew up with doo-wop rock and roll and a bit of R & B.

Mine were in the same era, but with British artists as their favourites.


My Father likes some British artists.

My Father likes some British artists.
Due to wartime experiences, my father grow to like Glenn Miller.

Due to wartime experiences, my father grow to like Glenn Miller.


My father also like jazz.

The Weeknd is popular now. Mature or not mature?

One Direction is #1 again on the iTunes chart.  Justin Bieber was at the top right before them.  So much for the hope that all these teenybopper acts are finally past their expiration date. :(


The Weeknd is popular now. Mature or not mature?


Eh, he's classified as PBR&B, but to my ears he's not especially different from other pop urban artists who perform over trap beats with ridiculously loud bass.  He's better than most artists dominating the charts right now, but not enough to offset the lowbrow atmosphere.

One Direction is #1 again on the iTunes chart.  Justin Bieber was at the top right before them.  So much for the hope that all these teenybopper acts are finally past their expiration date. :(


:( :-\\ :\'(

http://page2sports.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/derrick-rose-acl-injury.jpg

One Direction is #1 again on the iTunes chart.  Justin Bieber was at the top right before them.  So much for the hope that all these teenybopper acts are finally past their expiration date. :(


Actually "Hotline Bling" (one of the actually listenable hits by Drake) was #1 before them! And I actually think that they are nearing their expiration date, with the trend now entering it's "last hurrah" phase before becoming uncool in the following year!


Eh, he's classified as PBR&B, but to my ears he's not especially different from other pop urban artists who perform over trap beats with ridiculously loud bass.  He's better than most artists dominating the charts right now, but not enough to offset the lowbrow atmosphere.


I think he's pretty cool, and he doesn't appeal to little kids. Regarding what you said about him performing "over trap beats with ridiculously loud bass" (hahahahaha!!!  :D ;D) I agree with that. Especially on his songs "The Hills" and "Often". However, "Earned It" and "Can't Feel My Face" are awesome. To me anyway.

Some more points to consider concerning commercial pop music: the content and form have been generally similar, i.e., around three or so chords, three to four minutes in length, banal lyrics, a regular beat, etc. Similar can be seen in folk music that precedes it. There may be exceptions but what's mentioned is the general rule.

Given that and the variation seen in other forms of music, one should consider pop music from different decades (from the early twentieth century to the present) and regions (from South America and Asia, Africa, the Middle East, etc.), and then move on to folk music from different parts of the world, and then on to other forms.

Some more points to consider concerning commercial pop music: the content and form have been generally similar, i.e., around three or so chords, three to four minutes in length, banal lyrics, a regular beat, etc. Similar can be seen in folk music that precedes it. There may be exceptions but what's mentioned is the general rule.

You can't possibly compare anything made today to something like Blowin' in the Wind or Atlantic City.  Sure, those songs are both quite straightforward at face value, but they're actually quite intelligent beneath their formulaic folk structures.  They don't need to rely on loud, polished production because their words cary so much weight while still being accessible.  The vast bulk of commercial EDM produced today contains cookie cutter lyrics about relationships, sex, and partying, with next to no artistic ambition to distinguish one track from another.  The excessive synthesizers feel more like a camouflage to hide the lack of melodic and lyrical originality than an integral part of the musical appeal.

It can't be mature these days, today's music is built for kids and teenagers who are in their late teens and 20's.

You can't possibly compare anything made today to something like Blowin' in the Wind or Atlantic City.  Sure, those songs are both quite straightforward at face value, but they're actually quite intelligent beneath their formulaic folk structures.  They don't need to rely on loud, polished production because their words cary so much weight while still being accessible.  The vast bulk of commercial EDM produced today contains cookie cutter lyrics about relationships, sex, and partying, with next to no artistic ambition to distinguish one track from another.  The excessive synthesizers feel more like a camouflage to hide the lack of melodic and lyrical originality than an integral part of the musical appeal.


Hence, the last sentence of my post.

It can't be mature these days, today's music is built for kids and teenagers who are in their late teens and 20's.


That was probably the case for many decades, as seen in the entry on teenyboppers.

Hence, the last sentence of my post.


Perhaps I was referring to the best of the best out of the folk genre, but still, in general folk music is far more meaningful and poetic than mid-2010s EDM.  Song lyrics are usually based around actual stories or thoughtful life questions and aren't just pandering to the typical love and sex themes like modern pop.

I think a lot of people on this forum overestimate the popularity and influence of teen pop on the current music scene.  I'm 26 and I enjoy most of the music I hear on Top 40 stations just fine.  Could it be better?  Of course.  But it's not as bad and teenybopper dominated as this board makes it out to be.  That or I just have a bad sense of music.

That said, putting that aside, music doesn't really have a reason to become mature for the time being.  The reason music had a more mature-oriented vibe in the 80s and 90s was because Generation X was a significantly smaller generation than the Baby Boomers before them.  The music industry had to cater to them or else risk falling profits.  As the much larger Millennials came into the market and the Baby Boomers aged, the music industry naturally catered to the much larger Millennial market.

Now, the generation after the Millennials (I despise "Generation Y and Z."  Generation X had a reason for being called that, Y and Z is just uncreativity) is about the same size as the Millennials.  So, unlike with the Baby Boomers and Generation X before, there is no reason for the music industry to cater to an older audience, particularly when the Millennials consume significantly less than teenagers do, what with their student loan debt and bad job market and all.

Perhaps I was referring to the best of the best out of the folk genre, but still, in general folk music is far more meaningful and poetic than mid-2010s EDM.  Song lyrics are usually based around actual stories or thoughtful life questions and aren't just pandering to the typical love and sex themes like modern pop.


Sorry, I did not make my point clear. When I referred to folk music that preceded recorded pop music, I was referring to traditional folk music.

My understanding is the folk music was performed while engaged in manual labor or during periods of leisure, usually by people regardless of their literacy levels. That's why they are easy to perform and remember, and they usually focused on what listeners and performers experience, which not surprisingly include love and sex, not to mention crime, death, birth, harvests, victory or defeat in conflict, plague, etc.

I think a lot of people on this forum overestimate the popularity and influence of teen pop on the current music scene.  I'm 26 and I enjoy most of the music I hear on Top 40 stations just fine.  Could it be better?  Of course.  But it's not as bad and teenybopper dominated as this board makes it out to be.  That or I just have a bad sense of music.

That said, putting that aside, music doesn't really have a reason to become mature for the time being.  The reason music had a more mature-oriented vibe in the 80s and 90s was because Generation X was a significantly smaller generation than the Baby Boomers before them.  The music industry had to cater to them or else risk falling profits.  As the much larger Millennials came into the market and the Baby Boomers aged, the music industry naturally catered to the much larger Millennial market.

Now, the generation after the Millennials (I despise "Generation Y and Z."  Generation X had a reason for being called that, Y and Z is just uncreativity) is about the same size as the Millennials.  So, unlike with the Baby Boomers and Generation X before, there is no reason for the music industry to cater to an older audience, particularly when the Millennials consume significantly less than teenagers do, what with their student loan debt and bad job market and all.


There are forms of pop music that are mature, but one has to go beyond one's region and time period to appreciate most of them. Examples include Oum Kaltoum, Victor Jara, and so forth.

Or 1990, especially.  The 80s-style songs were definitely on the decline, but the year wasn't totally colorized with early 90s-style music yet, despite the debut of Mariah Carey and the expansion of house music. Whereas the music industry felt like it had basically run out of steam in 1990, the year 2000 was still very colorful and felt like part of the peak of its musical era.


Another thing I wanna mention is that the '90s took some time rise up in significant quality. With 1981, music seemed to have dramatically improved overnight (do you agree with this? I'm just going by popular opinion). You could say the same for 2001, but I'm not sure. Many people say that 2001 was a lot better musically than 2000 (even though that year had a lot of great albums such as Kid A, Enema of the State, and Stankonia like you mentioned), but I personally think they were on equal footing.

1990 however, was bland and largely uninspired (like you said), but it took some time for it to improve. 1991 introduced some new things, 1992 and 1993 improved upon those. It wasn't until 1994 in my opinion that the '90s really started to get awesome and exciting.

Unfortunately, the '80s and '00s rejuvenations didn't last too long and things quickly went stale after a couple years until getting better at the end. The '90s however, had sturdy, long-term improvement. What about your view?

Another thing I wanna mention is that the '90s took some time rise up in significant quality. With 1981, music seemed to have dramatically improved overnight (do you agree with this? I'm just going by popular opinion). You could say the same for 2001, but I'm not sure. Many people say that 2001 was a lot better musically than 2000 (even though that year had a lot of great albums such as Kid A, Enema of the State, and Stankonia like you mentioned), but I personally think they were on equal footing.

1990 however, was bland and largely uninspired (like you said), but it took some time for it to improve. 1991 introduced some new things, 1992 and 1993 improved upon those. It wasn't until 1994 in my opinion that the '90s really started to get awesome and exciting.

Unfortunately, the '80s and '00s rejuvenations didn't last too long and things quickly went stale after a couple years until getting better at the end. The '90s however, had sturdy, long-term improvement. What about your view?

Because disco was pretty much dead!  :-X  :-X

Mature as in the 90's or the 00's pop music? I hope not. Mature as in 80's pop? I hope so! ;)
1981-1985 is one of the greatest recent eras in music. 2012 was nice though a bit infantile and I think 2013 was mature enough. 2014 and 2015 are a decline in music quality imo though. We need more bands like Dire Straits circa 1985 and signers like Rick Springfield circa Jessie's Girl and all the other 1981-1985 pop and rock singers. :)

Mature as in the 90's or the 00's pop music? I hope not. Mature as in 80's pop? I hope so! ;)
1981-1985 is one of the greatest recent eras in music. 2012 was nice though a bit infantile and I think 2013 was mature enough. 2014 and 2015 are a decline in music quality imo though. We need more bands like Dire Straits circa 1985 and signers like Rick Springfield circa Jessie's Girl and all the other 1981-1985 pop and rock singers. :)


I don't think we'll be seeing those types of artists anymore.

I don't think we'll be seeing those types of artists anymore.


6JCLY0Rlx6Q

You were saying...?  ::) ;D

Another thing I wanna mention is that the '90s took some time rise up in significant quality. With 1981, music seemed to have dramatically improved overnight (do you agree with this? I'm just going by popular opinion). You could say the same for 2001, but I'm not sure. Many people say that 2001 was a lot better musically than 2000 (even though that year had a lot of great albums such as Kid A, Enema of the State, and Stankonia like you mentioned), but I personally think they were on equal footing.

I don't think music "improved" overnight in 1981, that year was mostly just an expansion of the new wave, post-disco, arena rock, and country trends that had been growing in prevalence since the late 70s.  MTV was launched in 1981, but music only gradually transformed throughout the early 80s.  I don't think the transition out of 70s music was complete until roughly the end of 1982, by which acoustic elements in pop were completely overshadowed by synthesized ones and there were more new artists on the charts than older ones adapting to the evolving climate.  I do personally think 1982 and 1983 are among the best years in music, and certainly two of the most underrated, but the progression between the late 70s and early 80s is more complex than just the death of disco and the launch of MTV.

As for 2000, I think the main reason people seem to think 2001 was an improvement over that year was because of the decline of teen pop, which was still in the midst of its commercial peak in 2000 but then quickly lost ground the following year.  Granted, 2001 also had modern fan favorites like The Blueprint, Is This It, and Toxicity, but I wouldn't really call it a dramatic improvement over 2000.

1990 however, was bland and largely uninspired (like you said), but it took some time for it to improve. 1991 introduced some new things, 1992 and 1993 improved upon those. It wasn't until 1994 in my opinion that the '90s really started to get awesome and exciting.

I'm not sure, it seems to me 1991 is actually widely considered one of the greatest years in music history.  Besides Nevermind, the year also produced Loveless, Ten, Metallica's Black Album, Blood Sugar Sex Magic, Achtung Baby, and The Low End Theory.  If you visit Best Ever Albums, 1991 has the highest total score of all years from the 1990s decade, even edging out 1994 (also a huge year for music, as you said) by a small margin.  While 1991's pop charts were mostly defined by new-jack swing, house, pop rock, and old-school hip hop, all gradually abandoning their 80s influences, the year was actually one of the most important and colorful in history if you know where to look.

Unfortunately, the '80s and '00s rejuvenations didn't last too long and things quickly went stale after a couple years until getting better at the end. The '90s however, had sturdy, long-term improvement. What about your view?

80s music, in my opinion, peaked from late 1982 to the end of 1984, experienced a mild resurgence in quality during the 1986-1987 school year, became incredibly repetitive in 1988, and improved again in 1989 thanks to new influences.

The 90s had a so-so beginning with 1990 and the first half of 1991, grew more colorful during the latter half of 1991 through early 1994, peaked in mid-1994 through 1996, became more commercial in 1997 but still memorable, dipped in quality in 1998 (a year oversaturated with unimaginative r&b sex jams and few notable releases in rock), and ended with a year that was strong for mainstream hits but terrible for full albums.

The 00s were a good, if not excellent, period for music during its first three years, grew a little stale in 2003, got better in 2004 but still not great, hit rock-bottom during the 2005-2006 school year, became hit-or-miss during the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 school years, and ended surprisingly strong (though still not as good as most 80s or 90s years) with 2009.

I think the 90's had many gems but they were mostly in sleeper hits like Promise Me by Beverly Craven, You Gotta Be by Desree and other similar hits and of course ballads. I don't like popular 90's songs like Macarena and such cheesy crap. We need more singers like the 80's pop-rock ones.

Well I remember listening to Britney Spears, Christina Augellierra, BSB, NSYNC, & Destiny's Child with my older sisters when I was 3-5 years old. We had a boom box at the time and when ever family or friends came over we would insert the CD or Cassete into the boom box and listen to some tunes!

Though I do agree with you, that I really didn't follow music trends like I do today until I was 11-12 years old

Personally, I was born in 1996 and started liking music as a toddler. I remember the karaoke craze in the Philippines that went on when I was really young.

I remember karaoke VCD's, for example. If you want to know how karaoke VCD's were like, here is a karaoke VCD whose contents are up on YouTube:
K9658-sva-Y

Our former cable provider also used to have a karaoke channel when I was in preschool.

I think right now music is in the immature stages.

Throughout the past two weeks, I have been spending all of my free time (as in not doing homework or school or chores) studying the popular culture of the 2010's (especially the music), and I have realized that many people on the internet such as this website are quite out of touch with how things have changed in the past, myself included. First of all, I realized that we are completely exaggerating all of the bad musical trends or the ones that most dislike (such as teen pop and EDM). We have been acting as if they dominate everything and that there is nothing diverse out today, but now I've realized that we're wrong. Music is also way more mature than we say it is, and nobody remembers the good, only the bad. That's just what we focus most on - what we don't like.

If you decide to devote all of your free time for the next several weeks listening to every 2010's hit single, you'll notice that instead of large trends with no change music has been going in "pairs" since the decade started. Dual times where music sounds the same for two years and then things change up a little. 2010 and 2011 is the first one. This is really the only period where "electropop" was a major trend. That's what it is - electronic pop music. If you choose to pay attention, it's really quite unoriginal, but I guess the idea was to do something retro. The '10/'11 period also had the best hip-hop of the decade, and that's not saying much at all (the rap genre has since declined in quality and even in popularity since then, and the genre had already been doing that for several years by decade's start). This is also where Bro-Country got it's start, which a lot of people hate (I dislike most of it myself). There was a little bit of R&B, a little bit of Soul, but really this was just a tiny foretaste of what was to emerge later. This period came to an end in September 2011, when Rihanna's "We Found Love" was released and transformed the musical landscape into something more dance-oriented, maximalist, and intense. "We Found Love" was basically the EDM community's "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Quality-wise, I think both 2010 and 2011 are around the 60% range in terms of how much I like from those years. It definitely could be better, and it sure isn't innovative or groundbreaking, but it's not bad by any means.

2012 and 2013 is the next one. As a matter of fact, people really exaggerate how similar 2012 is to the very early '10s and how similar 2013 was to today. If anything, this is the most similar pair of the entire decade. The musical equivalent of identical twins, these two years are completely the same and even had a spillage of their influence into the two immediate years what surround it. This era was defined by overproduction and harsh volumes. There was more of a focus on novelty on these years. There was also more diversity and more genres emerged during this period. The genres that were big during this pair were: EDM, Electropop, Country, R&B, Rap, Indie Rock, and Teen Pop. Getting into specifics, the EDM was mostly just overproduced maximalistic House music, as well as Rap being largely electronic. This was the peak of Bro-Country, but real country (or at least something close to it) was occasionally coming in, and this is when R&B started to re-emerge, but is was a bit "psychedelic electronic" if you get what I mean. The folk music craze was also at it's peak here. Ballads also made a comeback this year, and soul music was also being revived which continues to this day. From experience, 2012 was the worst year for music of all time. There was almost nothing I liked on the radio until the very end, and I only like some more things in hindsight. I like only about 30-40% of what was cool that year. 2013 at the time I also hated, but looking back this was definitely an upgraded version of 2012. Same trends, but better music. Again, this wasn't a groundbreaking or astounding year, but it had some standout hits. I like about 60-70% of what was cool that year. The biggest problem that really hinders this year is how overproduced the music was (which I don't like).

Next is the current pair, 2014 and 2015. I used to think just last month that we were still in the early 2010s, but after a lot of evaluation I realized that only the first quarter of 2014 felt early 2010's culturally speaking. Things started changing around April, both in the charts and in terms of feel of the atmosphere. People act like nothing has changed, but really looking deep you'll see that quite a bit has changed. Indie rock has really gone through the roof, as well as it's sibling "Anti-Pop" (which started emerging in the previous period). We have seen the decline in prominence in new releases of EDM and Rap, as well as Bro-Country. This is where PBR&B and Neo-Soul have really made their big break, and unfortunately this is the peak of Teen pop (although it is now declining a little as of Q4 '15). When you remove the teen pop and rap, this era has really been quite original and inventive. Coldplay's criminally underrated "Ghost Stories" is wonderful (much better than Mylo Xyloto), Milky Chance's Sadnecessary, Lana Del Rey's Ultraviolence, Elle King's Love Stuff, and KONGOS's Lunatic. This era is much more minimalistic and stripped-down compared to the '12/'13 era. 2014 songs such as "Waves", "Rather Be", "Magic", "West Coast", "Come With Me Now", "Milky Chance", "i", and "Yellow Flicker Beat" are all wonderfully produced and innovative. 2015 has also had some great hits, and the slight breakout of "Trap EDM" (not trap rap!!). This is actually the good stuff, and songs such as "You Know You Like It" and "Lean On" are actually quite musically clever and inventive compared to the previous years. Music has gotten more soulful in 2015, with songs such as "How Deep Is Your Love", "Ex's and Oh's", "Here", "Ghost", "Elastic Heart", "Budapest", "Renegades", and "Girl Crush" having a much more passionate and sincere sound. Both 2014 and 2015 have been the same quality-quantity ratio-wise as 2013 (about 60-70%), however, these two years have popularized the most exciting, fresh, and innovative hits of the decade so far. Although every year has it's highlights, I feel this pair has had the most so far. It's so underrated, but the gems are definitely there.

Although there was an extremely rough spot in the early '10s (Pair 2), the 2010's had created some gems of their own. Pair 1 was a good start, Pair 2 was poor and featured the worst year for music of all time, but Pair 3 has been an improvement and has given us a dose of originality that unfortunately many people do not see here. Take note I am not praising Pair 3 to high heaven. '14/'15 are not the mid '90s or the late '60s in which both the underground and the mainstream music scenes were in perfect condition with lots of originality, but it has shown us that originality and innovation is not dead and that it is still possible.

Honestly, I'm optimistic Pair 4 and Pair 5 are gonna be even better. My prediction is that Pair 4 (the '16/'17 era) is gonna see the absence of Teen Pop (for the most part), the death of Rap and Bro-Country, the takeover of PBR&B and a newer and different generation of Neo-Soul, the further decline of EDM (which whatever does hit Top 40 will be minimalistic), the peak of Anti-Pop and Indie Rock and probably the return of organic instruments (for the most part). We are already seeing hints of this in late 2015. Pair 4 will be the peak of the 2010's, and Pair 5 will be the decline of it. It's too soon to say what Pair 5 will be like, so let's not go into that.

I am really looking forward to the future of music, and I think everyone else should too. For anyone who chooses to respond to this presentation post, please don't respond in question form because I am conserving my post because I have something special planned for my 1000th post which will happen on January 2016 which will mark a year from my registration.  ;)

Throughout the past two weeks, I have been spending all of my free time (as in not doing homework or school or chores) studying the popular culture of the 2010's (especially the music), and I have realized that many people on the internet such as this website are quite out of touch with how things have changed in the past, myself included. First of all, I realized that we are completely exaggerating all of the bad musical trends or the ones that most dislike (such as teen pop and EDM). We have been acting as if they dominate everything and that there is nothing diverse out today, but now I've realized that we're wrong. Music is also way more mature than we say it is, and nobody remembers the good, only the bad. That's just what we focus most on - what we don't like.

If you decide to devote all of your free time for the next several weeks listening to every 2010's hit single, you'll notice that instead of large trends with no change music has been going in "pairs" since the decade started. Dual times where music sounds the same for two years and then things change up a little. 2010 and 2011 is the first one. This is really the only period where "electropop" was a major trend. That's what it is - electronic pop music. If you choose to pay attention, it's really quite unoriginal, but I guess the idea was to do something retro. The '10/'11 period also had the best hip-hop of the decade, and that's not saying much at all (the rap genre has since declined in quality and even in popularity since then, and the genre had already been doing that for several years by decade's start). This is also where Bro-Country got it's start, which a lot of people hate (I dislike most of it myself). There was a little bit of R&B, a little bit of Soul, but really this was just a tiny foretaste of what was to emerge later. This period came to an end in September 2011, when Rihanna's "We Found Love" was released and transformed the musical landscape into something more dance-oriented, maximalist, and intense. "We Found Love" was basically the EDM community's "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Quality-wise, I think both 2010 and 2011 are around the 60% range in terms of how much I like from those years. It definitely could be better, and it sure isn't innovative or groundbreaking, but it's not bad by any means.

2012 and 2013 is the next one. As a matter of fact, people really exaggerate how similar 2012 is to the very early '10s and how similar 2013 was to today. If anything, this is the most similar pair of the entire decade. The musical equivalent of identical twins, these two years are completely the same and even had a spillage of their influence into the two immediate years what surround it. This era was defined by overproduction and harsh volumes. There was more of a focus on novelty on these years. There was also more diversity and more genres emerged during this period. The genres that were big during this pair were: EDM, Electropop, Country, R&B, Rap, Indie Rock, and Teen Pop. Getting into specifics, the EDM was mostly just overproduced maximalistic House music, as well as Rap being largely electronic. This was the peak of Bro-Country, but real country (or at least something close to it) was occasionally coming in, and this is when R&B started to re-emerge, but is was a bit "psychedelic electronic" if you get what I mean. The folk music craze was also at it's peak here. Ballads also made a comeback this year, and soul music was also being revived which continues to this day. From experience, 2012 was the worst year for music of all time. There was almost nothing I liked on the radio until the very end, and I only like some more things in hindsight. I like only about 30-40% of what was cool that year. 2013 at the time I also hated, but looking back this was definitely an upgraded version of 2012. Same trends, but better music. Again, this wasn't a groundbreaking or astounding year, but it had some standout hits. I like about 60-70% of what was cool that year. The biggest problem that really hinders this year is how overproduced the music was (which I don't like).

Next is the current pair, 2014 and 2015. I used to think just last month that we were still in the early 2010s, but after a lot of evaluation I realized that only the first quarter of 2014 felt early 2010's culturally speaking. Things started changing around April, both in the charts and in terms of feel of the atmosphere. People act like nothing has changed, but really looking deep you'll see that quite a bit has changed. Indie rock has really gone through the roof, as well as it's sibling "Anti-Pop" (which started emerging in the previous period). We have seen the decline in prominence in new releases of EDM and Rap, as well as Bro-Country. This is where PBR&B and Neo-Soul have really made their big break, and unfortunately this is the peak of Teen pop (although it is now declining a little as of Q4 '15). When you remove the teen pop and rap, this era has really been quite original and inventive. Coldplay's criminally underrated "Ghost Stories" is wonderful (much better than Mylo Xyloto), Milky Chance's Sadnecessary, Lana Del Rey's Ultraviolence, Elle King's Love Stuff, and KONGOS's Lunatic. This era is much more minimalistic and stripped-down compared to the '12/'13 era. 2014 songs such as "Waves", "Rather Be", "Magic", "West Coast", "Come With Me Now", "Milky Chance", "i", and "Yellow Flicker Beat" are all wonderfully produced and innovative. 2015 has also had some great hits, and the slight breakout of "Trap EDM" (not trap rap!!). This is actually the good stuff, and songs such as "You Know You Like It" and "Lean On" are actually quite musically clever and inventive compared to the previous years. Music has gotten more soulful in 2015, with songs such as "How Deep Is Your Love", "Ex's and Oh's", "Here", "Ghost", "Elastic Heart", "Budapest", "Renegades", and "Girl Crush" having a much more passionate and sincere sound. Both 2014 and 2015 have been the same quality-quantity ratio-wise as 2013 (about 60-70%), however, these two years have popularized the most exciting, fresh, and innovative hits of the decade so far. Although every year has it's highlights, I feel this pair has had the most so far. It's so underrated, but the gems are definitely there.

Although there was an extremely rough spot in the early '10s (Pair 2), the 2010's had created some gems of their own. Pair 1 was a good start, Pair 2 was poor and featured the worst year for music of all time, but Pair 3 has been an improvement and has given us a dose of originality that unfortunately many people do not see here. Take note I am not praising Pair 3 to high heaven. '14/'15 are not the mid '90s or the late '60s in which both the underground and the mainstream music scenes were in perfect condition with lots of originality, but it has shown us that originality and innovation is not dead and that it is still possible.

Honestly, I'm optimistic Pair 4 and Pair 5 are gonna be even better. My prediction is that Pair 4 (the '16/'17 era) is gonna see the absence of Teen Pop (for the most part), the death of Rap and Bro-Country, the takeover of PBR&B and a newer and different generation of Neo-Soul, the further decline of EDM (which whatever does hit Top 40 will be minimalistic), the peak of Anti-Pop and Indie Rock and probably the return of organic instruments (for the most part). We are already seeing hints of this in late 2015. Pair 4 will be the peak of the 2010's, and Pair 5 will be the decline of it. It's too soon to say what Pair 5 will be like, so let's not go into that.

I am really looking forward to the future of music, and I think everyone else should too. For anyone who chooses to respond to this presentation post, please don't respond in question form because I am conserving my post because I have something special planned for my 1000th post which will happen on January 2016 which will mark a year from my registration.  ;)


Alot of people on this board are unaware of the changes in music,  The real 2010s  (2013-2016) music wise began in late 2013, songs like
Waves Remix, Prayer in the C, Budapest, is some of that minimalist dance, while stuff like Lana Del Rey and Sam Smith is more on the  indie soul side of things. As soon as Ariana Grande came out  (around late 2013) is when pop shifted from GEN Y to GEN  Z. It all started in late 2013. The whole EDM with country music in it fad will go away  (as people do not really like it as much)  I will agree with you in 2011 when we FOUND LOVE came out it started this domino EDM influenced pop movement.  2012 was a bland year, but it was a break out year that artists that were one hit wonders like GOTEYE had success paving the way for CHVRCHS and HAIM etc.  Any influenced of 2008-2011  (Gaga, KAty,Kesha) are now a footnote in the mid 2010s.  No one cares about them really anymore. Rap will go a more yeezus experimental route while trap phases out.

Alot of people on this board are unaware of the changes in music,  The real 2010s  (2013-2016) music wise began in late 2013, songs like
Waves Remix, Prayer in the C, Budapest, is some of that minimalist dance, while stuff like Lana Del Rey and Sam Smith is more on the  indie soul side of things. As soon as Ariana Grande came out  (around late 2013) is when pop shifted from GEN Y to GEN  Z. It all started in late 2013. The whole EDM with country music in it fad will go away  (as people do not really like it as much)  I will agree with you in 2011 when we FOUND LOVE came out it started this domino EDM influenced pop movement.  2012 was a bland year, but it was a break out year that artists that were one hit wonders like GOTEYE had success paving the way for CHVRCHS and HAIM etc.  Any influenced of 2008-2011  (Gaga, KAty,Kesha) are now a footnote in the mid 2010s.  No one cares about them really anymore. Rap will go a more yeezus experimental route while trap phases out.


I agree with you 100%

Alot of people on this board are unaware of the changes in music,  The real 2010s  (2013-2016) music wise began in late 2013, songs like
Waves Remix, Prayer in the C, Budapest, is some of that minimalist dance, while stuff like Lana Del Rey and Sam Smith is more on the  indie soul side of things. As soon as Ariana Grande came out  (around late 2013) is when pop shifted from GEN Y to GEN  Z. It all started in late 2013. The whole EDM with country music in it fad will go away  (as people do not really like it as much)  I will agree with you in 2011 when we FOUND LOVE came out it started this domino EDM influenced pop movement.  2012 was a bland year, but it was a break out year that artists that were one hit wonders like GOTEYE had success paving the way for CHVRCHS and HAIM etc.  Any influenced of 2008-2011  (Gaga, KAty,Kesha) are now a footnote in the mid 2010s.  No one cares about them really anymore. Rap will go a more yeezus experimental route while trap phases out.


I think the reason for this is Top 40 stations are everywhere while a lot of places don't have stations playing alternative music.  I live in a small town and there is no alternative station here.  If I want to hear something that isn't playing on Top 40, I have to seek it out.  Top 40 today is very Generation Z oriented and has sounded pretty much the same since mid-2012 when "Call Me Maybe" came out.  Alternative is still Gen Y oriented and that is where you will hear most of the better music.

I think the reason for this is Top 40 stations are everywhere while a lot of places don't have stations playing alternative music.  I live in a small town and there is no alternative station here.  If I want to hear something that isn't playing on Top 40, I have to seek it out. Top 40 today is very Generation Z oriented and has sounded pretty much the same since mid-2012 when "Call Me Maybe" came out.  Alternative is still Gen Y oriented and that is where you will hear most of the better music.


I could vouch for this. I live in the NY Area and most of the top 40 on our pop stations like 92.3 and 100.3 are either somewhat decent or childish. While I listen to them pretty often, I typically like to listen to alternative or hip hop as I notice that they have more variety. For instance, they'll play some recent alternative or hip hop songs (which some are actually pretty good) along with some throwbacks from the 80's, 90's, & early 00's. You also have some classic rock which typically play jams from the 60's & 70's stations and soft rock stations which typically play jams from the 80's & early 90's, my personal favorite being 106.7

I think the reason for this is Top 40 stations are everywhere while a lot of places don't have stations playing alternative music.  I live in a small town and there is no alternative station here.  If I want to hear something that isn't playing on Top 40, I have to seek it out.  Top 40 today is very Generation Z oriented and has sounded pretty much the same since mid-2012 when "Call Me Maybe" came out.  Alternative is still Gen Y oriented and that is where you will hear most of the better music.
What I find unique about "Call Me Maybe" is Carly Rae when the song was popular she was 25 years old at the time and she is known as a teen-pop artist now.

Because disco was pretty much dead!  :-X  :-X
No I think Disco died in the 1979-1980 school year not the 1980-1981 school year.

No I think Disco died in the 1979-1980 school year not the 1980-1981 school year.


towards the end of the summer of 1979 disco was pretty much dead.

No I think Disco died in the 1979-1980 school year not the 1980-1981 school year.


LOL, I meant that BY 1981 disco was dead. I DIDN'T MEAN that it died IN 1981.  :D  :D

What I find unique about "Call Me Maybe" is Carly Rae when the song was popular she was 25 years old at the time and she is known as a teen-pop artist now.


Yeah, she was much older than artists who usually do that kind of music.  A lot of people were surprised by how old she was when the song came out.

I could vouch for this. I live in the NY Area and most of the top 40 on our pop stations like 92.3 and 100.3 are either somewhat decent or childish. While I listen to them pretty often, I typically like to listen to alternative or hip hop as I notice that they have more variety. For instance, they'll play some recent alternative or hip hop songs (which some are actually pretty good) along with some throwbacks from the 80's, 90's, & early 00's. You also have some classic rock which typically play jams from the 60's & 70's stations and soft rock stations which typically play jams from the 80's & early 90's, my personal favorite being 106.7


Yeah, Top 40 is pretty much the same everywhere.

I live in a small town so for current music, I usually only have Top 40 radio to listen to and they usually don't get new music until six months to up to two years after the rest of the country has heard it.  Everything else I have to discover online.  No hip-hop or alternative rock station here, though sometimes when the weather is right, I can get the hip-hop station from the city that's about an hour and a half away.

Yeah, Top 40 is pretty much the same everywhere.

I live in a small town so for current music, I usually only have Top 40 radio to listen to and they usually don't get new music until six months to up to two years after the rest of the country has heard it.  Everything else I have to discover online.  No hip-hop or alternative rock station here, though sometimes when the weather is right, I can get the hip-hop station from the city that's about an hour and a half away.


Thats sucks man :(

But at least we live in the era of the internet, so thats good. Also I agree hip hop, r&b and alternative are the only genres right now that still appeal to Y albeit late Y. Where I live, many of those songs aren't played on the top 40

Thats sucks man :(

But at least we live in the era of the internet, so thats good. Also I agree hip hop, r&b and alternative are the only genres right now that still appeal to Y albeit late Y. Where I live, many of those songs aren't played on the top 40


and hip-hop/R&B has been my favorite genre of music since the late 2000's! So that's great for me! ;)

"Hip-hop ain't top: new study reveals reading levels behind music lyrics"

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/19/new-study-reveals-lyric-intelligence-getting-lower

"Hip-hop ain't top: new study reveals reading levels behind music lyrics"

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/19/new-study-reveals-lyric-intelligence-getting-lower


So what is this saying?  ???

Last paragraph.

I could vouch for this. I live in the NY Area and most of the top 40 on our pop stations like 92.3 and 100.3 are either somewhat decent or childish. While I listen to them pretty often, I typically like to listen to alternative or hip hop as I notice that they have more variety. For instance, they'll play some recent alternative or hip hop songs (which some are actually pretty good) along with some throwbacks from the 80's, 90's, & early 00's. You also have some classic rock which typically play jams from the 60's & 70's stations and soft rock stations which typically play jams from the 80's & early 90's, my personal favorite being 106.7
92.3 isn't really doing that well. There are 12th in the November Abitrom Ratings getting beat by Power 105, Hot 97, Z100 and KTU.  Of course Z100 always does well and they rank #5 in the latest Abitrom Ratings in the NJ/NYC market.

I always think of 106.7 as sleepy elevator music although they have moved out of that in the past 8 years or so. I do live in NJ by the way.

92.3 isn't really doing that well. There are 12th in the November Abitrom Ratings getting beat by Power 105, Hot 97, Z100 and KTU.  Of course Z100 always does well and they rank #5 in the latest Abitrom Ratings in the NJ/NYC market.

I always think of 106.7 as sleepy elevator music although they have moved out of that in the past 8 years or so. I do live in NJ by the way.


Yeah I just used 92.3 as an example since thats the pop station I typically listen to. Also, you live in NJ?  Cool! I've been here for about 10 years now living in Central Jersey, I used to live in Brooklyn NY.

To recap, it's generally the same across several decades, i.e., around three minutes of music, a few chords, regular beat, etc.

I think R&B/slow jams are really starting to make a comeback in 2016 after being virtually absent since 2011.

What I find unique about "Call Me Maybe" is Carly Rae when the song was popular she was 25 years old at the time and she is known as a teen-pop artist now.
It's kind of like how Sue Thompson, or the woman who sang Sad Movies (Make Me Cry), sounded like she was in her late teens or early twenties despite being in her 30's at the time.

Yeah I just used 92.3 as an example since thats the pop station I typically listen to. Also, you live in NJ?  Cool! I've been here for about 10 years now living in Central Jersey, I used to live in Brooklyn NY.


92.3 isn't really that good nowadays. But since you lived in NJ, do you ever heard of 106.7 Light FM?

92.3 isn't really that good nowadays. But since you lived in NJ, do you ever heard of 106.7 Light FM?


I've heard of 106.7 Lite-FM.

92.3 isn't really that good nowadays. But since you lived in NJ, do you ever heard of 106.7 Light FM?
Oh yeah I know about Lite-FM.

I think R&B/slow jams are really starting to make a comeback in 2016 after being virtually absent since 2011.
I kinda notice modern music getting away from EDM when I was listening to a Top 40 station a couple months ago. Today's music has a 60's production to it just from a listening to a few songs except for "Hotline Bling" which sounds 2007 to me.

It's kind of like how Sue Thompson, or the woman who sang Sad Movies (Make Me Cry), sounded like she was in her late teens or early twenties despite being in her 30's at the time.


Bloody hell! Someone who remembers Sue Thompson!  :o

Who is now in her 90s and probably doesn't sound like she would be in her late teens anymore!
(Unless she hangs on for another 20+ years!)

Bloody hell! Someone who remembers Sue Thompson!  :o

Who is now in her 90s and probably doesn't sound like she would be in her late teens anymore!
(Unless she hangs on for another 20+ years!)
I know her better from her song "Norman".

Once I finally reach puberty, that's when music will become mature again!

I kinda notice modern music getting away from EDM when I was listening to a Top 40 station a couple months ago. Today's music has a 60's production to it just from a listening to a few songs except for "Hotline Bling" which sounds 2007 to me.


Yeah Hotline Bling would have fit in well with 2007-style of ringtone rap.  It is overplayed as crap as well, just like hip-hop from that era was.  I'll be glad when the song is off the radio because I am kind of tired of hearing it.

R&B and alternative rock seem to be the direction things are going.  EDM-infused teen pop seems to be on its way out.  Ariana Grande's last song didn't have near the staying power as her earlier stuff.  Right now, Bieber, Adele, and Taylor Swift are probably the biggest names in pop.  Auto-tune is starting to make a comeback in hip-hop.

Yeah Hotline Bling would have fit in well with 2007-style of ringtone rap.  It is overplayed as crap as well, just like hip-hop from that era was.  I'll be glad when the song is off the radio because I am kind of tired of hearing it.


You mean this?  ;D

GDIeNrcGxvQ


R&B and alternative rock seem to be the direction things are going.  EDM-infused teen pop seems to be on its way out.  Ariana Grande's last song didn't have near the staying power as her earlier stuff.  Right now, Bieber, Adele, and Taylor Swift are probably the biggest names in pop.  Auto-tune is starting to make a comeback in hip-hop.


I really hope this is the case too, cause I'd be so excited!

Yeah Hotline Bling would have fit in well with 2007-style of ringtone rap.  It is overplayed as crap as well, just like hip-hop from that era was.  I'll be glad when the song is off the radio because I am kind of tired of hearing it.

R&B and alternative rock seem to be the direction things are going.  EDM-infused teen pop seems to be on its way out.  Ariana Grande's last song didn't have near the staying power as her earlier stuff.  Right now, Bieber, Adele, and Taylor Swift are probably the biggest names in pop.  Auto-tune is starting to make a comeback in hip-hop.


I definitely noticed the R&B, but alternative rock? I haven't noticed any rock bands in the mainstream.

Music is way more "mature" in the mid 2010's than it was in the early 2010s, and especially the aughts!  8-P

Over the last several months, I have been listening to all types of music, and I will say that it has become more mature over the years. I honestly haven't heard much teen pop even from Ariana Grande of any of other female pop artists who are associated with it.