Is Pop Music Fun again? In short, no. While there is still the occasional pop anthem release, the overall quality of the genre has drastically and noticeably decreased. For the past couple of decades, labels and digital marketing companies have destroyed the original and unique sound that is essential to pop music. These agencies have also destroyed the expression of musicians in general.

First off, these companies, which back most of today’s popular musicians, dictate the type of music that musicians can put out. Through fear of taking risks, these companies have forced musicians into making stale and repetitive music. These labels focus on formulas and algorithms to make music, instead of emotion and inspiration. Very rarely do completely original and new songs come out. Often, new music feels like an edited version of old pop songs, with slightly different melodies, lyrics or instrumentation which alter the sound enough that it is barely noticeable by most consumers.

Aiden Zhang-Mastrapa ’25 stated, “Modern pop music just feels too repetitive. Once one song gets popular online, it feels like everyone else tries to ride off its coattails.”

The newest concern with pop music now, however, is that companies are starting to control the brands of these artists to a much heavier degree. Artists can express themselves directly to their fans by utilizing social media apps, something previous generations of stars lacked. Although this should lead to fans having new connections and a greater understanding of their favorite musicians, the content published on these social media sites is extremely edited and filtered. This causes musicians to not only sound the same but have similar personalities and brands as well.

Aaron Williams ’26 said, “I feel like celebrities play up fake personalities on social media. Everything on there seems so fake and I feel like I’m watching a character instead of an actual person.”

For example, artists like Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter feel like cheap rebrands of musicians like Miley Cyrus or Selena Gomez, who also made pop music after leaving an acting career with Disney Channel. There is no denying that Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter make music with mass appeal, but it simply lacks the needed originality to disassociate their names from these other musicians. Additionally, it does not help that both Rodrigo and Carpenter have been on the receiving end of copyright infringement lawsuits for their unoriginal songwriting.

Overall, pop music is too industrial to be interesting nowadays. The uniqueness and originality that fans crave have been killed off by these major record labels, scaring off prospective fans and marring the future of the genre.