There is WAY TOO MUCH HIP-HOP in Top 40

OP's Father, circa 1965:

I'm sorry. young people used to have such good music, but they have effectively ruined Top 40 music. There are still some good young artists out there, such as Johnny Mathis. But most of the artists are nothing more than talentless, illiterate white trash.

I looked at the latest Billboard Hot 100 chart, and The Beatles have 9 songs in the Top 10. Why? Are they really that popular? Who the hell is buying their albums? This is chart manipulation, this can't be what American people really prefer.

This millennial doesn’t even try to listen to the radio.

The market targets indiscriminate spenders. Luxury brands cater to the same market, now. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Why waste time and money on craftsmanship when you can sell a glittered turd for the same price?

I'm not a music snob by any means but current top 40 is horrendous. I can't even listen to adult contemporary stations anymore.

[quote]Black people used to have such good music, but they have effectively ruined Top 40 music.

What's the deal with all the trolls today? There were far fewer trolls here on 9/11, were they busy trolling bigger forums that day or something?

Thanks to streaming, the top 40 is calculated differently. A top 10 hit means nothing anymore.

Black artists dominated the 90s and early 2000s and it was fine. The music today just sucks regardless.

F&F the racist, ignorant trash OP who claims to know every black person's music.

[quote] Thanks to streaming, the top 40 is calculated differently. A top 10 hit means nothing anymore.

It's really strange. Imagine if, in years past, they could have calculated the Hot 100 based on how many times somebody played a song after they bought it and brought it home. That's basically what's happening now.

And you don't even have to be actually listening to it. It just has to be streaming on your device to be counted. You could be in the other room, in the bathroom taking a dump, sleeping, whatever. It allows for massive manipulation, as armies of diehard fans will simply set their devices to stream the new album all day and night, in order to manipulate the numbers, and force songs hardly anybody has heard into the top 10.

The entire concept of musical popularity charts is, if not entirely dead, then radically different than what it once was.

Although Drake just BURIED Kanye, and I approve.

R1, the Beatles NEVER had 9 songs in the Top 10.

R5 Bigger fish to fry! LOL

The problem is, in the '90s, hip-hop was good. And there was great diversity in artistry in the former "black" charts. A random look at those charts would give you crossover superstars like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Prince; R&B vocal groups like Boyz II Men, En Vogue and TLC; soul crooners like Luther Vandross, Anita Baker and Freddy Jackson; R&B balladeers like Babyface, Brian McKnight and Keith Sweat; R&B dancer-entertainers like Janet Jackson, Bobby Brown and Karyn White; gangsta rap like Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G. and Snoop Doggy Dogg; 'conscious hip-hop like Fugees, De La Soul and Queen Latifah; sexy provocateurs like Salt N' Pepa, and even R&B-influenced alternative rock like In Living Color ... and so much more.

Op is right. Black music is shit nowadays and it's not racist to say so. Drake, DaBaby, Cardi B, Meghan thee Stallion ... yuck!

Black musicians between 60s-90’s were amazing, talent, innovation and class. Sometime in the early 2000s it all went to shit .

OP probably listens to formulaic country songs about pickup trucks. Fuck off, racist trailer trash

Yes because Billie Ellish and Olivia Rodrigo is GOOD pop music. 🙄

R14 Sorry, enjoy listening to Cardi B and Lil Naz X or whatever his name is because that's what intelligent people allegedly listen to.

The males sing flat, and they have a strained voice that sounds like smoke damage. So they vocorder their ugly voices to make them palatable.

R9: yeah it’s total bullshit. They need to at least figure out a way to credit a song with more ‘units’ or whatever if someone actively picks it to listen to, and give fewer to songs that just come on because someone has a ‘Current Top 40’ or ‘Latest Shite Rap’ playlist going.

The singles charts are bollocks everywhere now, including in the UK, but at least there they changed the rules so only the top 3 most streamed songs could make the singles chart.

R12 Great post, I'm a fan of virtually all the artists you've listed and I find today's music unlistenable.

I’d rather listen to hip-hop or whatever over Billie Eyelash and that fucking Applebee’s song.

It's a trend/meme that will end sooner or later. A black manager in a music store told me that black males sing way too much about sex and even he is tired of it. A lot of it is not terribly intelligent.

Agree R12 (and R19 that it’s a great post). There was so much talent back then and different sounding successful music by black artists. Now the only stuff that does remotely well on the charts is unlistenable rap shit.

Can we all agree that Connie Francis and Barbra Streisand are better than Drake?

Hip-hop has worked it's way into everything. There's no melody anymore. It's all beat. And well-crafted lyrics are gone too. It's all garbage.

[quote]and that fucking Applebee’s song.

Country music and the performers once had class.

[quote]Connie Francis

Now you're really lowering the bar.

People, young people love and prefer the cool bravado and thumping beats of hip hop. It’s the pulse of youth culture. Everything else seems corny, lame.

And to be fair, it’s not just black music that’s shit now and does well, most music that does well on the charts is total shit. I appreciate part of that is being in my late 30s now but god I really am glad to have been born in the early 80s and to have grown up when decent music did well. There is still good new music around but it usually barely gets a look in on the charts.

Don't forget that a lot of the audience for the music OP hates is white teens too. Especially the more "mainstream" stuff like Drake.

There really isn't much of a rock scene nowadays and hasn't been for a while.

One theory is that streaming means it's really hard to make it as a musician--you're either Drake or you're not and that's why you rarely encounter one-hit wonders anymore.

The Charts (at least here in Britain) have been totally irrelevant since the late 90s. The death of actual singles, and the way labels manipulated the charts (discount price in first week of release just to score a high chart entry) were the beginning of the end. Streaming has just killed it completely. Who's in the chart now? I have no idea. Who's had a number 1 in the last 10 years? I have no idea.

I don't think it's *just* my age, I used to keep up with music well into my 40s but now I don't have the time or inclination. I don't think music means as much to younger people as it did to me at their age. (Young) people used to define themselves by their taste in music - punks, rastas, mods, new romantics, hippies...who the hell does that now?

Today's music is dog shit, and even young people admit it.

Since 2010 or so the entire back catalog of recorded music has been available virtually for free, for the very first time in history. Who on earth has time to listen to new music?

Excellent point R31

I can't remember the last time there was a song that everybody knew.

You stupid queens calling the OP a racist are the ones who are really racist. Black people are equal to white people and can stand some criticism regarding black musicians. They aren't people with special needs.

[quote]Who the hell is buying his albums

Most of the straight white boys DL obsesses over.

[quote]The problem is, in the '90s, hip-hop was good. And there was great diversity in artistry in the former "black" charts. A random look at those charts would give you crossover superstars like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Prince; R&B vocal groups like Boyz II Men, En Vogue and TLC; soul crooners like Luther Vandross, Anita Baker and Freddy Jackson; R&B balladeers like Babyface, Brian McKnight and Keith Sweat; R&B dancer-entertainers like Janet Jackson, Bobby Brown and Karyn White; gangsta rap like Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G. and Snoop Doggy Dogg; 'conscious hip-hop like Fugees, De La Soul and Queen Latifah; sexy provocateurs like Salt N' Pepa, and even R&B-influenced alternative rock like In Living Color ... and so much more.

This is very true, and beyond that, music was extremely diverse in the 90s across everyone.

I will say though, there is still great music out there, but you need to look elsewhere for it, go searching.

[quote]I don't think music means as much to younger people as it did to me at their age.

I get this feeling too, like it's more background music for showing off on Tik Tok, but I could be wrong. I turned 40 this year, I'm hardly keeping my finger on the pulse of how young people think these days.

It is interesting though, if you read comments on YouTube under older songs there are a lot of younger people decrying how bad their generaton's music is and wishing they had been around for stuff played in the70s, 80s and 90s, make of that what you will.

I lived through the 80s and 90s. Current popular music always seems bad. It’s only good in retrospect after the dreadful stuff is weeded out and the better music survives. That said, 1920s-50s pop >>>> anything afterwards

Most of the teenagers I know say music was at better in the 80's and 90's.

r36, streaming as influenced pop music the most, it needs a hook that "reads" and then that is it, songs are MUCH shorter because of this

R37, My brother and I are doing a whole 90s nostalgia listening thing now, and look, you aren't wrong that there was a lot of crappy stuff in the 90s too. A lot of stupid novelty songs for a start and the German techno fad wears it's welcome out very quickly.

But going back into the alternative scene (and when I was a kid, alternative music was often played on pop radio too) there is so much good stuff, and I'm still discovering great songs that I missed first time around. It's been a lot of fun!

Pssssst - people stopped playing instruments!

Its not just that its really bad but also that its all so similar as to be pretty much indistinguishable. A lot of that has to do with technology used to produce, its so easy to just copy another song's sound that is popular that everything sounds almost exactly the same. "Artists" aren't artists anymore, the hits are based more on the producer, and big artists all use the same few producers.

[quote]Current popular music always seems bad.

False.

The teens I work with - 17 and up - a lot of them listen to pop from early 2000s, or at least have a lot of songs from that era on their playlists.

What do you do R44?

Tell that to Ari Melber, PLEASE.

Most K-POP music gets its inspiration from 90s era and they sing and dance like Michael Jackson. We don’t have a MJ in the current Western music scene. Which is why BTS is popular and why K-POP music videos on YouTube are popular.

My husband's 15 year old niece is a typical rich suburban white girl and she and her friends seem to listen to a range--some Drake and Kanye, some better current hip hop like Kid Cudi, some Lizzo/Dua LIpa and other pop songs, some new rock/folk-like music like Rex Orange County (at link) and lots of older stuff from 60s through 00s. Literally everything from Beatles and Stones to Ramones to Duran Duran to The Lemonheads and Radiohead.

It's because of what R31 points out--they grew up with Spotify and having the entire catalog of music at their disposal--and because their parents are in their 40s and they heard it from them.

The thing is the "rock era" ended about 1990, that is when R&B took over the pop charts in full.

Black/R&B has always been over represented in pop music. In 1972 14% of the charts were black artists. That is the LOWEST percentage ever. Blacks made up about 14% of the population at the time.

Mainstream music has been going more R&B since. In I think it was 2004, only black acts had #1 hits.

But good thing is there are now more artists and niches than ever. So the music you like is still out there but it's just not top 40 material and you have to look for it. Kind of like being a heavy metal fan, you can always find the music, but it wasn't represented in top 40 form.

The comments on YouTube about a new Drake song:

Drake puts out the same song 500 times and people still listen to it.

Sounds like every song he’s made, it’s not bad, it’s just there.

There are a few songs I like of his like Hotline Bling and Hold on, we’re going home

Older people complaining about the music younger people listen to it a time tested tradition but the complaining never has an affect on the direction of music.

The good news OP is that you have more options for listening to the music you like more than ever before.

A lot of younger kids are introduced to older music because of the movies. Like the new Matrix trailer which was trending no. 1 on YouTube and Twitter last week, #whiterabbit. The entire trailer plays Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit, a song that’s over 54 years old. A lot of younger people saying music was better in the old days.

Blackness is considered cool, hip, sexy. There is a reason Drake identifies as black and urban Although being a half white Canadian. Bieber associated with black dudes and urban culture as a teen although he was a teen pop idol. Youth culture today is heavily urban. Young people love the bravado, machismo, spontaneity, urbanity, hipness, driving beats, and informality of black culture. Social media only enhances this fact

Wholecuntedly agreed, OP. I remember years ago being at the gym and theys playing hip hop top 40. Worst fucking music in history. Literally talking about nothing. No singing or talent or craft involved. 100% autotuned of course. Any song with autotune is not worth listening to and that is most music these days. Same annoying fucking beat in every song.

When Drake and Kanye are not dominating Billboard Hot 100, it’s a new Black hip-hop artist at no. 1 that no one has ever heard of but is very popular elsewhere like SoundCloud or who knows where. Every month is a new face.

[QUOTE] Bigger fish to fry! LOL

with hot sauce!

[quote] Young people love the bravado, machismo, spontaneity, urbanity, hipness, driving beats, and informality of black culture

Which is in direct opposition to woke culture which is forced and fake.

[quote] Black/R&B has always been over represented in pop music. In 1972 14% of the charts were black artists. That is the LOWEST percentage ever. Blacks made up about 14% of the population at the time.

It really is amazing to go back and listen to the old countdown shows. There was a subtle shift in 87 but then in 90 the floodgates opened.

The availability and plethora of listening choices puts the onus on the listener to keep up. It’s quite exhausting sometimes, and easy to feel like you’re getting left behind.

Like I’m still in my 20s (not for long, but technically), and I have to make sure I regularly touch base with my Zoomer sister so I can at least keep a pinky nail on the pulse. There’s always something cool and fresh to discover, which makes it less of a daunting tedious prospect, but there’s still a lot of shit for every gold bar you find.

One recent sea-change I appreciate is the ubiquity and normalisation of female voices in rap & hiphop, and the range of them. They don’t all sound like Latifah & Brat & Lil Kim, now.

But it is true, though, that lots of the hip hopers like them some cock?

[quote] Since 2010 or so the entire back catalog of recorded music has been available virtually for free, for the very first time in history. Who on earth has time to listen to new music?

I think people are naturally curious or want to feel like they are keeping up with the times. However, at the end of the day, you want to seek out things that make you feel good.

^And as many people have already noted, the music being played on the radio is not really a reflection of peoples' tastes like they were in the past.

I’m not even sure who or what the charts or radio playlists are still for. To reassure people over the age of 45 that the new world of today isn’t a totally scary hostile place?

[quote]To reassure people over the age of 45

Agist pig.

Maybe we all just got old(er)? I remember listening to music back in the 90s and my parents and grandparents used to complain about the “noise” and told me that music just used to be better when they were young.

I stopped listening to the Top 100, 40, or 10 a long time ago. Sometimes there’s a new song I like, but most of the time I stick to my old music. There’s a fan base out there for the music you’re hearing nowadays and that you dislike, it’s just not old you. Move over, let the kids do their thing as we did, listen to what you like, and stop complaining.

[quote] Thanks to streaming, the top 40 is calculated differently. A top 10 hit means nothing anymore.

This. There was a time when pretty much everyone knew all the top ten hits.

I dunno. Media is si segmented today, and we have so many choices, it’s difficult to have a common perception of culture in America today. However, make no mistake: for young people, social media is driving and creating a global youth culture. TikTok has massive influence over what is popular in music and Trends now, not only in the United States, but globally.

[quote]The availability and plethora of listening choices puts the onus on the listener to keep up. It’s quite exhausting sometimes, and easy to feel like you’re getting left behind. Like I’m still in my 20s (not for long, but technically), and I have to make sure I regularly touch base with my Zoomer sister so I can at least keep a pinky nail on the pulse. There’s always something cool and fresh to discover, which makes it less of a daunting tedious prospect, but there’s still a lot of shit for every gold bar you find.

Something you have to look forward to: You're still a few years off but it will soon click that you don't need to keep your finger on the pulse of anything, just go with what makes you happy. And the exhaustion will disappear.

R61 Bullshit. Nobody feels like "they have to keep up with the times". Music is entirely generational. I have always loathed hip hop and anything with auto tune. Top 40 hasn't done it for me in 20 years. And Boomers are stuck back in the 70s and 80s. What else'd explain the popularity of dino rock? 70s rock sucked.

I quite liked Doja Cat's "Say So" when I heard it, but it's few and far between for me with the top 40 now.

R69 The 80s were the best. The 90s didn't have as much variety but the music was still good. Don't listen to 70's pop much or at all but do enjoy the rock music from that period. I like 60s music. So I listen to music from every decade from the 60s on and the last 20 years has been a drastic decline in quality.

Seriously Eldergay, Lizzo, Dua Lipa, Selena Gomez-- they're making the same sort of pop hits you all loved back in the 80s.

Same way Ed Sheeran is making the same sort of poppy-rock songs.

OK Millennial turd. Listing off a bunch of nobody "singers" will never change anyone's minds. Most older people are fairly closed in terms of what they like. I know I am.

[quote]I don't think music means as much to younger people as it did to me at their age.

I remember riding my BMX from the record store weekly clutching a bunch of the newest CDs I'd spent my allowance on. And I wasn't even considered a real music nerd. My best friend's room had CDs stacked from floor to ceiling. Watch teen movies from the 80s and 90s. It really was a special time.

[quote]It is interesting though, if you read comments on YouTube under older songs there are a lot of younger people decrying how bad their generaton's music is and wishing they had been around for stuff played in the70s, 80s and 90s, make of that what you will.

This happens a lot and it's really telling. I wonder, do kids nowadays have garage bands and learn to play instruments anymore?

This is probably racist to say but in the 90s, you'd see a black singer and a white singer and automatically assume the black singer was better. Many had years of training behind them, be it growing up in gospel choirs or being part of a band.

But hip hop in the 90s was a really intelligent genre. You got the sense that these were people that read books and philosophized daily amongst themselves. It's hard to imagine a track like this becoming a hit today.

Connie and Barbra were at the top of the heap in their time.

I don't really know any of the new Black "artists". I do love some good old Motown and the oldies like the Ink Spots and Etta James. The new shit is unharmonious and unmelodic but that goes for White artists too. It's just modern pop in general.

The Weeknd is pure, overrated, trash.

[quote]The 80s were the best.

It's a matter of taste, of course, but my problem with a lot of the 80s was the production. It really irks me in a lot of instances. It's too glossy, attempts for everything to sound too perfect. The grunge movement of the 90s was a reaction against this (though now I listen back to grunge, I am amazed by how poppy it really is). But I think you are right that there was still heaps of variety in the 80s. I'm not a fan of the poppier parts of the 80s, but the less well known stuff has some really gems in there - bands like Cocteau Twins and Siouxsie and the Banshees for instance. And actually the VERY early 80s, like 1980/81 are some of my favourite periods for music ever. For a brief moment it seemed like any and every type of music could be popular.

[quote]do kids nowadays have garage bands and learn to play instruments anymore?

One of the theories I've heard as to why music is less interesting these days is that the people making it aren't as well versed in music theory, been to conservatories etc. They can play around with software, but don't really understand music and instruments. I'm not sure if that's true, but it's an interesting point of view.

R66 Absolutely. That's the reason Rhianna--who IMO is simply a singles artist because I haven't made it through an entire record of hers-- literally has 35 number ones. Chart positions are based on downloads (which of course is based on accessibility) Also the reason Drake has 10 singles in the top ten right now.

[quote]Black people used to have such good music, but they have effectively ruined Top 40 music. There are still some good black artists out there, such as The Weeknd. But most of the artists are nothing more than talentless, illiterate ghetto trash.

This is so racist, it's beyond disappointing that Datalounge has turned into such an ugly, stupid place.

[quote]One of the theories I've heard as to why music is less interesting these days is that the people making it aren't as well versed in music theory, been to conservatories etc.

Ah yes, all those music theory courses Elvis took, the conservatories each member of The Supremes matriculated from, the comprehensive classic music education of the Bee Gees.

[quote] One of the theories I've heard as to why music is less interesting these days is that the people making it aren't as well versed in music theory, been to conservatories etc. They can play around with software, but don't really understand music and instruments. I'm not sure if that's true, but it's an interesting point of view.

Could be a factor but a bigger one is there's just not a lot of money to be made anymore.

Niche audiences, streaming. Why waste your time if there's not pot of gold?

In her book written in the mid 00s I remember Tori Amos talking about the new contracts up and coming artists were being put on were these "360 contracts", where the record company could take a chunk of everything, including touring and merchandise, which is traditionally where artists were able to make all their money. So it sounds like you may be right there R85.

I know this thread is pointing a finger at hip-hop and black music in general, but white music has gone to the dogs too. And not just in America, the UK used to have some great bands.

It seems to be in more English speaking countries music is going to shit at the moment. There's some great stuff coming out of Francophone countries, I'm finding.

[quote]My brother and I are doing a whole 90s nostalgia listening thing now,

Same. I'd forgotten this song even existed.

R82: If we’re actually talking ‘literally’, Rihanna has 14 number ones, not 35. Agree on her being a singles artist. People play down Mariah’s 19 #1 singles saying most people barely remember 4-5 of them but at least she shifted the albums to go with it at her 90s peak and in 2005/6.

It's a pity Azealia Banks is so... well, you know. She's the only recent* hip-hop artist whose music I've enjoyed.

*And this is 10 years old "recent".

It sucks getting old doesnt it. I don't know any top 40 songs

This short clip of Anita Baker singing 'No One in the World' is indicative of how the industry has changed. It used to be important that you sound good on radio, looks were secondary. She would never get a look-in in this climate.

[quote]It sucks getting old doesnt it. I don't know any top 40 songs

Start with Drake's album. Every song in the top 10 is from it.

Whenever I am in the care with my dad he listens to the First Wave station on Sirius

It is amazing how many different bands had hits in that era, many of them just one hit wonders.

Doesn't seem to happen anymore

^^First Wave is 70s and 80s New Wave and Punk

Oh, I've never heard the term 'First Wave' before, but it sounds up my alley as that late 70s/early 80s stuff is probably my favourite.

The station is called "First Wave" R97 - Sirius is satellite based subscription radio service aimed mostly at people in cars.

Not sure if it's a universal term or if it's just a clever name they came up with

Thanks, R98!

I agree OP, black music used to be Aretha, Prince, Luther Vandross, Sam Cooke, Whitney, now it's just a bunch of oversexed performers who can't sing, are trashy and superficial.

R48, ended the thread right there. As said earlier, Black culture is “cool” to rich white suburban kids and they drive the downloads for Kanye, 6ix9ine, and 21 Savage.

Still no comment about the mediocrity of white artists that are WIDELY celebrated Jack Harlow, Billie Ellish, etc. Dua Lipa does not count….

This thread is very much racist. You want intellectual HipHop today? Listen to J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino….

R100, have you heard of SZA? Janelle Monae? Doja Cat??? (Not really sure that Doja can sing tho…)

Just say y’all don’t know the good black music made today and just go…it’s not all going to be Top 40 because your white children want to hear Lil Yachty, Young Thug, and Lil Uzi Vert….

Black rap music is so trashy that Trump could recruit 5 of the biggest hip hop rap stars to endorse him last year.

It seems there hasn’t been a “song of the summer” since Blurred Lines in 2013.

[quote] because your white children

I suspect the older gay men on Datalounge do not actually have children, white or otherwise.

Just a hunch.

R82 Your own point of view is interesting! LOL. What a puke sandwich you are. "My points of view are always interesting". Dolt.

[Quote]Still no comment about the mediocrity of white artists that are WIDELY celebrated Jack Harlow, Billie Ellish, etc. Dua Lipa does not count

With the exception of the mumbling whisperer Eilish, I have no clue who the others are and Dua Lipa sounds like a medical condition.

Billie Eilish has real artistic cred.

[quote] I'm sorry. Black people used to have such good music, but they have effectively ruined Top 40 music.

Don't blame black people-- they don't listen to that crap. It's made for and marketed to white people. I live in an urban area that's majority black, and all my neighbors and acquaintances listen to R&B, gospel music, and jazz. Same when I lived in a rural black area.

[quote]Still no comment about the mediocrity of white artists that are WIDELY celebrated

They're trying to blame the black minority for the decline of the majority white culture.

R93: thanks for that Anita Baker post, I’d never heard the song before (I’m sure I’ve given her albums a skim to see if anything stands out but must have missed it)

You can't separate black music from American music. It IS American music.

[quote] It seems there hasn’t been a “song of the summer” since Blurred Lines in 2013

Butter by BTS won MTV's Song of the Summer.

This other song almost won. I like it better because it has more angst and has a better melody.

[quote]Billie Eilish has real artistic cred.

^ She does have her own style and she and her brother have detailed their creative process. Whether you like it or not is up to you. But she is much more of an artist than most of her contemporaries.

Do people still listen to radio? I havent owned a working radio in decades. All my music is streamed although I still have MP3's around for when I have no net

I didnt know the Top 40 was still a thing. TIL

R114 You found a melody in that autotuned fucking garbage? You're scum.

I am surprised a guy named "V8" does not drive a car, R117 (Unless you're named after the tomato juice drink)

That's where most radio listening takes place.

R119 I do drive, both my cars have sound systems that probably have radio but I never use it, stream music from my phone into the car sound system. My main car I have deactivated the auto aerial as it makes an annoying noise at speed when its up, so radio in that probably doesnt work anyway.

I havent listened to radio in my car since the late 90's

Middle-aged people bought Top 40 singles up until the 90s. Back then there was a broader notion of what “popular music” entailed. You had teenyboppers, AOR-Rock, AOR-pop, more edgy types of pop/rock (new wave, metal, grunge), country, dance-pop, the odd re-released nostalgia song, etc. But now everything is geared towards the very young (people younger than18).

I quite like Billie Eilish's Bond theme song.

[quote]But now everything is geared towards the very young (people younger than18).

Which is such an interesting choice because they don't tend to have disposable income.

It seems to me we have reached a point where it's so incredibly obvious that pop music is generated to sell with little concern over it's musicality. However, at the same time perhaps it doesn't matter because we have so much access to basically any music we want. "Pop music" really doesn't mean anything anymore.

I love Drake

R122 watch The Other Two.

I really do think top 40 music is geared toward youth and people with more money than taste. Top 40 is on commercial stations. I can't scroll from one end of the radio channel spectrum to the other without hearing some homogeneous autotune sounds. Even the college radio station here has 60% of its music programs labelled with hip-hop, and the Black population here is 7%.

I listen to the non-English-language multicultural stations on my radio, and online streams for funk, jazz, R&B, blues, reggae, dub, soul, dance, Motown,.

I wonder why some here construct a far-spectrum straw man argument like "you must like country music if you think there's too much hip-hop." What if 75% of one's CD collection is Verve, Blue Note, Okeh, Motown? Do Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis, Lee Morgan, Jimmy Smith = hoedown?

You’re an old soul dude

I was briefly excited at the charts again around 2008 when Gaga, Perry, Rihanna, Britney, and Pink were ruling the charts and Eurodance seemed primed for a comeback, but everything went to shit only a few years later when Drake, Kanye, and Bieber hit the scene.

Not to say that any of those ladies' most recent work was top quality, but none of their latest albums had any staying power even though there were a lot of decent singles that should have made more of a dent. Madonna's last album was decent as well but that totally flopped. Can't really blame them for the awful state of pop music today.

How is it the OP is greyed out with 44 upvotes?

Not hip hop

Black artist

Likely to be in top 40

DLers will hate-hiss on it because successful out gay man

I am huge fan of Khalid

Fuck you r8. Fucking idiot.

I've been reading this thread with much interest; I think decentralization & streaming opportunities have in reality relegated the "Top 40" to another time and the "music" we see there is simply placement via corporations who at the very least are tone deaf, and don't give a shit about what is playing under the guise of "music", as long as the $ roll in . . . I spend my $ on my Digital Concert Hall subscription, & woke this morning to a sublime live performance of "The Firebird"/Stravinsky by the Berlin Philharmonic; right now I'm listening to Randy Crawford's "Street Life"; in another time, the "Top 40" meant something else--just perhaps it will again in the future if real music returns . . .

[quote]I lived through the 80s and 90s. Current popular music always seems bad. It’s only good in retrospect after the dreadful stuff is weeded out and the better music survives.

This is true. Not too long ago I looked at the Billboard Hot 100 year-end singles for the 1990s. You can go to the link and look at each year for yourself. I had forgotten how much absolute SHIT music there was in that decade, and how popular it was. I only remembered the good stuff.

R134 I felt just the opposite. Just looked at the top 100 of 1990 and I can honestly say I enjoy about 80% of it.

r34, saying Black people ruined Top 40 music because you personally don't care for the amount of Hip-Hop in the charts is blatant racism.

R135 Yes. In 1990 I knew 90% of the songs in the top 100. Now I haven't known many top 100 in the last 15 years.

Lil Nas X is like Andy Warhol. The idea of him more interesting than the actual stuff he creates.