What Happened to Pop Music in 2014?

Surprise midsummer check-in! I recently took some time to examine the pool of songs from which I’ll be choosing my Top 20 Hits of 2014 list later this year. Usually, by the end of the year, I have trouble whittling the list down to just 20 songs I liked, because there are so many great, or at least solid, hits that year.

Well, this year, through the end of July, we are way, way short on actually enjoyable songs. I’ll keep it a secret for now, but there only 6 or 7 songs that I find even remotely palatable in the pool so far.  Unless we get a landslide of great pop songs in the late summer and fall, I may have to switch up my formula or change the title to “The 20 Tolerable Pop Songs of 2014,” which would really shake the foundations of this blog, since it’s supposed to be a celebration of pop music.

So, the question is, what’s happened to pop music this year that has made it less enjoyable? Am I just getting older and finally aging out of the genre, or has the music changed somehow?

There is no easy answer to this question. Truthfully, it’s probably a little of both. We tend to enjoy pop music because it travels with us wherever we go; therefore, we like a song more if we associate it with something happy. As I’ve gone out and joined the “real world” (or tried to, anyway), I’ve had fewer happy interactions with pop songs where I could have created positive connections with them. Nonetheless, I think this goes beyond my own personal experiences.

For instance, here is a partial list of hit songs released in 2014 that can in no way be considered “music:”

-Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX- “Fancy:” Needs a melody in order to be considered music. Her rapping and accent-throwing talents are mildly impressive, but without a melody, this is just a collection of sounds, not music.

-DJ Snake feat. Lil Jon- “Turn Down for What:” Again, needs a melody, which it is sorely lacking. This is music you need to be on drugs to enjoy.

-Jason DeRulo- “Wiggle:” I don’t even know what this is. Who could ever like this song? Am I old now if I can’t get down with this? Whatever. Zero stars.

And here is a partial list of songs that are at least recognizably “music,” but are so bland, weird or unappealing that I struggle to understand how anyone liked them enough to purchase them or stream them:

- Katy Perry feat. Juicy J- “Dark Horse:” It hurts me to say this, but this barely meets the minimum requirements to be considered “music.” It hurts my ears to listen to, and the lyrics certainly don’t add enough depth to make up for it. A miserable failure from a usually much better artist.

- Beyonce & Jay-Z- “Drunk in Love:” I just fundamentally don’t “get” the whole Beyonce obsession. Probably because I’m not a girl. But anyway, this song is just boring and hard to listen to. If it wasn’t made by Beyonce, nobody would care about it. She’s lucky she made friends with Michelle Obama and became a style icon, because her music career should be over.

Justin Timberlake- “Not a Bad Thing:” Never liked him at all. Never actually liked a single one of his songs. This one is just like all the rest. Boring and entirely forgettable. Call me a hater, I don’t care.

Magic!- “Rude:” This one isn’t boring, but it is downright weird. It sounds like a 6-year-old’s idea of love. Meet a girl, get to know her a little, and just jump straight to marriage. Why would you do that? Is this 1863? Why do people like this song? I guess it’s different from most of the mindless party music we get on the radio these days, but it takes it a little too far in the other direction, doesn’t it? Really weirds me out.

And there are many other examples of songs that are just blehhh this year. The problem seems to be that we are finally moving away from the onslaught of mindless dance-pop that dominated the airwaves from 2011-2013, (some of which was quite good in my opinion) but we haven’t had much to replace it yet. This means there is a power vacuum on the air this year, and what’s rushing in to fill it is all over the map, but most of it isn’t really worthy of being in the Top 40. There’s just a bunch of fake Maroon 5’s, fake folk music, fake hip-hop, and uninspired efforts from fading legends.

Pop music has a lot of catching up to do in the last few months of 2014, but I am still holding out hope that it will. There’s plenty of time left for me to remain a defender and not a hater. Someone needs to step up to the plate. We need a pinch-hitter or two!