Music is one of the only ways humans can express every single emotion through lyrics and a beat, and reach unique demographics. It brings people together and gives a sense of belonging in an otherwise extremely divided world. However, music nowadays is not what it used to be.
Music from 2016, an entire decade ago, sounds and is better than most of what’s coming out in 2026. But it is not in an overwhelming way, where everyone can collectively agree that music is ruined forever. It is subtle: if I am shuffling my playlist and suddenly get to a song from the 2016 era, I never skip it. Typically, I actually turn it up.
It’s not nostalgia, either, which would be an easy explanation for why we, as humans, tend to drift towards songs that already hold memories rather than experimenting with new artists and genres. The more I think about nostalgia being the reason that we love 2016 music, the more I don’t buy it because even people who were barely old enough to grasp the idea of a ‘core memory’ in 2016 still gravitate toward that era of music.
In 2016, there was a balance between production and personality in the music industry, between sounding clear and polished and the artist or production company’s genuine personality and goals. Pop songs had distinct, famous voices where you could tell who was singing within seconds upon the first beat.
2026 music and the recent songs often feel interchangeable, which doesn’t mean it’s bad; it just means that everything sounds the same. There are definitely incredible artists doing creative, unique work to produce albums, but if you take a look deeper into what dominates charts and top hits, there is a noticeable sameness. The same beat drops, the same intros and the same lyrics.
This is because in 2016, music was made for the listeners, and for us, while nowadays, music is made for platforms and awards.
In 2016, streaming and social media content creators were growing, but it wasn’t the end-all, be-all yet. Songs were made for the people listening to them and actually made differences in the music industry, whether that was changing the norm for a beat or singing risky lyrics that called people out. One of the most important things about the songs of 2016 was that the entire song was made to be a hit.
Now, songs are often engineered for a fifteen-second interval where people can exploit the song on social media during that small chunk of time, but never actually listen to the song outside of it. Songs are made for the scroll, not for someone actually listening for enjoyment.
Again, this doesn’t automatically make the songs nowadays worse, but it does change the kind of music that gets made. When success in the music industry depends on how quickly a listener is hooked and what the production company can make off of the song, rather than the song’s actual depth and relatability, that is when music starts to go downhill.
That is why music from 2016 stands out to people, because artists and label companies were not afraid to make a unique song that stayed true to itself for the entirety of its run.
Another difference is the storytelling between songs from 2016 and 2026. Music in 2016 was made to be heard and listened to, and therefore told a story throughout lyrics and beats. Every verse was made for a reason, and it didn’t just aim to be catchy. Now, most music feels emotionally depleted because when the songs are made for replay value, depth is sacrificed.
Put it this way– it is like comparing a full conversation in person to a series of quick texts back and forth. Both of these communicate in some way, but one has more depth and reliability.
Trends also form the music industry and how labels produce. A lot of 2026 music pulls from earlier eras, including 2016 itself. The sounds and rhythms are familiar in a way that they have been remixed into today’s music. This also shows that trends loop, and that even though, as a society, we may always feel like we’re moving forward, we tend to recycle trends in a familiar way with some sense of differences.
However, when everything is influenced by something else that came before it, things can start to feel unoriginal and repetitive, like we are constantly chasing after a feeling that we have already experienced instead of creating new experiences and eras.
But, maybe, just maybe, that is why 2016 stands out. It feels like one of the last original eras before everything sped up to only engage with quick likes, comments and views, before trends turned over in days instead of months.
2016 music is indefinitely better than music today, so what does that say about our society and how we are evolving? Music doesn’t just exist for no reason. It typically reflects the society and culture during its time and the pace at which we all live.
We expect faster content, we skip more videos and songs within seconds, we listen to things off-handedly rather than with intent, so it’s no surprise that music has become something that we have on as background noise or for a couple of likes rather than something we can genuinely enjoy.
What bothers me the most is that music today isn’t worse, but it often feels incomplete and rushed because it has been altered to fit into someone’s twelve-second video instead of lasting for years to come.
Now that isn’t to say that there aren’t some incredible artists and songs that have stemmed from recent years and made top hits. Tate McRae, Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift and even the new announcement of an upcoming Olivia Rodrigo album have made giant leaps in the industry, but we need to not only demand better songs and albums, but also need to realize that as listeners, we need to cherish the songs for what they are and not chalk their worth down to a fifteen second clip of it.
