The definition of "pop music" has changed considerably over time. How did we go from Taylor Swift, while keeping the same title, "popular music" - or "pop music" for short? Clearly, the instrument-driven sounds of the '70s are nothing like the catchy, digital productions of today. Ultimately, the evolution of popular music was shaped by a gradual reshuffling of lyrical themes, technological innovation, and a monumental restructuring of the music industry, especially in the era of streaming.

Pop music has evolved with the intent of mass appeal. As music becomes harder to monetize, catering to a collective paradigm provides the safest route to commercial success. These considerations have built the stylistic foundation for many of today's best pop songs, while new technological marvels produce and distribute them with ease.

Such factors have birthed new musical landscapes unlike those of bygone times. However, rebellious musical sentiment has remained a timeless constant with the masses despite changing genres. This countercultural theme is possibly the only constant amidst extensive musical changes.

Music Has Always Evolved With Culture (& Technology)

Lyrical Rebellion Switched Genres As Hip Hop Took The Throne Of Rebellion

Societal rebellion has remained a very prominent theme in popular music for decades. Classic rock especially embodied counterculture with its anti-war and anti-establishment stances during the 1960s and 1970s. However, as the genre gained popularity, it became more commercialized. By the 1980s, rock music's messaging began drifting towards fun party themes, romance, and other abstract ideas. Meanwhile, other genres began adopting rebellious personas. Although the rebellious spirit remains in the mainstream spotlight, the classic rock style does not.

Hip-hop and Electronic Dance Music (EDM) have usurped rock music as the loudest musical voices of rebellion. Hip hop was born from a different style of protest. Early hip-hop artists bluntly vocalized their discontent with the economic hardships and systemic injustices of the 1970s and early 1980s. The genre's rebellious themes have continued into the present day. Such narratives increasingly resonated with much of the public just as rock music drifted from its rebellious roots and became somewhat disconnected from public sentiment.

Hip-hop first emerged in the Bronx of New York City during the 1970s as both a movement and a musical style.

Grunge music briefly revived rebellion and popularity in rock music during the early 1990s. However, this was short-lived. The genre quickly became engulfed by the exact commercialization that it opposed, quashing the authenticity of its counterculture. Additionally, grunge leader Kurt Cobain of Nirvana lost his life in 1994, marking a turning point for the genre. Ultimately, hip hop's fervent cries of rebellion gained traction increasingly over time as rock music faded into nostalgia amidst its fundamental changes.

Technological Innovation Has Expanded Sonic Possibilities

Audiophiles will acknowledge that synthesizers in the 1980s had a distinctively different tone than they do today. This is because the underlying musical technology has shifted from analog to digital. Performers of classic analog synthesizers utilized settings on the keyboard's hardware to craft musical tones, but they were sonically limited by the particular circuitry of the individual keyboard.

Now, tones are shaped by computers that permit an endless range of sonic possibilities. Pressing keys on a MIDI keyboard wired to the computer will trigger the digital sounds. The expanded capabilities of computerized synthesizers have yielded original timbres distinct from the analog sounds of the 1980s.

Timbre refers to the distinct tone or sound quality of a particular note or piece of music as determined by the instrument or technology producing it.

Beyond synthesizers, virtually every aspect of song creation, including the instruments themselves, is now available via computer software. Consequently, looping digital beats and other electronic audio textures has become extremely common in music today. More individuals are making and releasing music than ever before, as the technological capabilities are so commercially available.

In contrast, recording classic rock in the 1970s required hefty collections of electronic hardware; each aspect of music mixing needed its own physical gadget, which was as cumbersome as it was limiting. Modern software has expanded production capabilities, allowing for sound quality while reshaping popular styles.

In the current digital era of shortened attention spans, Spotify and social media algorithms push short songs with quick, attention-grabbing hooks. Many artists structure songs this way to maximize shareability, and such song types have captured the mainstream spotlight.

This marks a tremendous paradigm shift from classic rock, which emphasized instrumental performance, collective album narratives, and dynamic compositions. Utilizing modern technology, pop artists can seduce the listener's attention with repetitive, bass and beat-driven songs, straying far from popular music's roots.

Why The Definition Of "Pop" Music Has Changed Ever Since The '70s & '80s

Corporate Interests Heavily Influence Modern Music Creation

During the 20th century, record labels distributed music via highly lucrative CD and vinyl sales. However, the dawn of the internet shook this up significantly. Pirating websites offering free digital music s began emerging faster than the music industry could legally combat them. By 2008, an estimated 95% of all digital music was ed illegally, stalling the industry's income streams (IFPI). Clearly, the music business model needed radical alterations if it wished to remain solvent.

The RIAA, the legal body of the American music industry, retaliated against online music piracy by licensing music to streaming services as an alternative. Spotify, Pandora, and many other streaming services have revolutionized modern music consumption, offering unmatched convenience for listeners at a very low price. However, it is not without its costs.

For instance, Spotify, which emerged in American markets in 2011, did not reach sustained profitability until 2024. Although an effective antidote to music piracy, streaming services' freemium business model struggles to obtain the revenue necessary to compensate the entities responsible for music creation and promotion. Consequently, bringing new music to market has become significantly riskier.

Music Has Become Less Profitable In The Streaming Era

It usually costs roughly $500,000 to $2 million to break a new band or artist into a major market, and record labels collectively spend over $4 billion on this venture each year (IFPI). Now that music is so easily and cheaply available, recouping such investments becomes an uphill battle. Therefore, labels must pick who they promote carefully; if the artist is poorly received, the label will suffer massive losses. The modern pop style has become so prominent today because it follows a proven formula of likability, making it a safer promotional investment for labels.

The International Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is an international legal body of the music industry that releases industry statistics annually.

In short, this proven formula is a 4/4 time signature and an I-V-vi-IV chord progression (pauseplayrepeat). These two elements provide the rhythmic and tonal backbone of a song, respectively. The 4/4 rhythm organizes the song's beats into groups of four, providing a basic rhythmic structure that is easy to dance and sing to. The chord progression, which utilizes chords built from the first, fifth, sixth, and fourth notes of a musical scale, creates a distinctive tonal sequence that is overwhelmingly common in popular music, as demonstrated in the video below.

Songs with the above-mentioned formula will sound subconsciously familiar even on the first listen, because the same tonal sequence has been reused extensively in countless other songs. So, why do so many modern popular songs comply with this simple but catchy formula?

According to the research publication Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation, “Over the past century, the experimental evidence in of the general principle that ‘familiarity breeds liking’ has become nothing short of monumental.” Modern pop music relies on this repeated, familiar song structure to mitigate financial risk by creating a calculated appeal to human psychology.

A Difference In Popular Music Doesn't Necessarily Have To Be A Bad Thing

The Evolution Of Music Is Important To Maintain

Popular music has transformed significantly since the 1970s and 1980s. Synthesizer tones have become more varied, while song compositions have grown more uniform. Yet one element has stayed constant: rebellion remains a core lyrical theme despite migrating to new genres.

Rebellion remains a core lyrical theme despite migrating to new genres.

Although technological advancements now permit limitless sonic possibilities, the economic pressures of the modern music industry have led to a more homogenized sound, as artists and producers try to stay commercially viable. Modern popular music, often characterized by fun, attention-grabbing digital loops, is incomparable to the instrument and narrative-driven pop music of earlier decades.