I consider myself a music chart historian — I could not tell you a single detail about the Cold War, but I will recount the day Ariana Grande historically clenched the No1, No2 and the No3 spot on the Hot100 in 2019. Hence, as a self-proclaimed lover of commercial chart music, it is brutal to admit that we have hit a stalemate; The charts are not pumping out hits. Instead, we are being force-fed the same few songs in rotation. It is ironic, really. In the age of social media, where there is so much virality, the changing tides of what is popular is noticed, but never strong enough to make any colossal change to the commercial charts. Why so? I have divided my answer into two segments. 

 

1. INDUSTRY

Where else to start than the heart that pumps out commercial music – the music industry. Since the dawning concept of commercial music, it is the superior voices of agencies and management who dictate the movement of the music charts, such as MTV and the Billboards. However, now more than ever, the effects of the industry have resulted in a torment of stagnancy: songs, generic and ‘radio-friendly’, are represented on the charts due to inner-power in music pulling strings, blocking the chances of home-grown hits succeeding commercially. The reason? The pursuit of monetary gain superseding the work of creatives.

 

Vinyl variants, for instance, is one of many concerning industry tactics. Like other music charts, the Hot100 determine rankings through streams and sales – digital and physical. Thus, higher vinyl sales equate to higher chart positionings. Simple to understand, is it not? It is, which is why managements have so easily found a loophole in the system. By producing multiple vinyl variants of the same music, labels can double, triple, quadruple the total physical sales of a body of work. Taylor Swift is an infamous example. In 2024, there were over 30 vinyl variants of The Tortured Poets Department. In 2025, The Life of a Showgirl already had 28 different variants 2 days after official release. I am by no means attempting to demean Taylor’s success, but this desire to stay on top is a definite factor in the dilution in popular music; everything is Taylor Swift. Every time a competitor challenges the No1 spot, here! A variant with a new cover photo! A variant with a bonus track! To be fair, every other artist has vinyl variants. Every artist recognises that if they want that big kahuna, they will have to be a bit capitalistic. But some are creating excessive amounts of variants. An amount that will continue this drought in commercial music if not stopped. 

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Additionally, when curating a track list for an album or mixtape, there is usually a lot of intention in ensuring the order reflects artists’ desired sonic journey they want listeners to embark on. I say usually – because, as established, capitalist desires tend to override artistic intention. Agencies churn out these albums from artists like it is a factory. The musical depth is subsidiary to them; the primary goal is to have enough songs to occupy a hefty chunk of the charts. I will not be the first to say Morgan Wallen’s I’m The Problem does not need 37 tracks. Moreover, as much as I was grateful for a Justin Bieber comeback, 44 songs across both SWAG and SWAG II were unnecessary. Therefore, this ‘quantity over quality’ mentality of the industry is polluting the charts, where creative works are driven off recognition because of massive music releases. If such schemes, like vinyl variants, are not put an end to, we can kiss goodbye to days of interesting chart statistics.

 

2: SOCIETY

Even though the mellowing of popular music can be traced to industry greed, we must rightfully blame ourselves too – the consumers. We set the trends, trends that labels and music companies witness and add on to said trend. We made the average length of popular songs shorter. We made the ‘pop star with rapper’ formula popular after Fantasy by Mariah Carey and ODB. Ergo, the degradation of popular music cannot solely be condemned solely to the music industry when we, the society, are calling the shots too.

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To begin with, the music scene is performatively feminist — equality is propagated but there are obvious cracks of misogyny, created by music listeners, that cannot be glossed over. A personal gripe of mine is how we assign a singular female artist as the sole carrier of a certain genre. For example, all female electro-musicians are all ‘copy-cats’ of Charli xcx. Every female rapper, too, is just secondary to Nicki Minaj. But you shall not fool me. You mean to tell me C,XOXO by Camilla Cabello is another Brat? Moreover, this divide between our response to music by men versus women is also apparent linguistically. Male artists can be ‘inspired’ by other artists yet female artists are subjected to trying to ‘be’ another artist — a much harsher critique. In short, women cannot win, which is preventing extraordinary music from reaching the masses. Instead, we receive another song by a man with an acoustic guitar backing track. Talk about innovation.

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Now, this entire piece has been centred around the idea that there is a lack of ‘art’ in the charts. I would like to offer another perspective, though: what if there has always been good, honest ‘art’ in these charts, but because of over-commercialisation, they are trashed and disrespected by the masses. Take, Doechii’s Anxiety — a song created in 2019 but released to streaming platforms because netizens begged her to do so. It became an instant hit. Yet, the new-found fame came with equal hate and bashing, terrorising her and accusing her of being an ‘industry plant’. So, using this new analogy, Anxiety was appreciated and beloved when underground, but shredded when it became too popular for its own good. Thus, perhaps it is not that popular songs are not proper ‘art’, but victims of consumer’s bipolarity. 

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There are thus many ways of viewing this predicament: is the industry entirely at fault? How much can society be blamed? There is even a valid argument against the entirety of this opinion piece, where everything in the charts is ‘art’, each song made for the eye of a beholder. I apologise for ending this piece on an anti-climactic note, but this piece is truly the birth of personal opinion; no hard facts. Yet, if there is something that reigns true, however, it is that Morgan Wallen has too many songs for one album. The only truth. Do not blindfold me and tell me it is night, ma’am! I shall not be made a fool!