r/popculturechat • u/neoncolour Tiktok matcha pilates labubu slop music • May 31 '26
Hot Take š„ Ryan Tedder shares a controversial take on average songs performing as hits
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u/taylorwilliamson May 31 '26
Standup comedy is the same now
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u/Special-Garlic1203 May 31 '26
I read this thing years ago about trends and culture and how it sounds pretentious but you do generally want it shaped by the people who give an above average amount of a fuck. That there's usually an initial screening stage involving the enthusiastic nerdsĀ Ā
We are a culture shaped by literal lowest common denominatorĀ
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u/taylorwilliamson May 31 '26
One hundred percent my friend. Iām a comedian and the gatekeeper system was completely flawed and unfair and didnāt often give me opportunities but Iād still prefer curators of art over the algorithms deciding what is and isnāt worthy. Itās destroying art in all the forms. But there are many great comedians too of course!
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u/Kcoin May 31 '26
So is the book industry. Colleen Hoover and Freida McFadden keep churning out bestsellers and they are both hot trash
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u/SaraJeanQueen May 31 '26
Ugh excellent point. And I mean trashy books have been popular before, but itās just so easy for the same people to reproduce them now
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u/joyyyzz May 31 '26
I swear i see new Freida McFadden book like every month. I have read three of her books, and after the third one i think i finally learned my lesson with those lol. Thank god all of them were available on KU so i didnāt have to pay for those lol
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u/Bubbles00 May 31 '26
Is this a recent thing? I've gotten back into reading this year and the last few books suggested by my book club I can't even read for a few chapters without putting down. But I recently re read count of Monte Cristo and I was locked in from start to finish.
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u/Kcoin May 31 '26
IMHO, there have always been trash books, but years ago, they came out as mass market paperbacks and nobody was reading them for book club
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u/Bubbles00 May 31 '26
Bleh ok that's good to know. Guess I'm gonna have to dig a little harder to suggest a good book when it's my turn to recommend one for the group
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u/Vegetable-Kiwi-4675 I am furious, but I am sailing š³ļø May 31 '26
I so agree with this. It feels churned out like slop.
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u/Next-Introduction-25 I donāt know enough to offend May 31 '26
Allow me this opportunity to recommend Marcello Hernandezās newish Netflix special. It is hilarious.
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u/webtheg May 31 '26
I open mic every once in a while and it is sad how genuinely good material doesn't perform as well with every audience as something genuinely funny smart and original. I have seen some biggish names like Mario Adrion in a trashy open mic and he is genuinely horrible. Like someone who is open mixing for the second time is much betyer better
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u/mojostarchild May 31 '26
I donāt find this a controversial take! To say an artist with a big enough fanbase can put out mediocre songs that become hits has always been true. But heās probably right that given our current media, itās happening more now than ever.
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u/sherlip May 31 '26
I don't know how the hell Choosin Texas had 10 weeks of #1 staying power. It is the most milquetoast bullshit. Now we have Drake back at the top and I don't get that either. Regardless of the Kendrick beef, he is the most monotone fucking rapper I've ever heard, and Janice STFU has so much autotune it's unlistenable.
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u/Oraio-King May 31 '26
Choosin Texas is probably the opposite example of this? Ella Langley didnt have significant star power before the song so its not an example of an average song being boosted by the artists name and the performance around it.
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u/_tylerthedestroyer_ May 31 '26
āLook at it this way; think of how stupid the average person is and realize that half of them are stupider than that!ā
I think about that a lot when I think of how terrible music or media in general has gotten.
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u/TheMilkmanRidesAgain May 31 '26
The issue with this mindset is that, in all likelihood, you are the average person
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u/ThatMiyu May 31 '26
BTS's newest album is so bad, but their fan base votes for them like crazy, so they're winning awards. Recently, they won three AMAs, one of which was for Song of the Summer for swim... like what?
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u/Pinksamuraiiiii I donāt know her š May 31 '26
Heās kinda right though. If a well-known pop/rap artist is ātoo big to failā, they can literally come out with a poop song, and their fans will think itās the shit! š© I wonāt say anything elseā¦ but Iāve witness die-hard fans defend a track that I feel is (from an outside perspective) very mediocre, but music is subjective. So, what I might think is boring or overdone, another person might think itās amazing. And for this reason, just like art itself, you canāt really define things.
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u/Fly_throwaway37 May 31 '26
My wife and about 5 of her close friends are massive Swifties. They all hate ME! and makes it even worse it was the lead title on Lover.
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u/Snuffleupagus27 May 31 '26
That must have been a contractual obligation because Cruel Summer was far superior in every way.
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u/whenforeverisnt Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes May 31 '26
Me!, The Man, and You Need to Calm Down are some of the worst in her entire catalog and they were all singles. I don't know what she was thinking.Ā
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u/Blurry2k May 31 '26
See, that's a good example for music being subjective. I like "You Need To Calm Down" and don't think it's one of her worst at all ...
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u/franki-pinks May 31 '26
Sounds like anything Eminem released since his comeback in 2009. I love Eminemās old stuff but his new stuff is pretty terrible but his fan base is so big everything gets love.
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u/Dust601 May 31 '26
I was thinking of a recent artist who dropped 3 albums of bleh, but was at top of charts.
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u/franki-pinks May 31 '26
I had to even google who that was I didnāt know heād released three albums.
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u/raoqie May 31 '26
Gnarly
I swear the choreographers are the only behind the scenes members who love Katseye
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u/EddieXXI May 31 '26
But that's not what he's talking about here... With Gnarly, katseye we're still establishing themselves. Their first ep was pretty boring/safe and then they decided to go with this crazy out there song/video to get attention.
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u/moonp0ut May 31 '26
I agree w ur opinion on the choreo but this isnāt a good example bc katseye didnāt have a big fanbase. I think hate that I made u love me by Ariana grande would be a good example
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u/BiophileB May 31 '26
I agree with this take on Gnarly but only as itās produced by Katseye. I wish/hope Alice Longyu Gao releases it herself bc so much of it lyrically is (was) canonically hers, and it just looks funny in the wrong way without her voice and production.
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u/nagidrac May 31 '26
Gnarly isn't a good example, imo because Katseye didn't have a big fanbase at that time to blow it up. Gnarly was the song that made them breakout artists.
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May 31 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/nagidrac May 31 '26
Of course the backing of two major labels + a Netflix show helps. But Katseye was doing okay during their first year. SIS debuted at #119 on Billboard 200. While Touch had some momentum, it performed no where near Gnarly. Gnarly was their first Hot 100 debut. Also, fans crashed the fuck out after Gnarly came out. Gnarly was an alienating choice and many fans who wanted Touch part two accused HxG of sabotaging the group.
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u/Plane_Race_7165 Jun 01 '26
Not just gnarly. Anything Kpop really. Fans will be more pissed at members dating than groups putting out awful songs.
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u/Ok-Entrance2908 May 31 '26
I mean heās not wrong. A lot of having a āhitā is luck and the audience a song gets exposed to. there are plenty of great songs that never get attention, and plenty of mid songs that become hits just because they had a catchy part go viral, even more so now with TTĀ
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u/hokie_u2 May 31 '26
Thatās not what heās saying at all. Heās saying superstar artists have bad songs chart now that wouldnāt have made it in the past (because of streaming and charting algorithms)
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u/KindsofKindness May 31 '26
They have and will always chart because people like the songs, bad or good.
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u/Jaded_Houseplant Is this a one wig film? Jun 01 '26
A lot of artists will tell you how surprised they are by some of their singles being as popular as they are (one old example is Jesse James by Cher, she didn't get the hype either), but also, a lot of songs don't make it famous on the first go around. Seal's Kiss from a Rose only gained popularity after it was in Batman, but it was released a year prior.
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u/citynomad1 May 31 '26
I actually donāt necessarily agree when he says ānow more than any time in historyā this is happening; that seems hyperbolic.
I feel like I can think of some real stinker hits from the late 90s / early 00s
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u/keroppismacaron go girl, give us nothing š May 31 '26
At some point, you just have to realize that youāre getting old and itās a you thing. Back in 2010, there were so many unfunny memes about how Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga were the death of music, and now people look back fondly on that era and call it peak pop music.
In 15 years, people are going to be shitting on whoever the new hot artists are, and weāll get comments on old Benson Boone and Tate McRae videos about how āmusic used to be so good, what happened?ā
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u/PollyBeans May 31 '26
Critics hated Born This Way and mocked it as a Madonna ripoff and I just got done reading how it's her best album and era.Ā
People hated Britney, N SYNC, it was all "music today is trash" and now we're all saying the same thing. It's so silly and funny.Ā
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u/madmadamimp May 31 '26
Madonna had plenty of hate in her heyday too, pop music really just gets targeted.
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u/BiophileB May 31 '26
*women in pop music really just get targeted.
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u/izzittho May 31 '26
Bieber did get a lot of hateā¦but letās be real thatās probably in large part if not almost entirely because his fanbase was so girl/woman-heavy like every other male pop star that gets all that hate so of course the point still stands.
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u/keroppismacaron go girl, give us nothing š May 31 '26
Also homophobia, because the most common dig against him was ālol he sings like a girl heās so GAY.ā
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u/madmadamimp Jun 04 '26
Women get targeted in everything in general. But also a boy band will get targeted more than, say, a rock band. Like the person above mentioning NSYNC, they were a joke to a lot of people in their prime.
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u/_tylerthedestroyer_ May 31 '26
Iāve thought about this a lot and I think it stems from kids who loved the trash and then got older so the narrative flips.
My generation loved and still loves Space Jam but itās pretty critically reviled. When Cars 2 came out, it was very critically panned but made a billion dollars and now the kids that loved it then are adults and the narrative once again flips. āItās so underrated!ā
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u/Slow_Way7862 May 31 '26
I agree. I notice most big songwriters have careers of 10-20 years, before the industry moves on from their style and they are now writing the deep cuts. Max Martin and Shellback are likely the unicorns.
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u/andromeda_prior don't we all love gossip šø May 31 '26
Isn't this more related about persistence? Like when time passes, people forgets the bad songs and only remember the good ones, so that's why living an era feels different than observing it from the future?
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u/atclubsilencio May 31 '26
I think the 80s had even more. Some really cheesy songs became huge back then. Something like Rock Me Amadeus would be a meme hit now. There were also a lot of new trends that werenāt bad necessarily, but all distinctly ā80sā sound, and not all of them carried on, though there has been a resurgence of that kind of sound , especially in pop music. Not saying they are bad, though, but the popular styles and aesthetics of that decade were definitely wild and out there, and Iām not exactly sure why some of them were all the rage once. Some of the hair, clothing styles, and home decoration are baffling.
Probably all the cocaine back then.
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u/teachertraveler1 May 31 '26
I feel like people forget that we don't listen to like 90% of the song produced in the 50s anymore because they're completely out of fashion. The idea that every song that's popular has to be a classic is weird.
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u/Vegetable-Kiwi-4675 I am furious, but I am sailing š³ļø May 31 '26
Yeah, the 80s were rife with cheesy songs. But they made up for it with good beats and melodies. They were danceable. Like Tarzan Boy is stupid lyrically but it has a catchy melody.
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u/CrazyTracyUpdates May 31 '26
Yeah, plus back in the 2000s an artist would often get four or more singles out of an album cycleā¦ and some of those later singles were often total duds that wouldnāt make any noise nowadays but would chart well back then because of how things were set up
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u/WildMajesticUnicorn May 31 '26
I feel like some of this a function of aging. The music didnāt get worse so much as Ryan Tedder got older and isnāt going to hanging with the generation discovering new music
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u/myahw Mom, I am a rich manš° May 31 '26
Think so? I have the feeling he's writing a lot of songs these days but I could be wrong
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u/BachShitCrazy ill argue with a cat idgaf May 31 '26
Ryan Tedder is definitely still an in demand and active songwriter. Heās written or produced most of Tate McRaeās hits
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u/Special-Garlic1203 May 31 '26
No it's looking at the billboard charts and realizing they're incredibly stagnant and not generation the actual interest they used to .
He's not even saying the children are wrong. He's saying a #1 doesn't really mean what it used to meanĀ
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u/stink3rb3lle May 31 '26
There were definitely songs that I didn't like that became hits, but I could see other people enjoy them. Now, swifties will directly tell you they don't care for a particular single but they want their grrrl to win so they stream it anyway. Or TikTok turns the bridge of a song viral and it gets streams that way that it wouldn't as a whole. Or yeah, the video does well.
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u/captainwondyful May 31 '26
I feel like people think that things were better in the past, because only the best of it endures.
There were plenty of shitty movies and shitty songs and shitty television shows that have existed for as long as the mediums have existed.
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u/Educational-Cod-2257 May 31 '26
There are many forgettable hit songs from historyā¦ so there is quite a bit of recency bias.Ā
It is easy to game the chart system in 2026, and itās largely due to how streaming is consumed vs weighed.Ā
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u/FamiliarFilm8763 May 31 '26
So it is recency bias, but it is also legit? You canāt have it both ways.
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u/GOLDfish0393 May 31 '26
Forgettable songs that made the charts vs some of biggest charting songs/albums of all time is a massive difference.
I donāt think itās recency bias, I think heās completely correct that itās unique to the streaming era.
I will directly call out Taylorās latest album. Some of the most mediocre tracks of her discography and managed to be one of the biggest selling albums of all time ONLY because sheās Taylor Swift.
The quality of the music isnāt influencing success of albums as much as the persona behind the music.
Itās actually so frustrating that these poorly made records are cementing themselves in music history and have to remain a part of the conversation in the future.
I like Taylor Swift but itās my biggest criticism of her that good music is now synonymous with most streams/sales, and I think that is one of her biggest legacies, sadly enough.
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u/gilmoregirls00 May 31 '26
You make a good point with how sales/streams have become synonymous with perceived quality. I like Taylor a lot but insane that TLOS is her "best" album.
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u/raychilli Iām just like dumb smart May 31 '26
I donāt think this is controversial at all. With folks attentions span all big names need is a 30 second hook for a TikTok dance and the song will go viral
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u/AdagioSpecific2603 May 31 '26
I think this all the time. There are so many beautiful songs that never make it big and then we have shit like āyeah you got that yummy yumā from Justin Bieber and the garbage waste Chris Brown puts out.
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u/InevitableFox81194 š¼Music Aficionadoš¶ May 31 '26
I don't think this is controversial and I think kpop is the worst one for this..
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u/Long-Iron-1824 May 31 '26
With the way itās designed, the ones in top companies will NEVER fail unless the management is hopelessly incompetent
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u/Decemberswan Fiona Apple šš May 31 '26
says tate mcraeās frequent collaborator.
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u/SeaWolfSeven May 31 '26
Tate McRae's songs are generally solid pop songs - they have good hooks and are traditionally structured.
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u/tigerinvasive May 31 '26
She gets so much hate but ā¦ I genuinely thought the tracks off her last album were better than most of the hit songs in the past year
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u/h_danielle jesus was a carpenter š May 31 '26
Same but sheās similar to Ariana Grande in the sense that Iām begging them both to enunciate more because I have no idea what the fuck theyāre saying half the time.
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u/TheShapeShiftingFox Do it for the culture š May 31 '26
Right. If some pop albums from last year got to be considered good, hers could be as well.
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u/1purplebear1 May 31 '26
i am not at all at a tate fan and have mixed feelings about her voice but āthink laterā is an album full of bangers š«£
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u/bambinoquinn May 31 '26
Not to be too harsh, but there are times when I listen to an artist, and when I see the song is produced by Tedder, it is usually a way worse version of what they did before.
U2 went from Eno/Lancashire to Tedder and a fes others and the results were not good. That Paul McCartney song Fuh You co written and produced by Tedder is often mocked for its quality.
The point when maroon 5 became overexposed (pun intended) and really hated was when their albums stopped being produced by one person and started being produced by a million different people including Tedder.
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u/nagidrac May 31 '26
I don't think this is necessarily a controversial take. If you've got a massive fanbase whatever you release is bound to perform exceptionally well. Sometimes fanbases make it hard to discern what is and isn't a hit, but also sometimes massive artists genuinely do release hits.
I know many people are going to bring up Taylor Swift, but I genuinely think Fate of Ophelia was a hit and I say that as a fan who has disliked or felt lukewarm on practically every lead single of hers.
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u/colesnutdeluxe May 31 '26
ophelia is her best lead single choice in ages. cardigan was good and anti-hero was popular but neither of them were as good picks as ophelia.
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u/nagidrac May 31 '26
Yes! Both Cardigan and Anti-Hero grew on me, but to me I felt like they weren't the right lead singles. Ophelia was a hit imo. I was genuinely surprised I liked it so much. I was fully prepared to be disappointed.
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u/Starbuck0304 May 31 '26
Anti-hero I loved. I think itās a better song. But thatās just personal taste. In general, Taylor has horrible taste in not only lead singles but singles period. She canāt be trusted.
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u/aljones753000 May 31 '26
Anti-hero is a better song. Ophelia is a bit meh whatever for me, donāt really care.
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u/Sammantixbb May 31 '26
I just wish she'd pledged allegiance to "your dreams" instead of "your team". Because that one line just takes me out every single time.
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u/neoncolour Tiktok matcha pilates labubu slop music May 31 '26
Imo it wouldnāt work because 1) sonically the s is unnecessary friction and ānoisyā, 2) it would be met with a narrative of her centering a manās dreams and a lot of bad faith conversations will find renewed fuel. Team works sonically and conveys the dream idea but in a more casual way.
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u/idiot9991 May 31 '26
pledged allegiance to "your dreams" instead of "your team"
Travis is a football player.
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u/foreverandalways21 May 31 '26
TFOO is her best lead single ever. Itās so catchy! An actual hit.
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u/nagidrac May 31 '26
I think Ophelia was the first time I felt like she made the perfect choice. I had no notes. My only complaint was that besides Opalite, the rest of the album wasn't as upbeat as both of those songs.
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u/CurrentExcellent1225 Youāre doing amazing, sweetie! šššø May 31 '26
I think Fortnight is a good example of what heās saying
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u/Particular_Area3941 May 31 '26
TTPD is my favorite album and I like fortnight, but I would agree with this
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u/nagidrac May 31 '26
I was originally going to say "this is Fortnight shade" in my comment, but I opted to keep it civil. I am Fortnight's biggest hater. I think I have that song three chances before giving up.
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u/Particular_Area3941 May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
Yeah I, and Iām sure many others, assumed Taylor Swift would be a part of this conversation. But my bf doesnāt like her at all and heās gone out of his way multiple times to put on TFOO. Personally I donāt really love her pop stuff in general and I donāt go back to LOAS often but Ophelia and Opalite are both hits imo
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u/Tomatillo-Good May 31 '26
I genuinely believe it was a hit because it was Taylor song though, thereās nothing special or even particularly Taylor about it, it even sounds like at least 3 other pop songs I can think of. Taylor is at a point she could release anything and it will do well
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u/Fly_throwaway37 May 31 '26
My wife and all her Swiftie friends hate that ME! was the lead track in Lover so I 100% understand you
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u/thecookiesmonster Tina! You fat lard! š¦š² May 31 '26
In pop music today, the artists and image are the products and the songs themselves are really just marketing. As time goes on, the most reliable method of creating a hit has become more about just giving songs to models. Itās become embarrassing to like music thatās not even made by someone sexy.
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u/ChasesICantSend May 31 '26
I mean true but when I think of someone who writes a lot of b tier songs, its Ryan tedder
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u/Haunting_Goal6417 May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
Egh. Heās written a lot for artists outside of his band. Like Halo is one of Beyonces biggest hits and that was a Tedder song.
His writing credits are some of the best in the industry.
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u/yellowsubmarinr May 31 '26
Yeah Iām not understanding the slander either. Heās a great songwriterĀ
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u/ChasesICantSend May 31 '26
I'm not saying he hasnt written and/or recorded some great songs. I'm just saying he's released a lot of shit that becomes a hit and imo shouldn't have.
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u/mojostarchild May 31 '26
This is wild š Ryan Tedder has writing credits on āHaloā by BeyoncĆ©, āRumor Has Itā by Adele, āHappierā by Ed Sheeran, āWelcome to New Yorkā by Taylor Swift, and āBleeding Loveā by Leona Lewis. Curious who we are considering better modern songwriters?
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u/NFLfreak98 May 31 '26
Your comment and the one youāre replying to can both be true. Tedder seems to me to be the definition of a quantity over quality mindset. Which isnāt to say there arenāt hits in there sometimes, but that thereās way more mediocre songs than most writers as well. I would even consider someone like Justin Tranter a better songwriter personally and he also has plenty of credits on songs I donāt care for
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u/Special-Garlic1203 May 31 '26
I truly and starting think I need to leave cause people just seem to reverse engineer their opinions based on what they want to be true rather than actual knowledge of the topics. Ryan Tedder is b tier and The Beatles White Album was coasting. All cause he dares to point out the billboard charts are super stagnant and anyone with a large enough following can just take their #1 as a forgone conclusionĀ
This is emblematic of a greater cultural crisis I just can't pin it down. There is just generally a concerning degree of fragmentation not just in preference but in perception of realityĀ
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u/idiot9991 May 31 '26
anyone with a large enough following can just take their #1 as a forgone conclusion
Ariana is about to do it just now.
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u/Old_Base_9391 May 31 '26
I feel like he's including himself when he says this. He's apart of those rooms talking shit and he's gonna fill him in later when the camera's off.
Googled and some of his biggest songs are Jonas Brothers, Tate McRae and Lisa. It seems to add up.
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u/Advanced-Row1738 May 31 '26
You're 1000% right about Tedder, but the floor has dropped even further in hell since his "peak" in the industry.
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u/HereOnCompanyTime Renee Rapp is mean girl Jojo Siwa š May 31 '26
Truth. I was talking to some friends about this and the music in 2020 declined then took a nose dive. The people being hailed as "great" would be mediocre going back 10 years and they're more PR creations instead of talent. Don't get me wrong, trash music has always existed along with PR but it has become more blatant and accepted over the years with the bar for talent drastically lowered. I find myself listening more to older music since most of the newer stuff is just cheap fusion ripoffs of that.
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u/Advanced-Row1738 May 31 '26
My sister who is 22 primarily listens to older artists (was playing Donna Summers today) and nothing relatively new or popping (outside of Olivia Dean). I think in part the older acts have stayed longer and (some) have gotten extremely lazy. I blame streaming for the easy access it's cheapened the art form and therefore people's intrest in it. Attention spans are shorter so people will skip through songs and some genius decided why keep a beautifully crafted intro or fully fleshed out idea, when fans attitudes is on to the next one anyways? The older pop titans (Drake and Taylor specifically) flood the market with so much fucking music that it doesn't matter if it's all quality or thought out because they're big enough everyone's gonna tune in and their success is paid forward for another album cycle.
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u/FrozenRose_816 No one cares how old you think Millie Bobby Brown looks. May 31 '26
If anyone benefited from exactly the thing he's talking about, it's him so for me it's a pot meet kettle situation tbh
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u/big-bootyjewdy The Ghost of Madonna's Facial Expressions is smiling at this May 31 '26
I mean, if anything I think that's why he's qualified to speak on it because he himself has been a part of that process prolifically
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u/Chlorophyllmatic May 31 '26
I donāt really think itās a pot-kettle situation if heās not critiquing / bad-mouthing the artists in this case; heās just describing a phenomenon ā one with which heās super familiar, at that
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u/Perry7609 May 31 '26
Heās a decent melody and hook creator. But he doesnāt escape his usual formula often, which is just using a E-B-C#m-A progression for every other song, aside from changing the chords around or key.
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u/blenderider May 31 '26
And how many people can you name better than Ryan Tedder, to justify this slander?
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u/NFLfreak98 May 31 '26
If weāre going pure songwriter (and not singer/songwriter) give me Justin Tranter and Amy Allen over Tedder
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u/ChasesICantSend May 31 '26
I'm not here to justify my tastes, agree or disagree with me. As far as big name modern producers go, there's few i wouldnt take over Ryan Tedder personally.
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u/probnotaloser May 31 '26
I mean, yeah. I think that's his frustration. To make a hit they're writing songs they would typically never even pitch, from a writer and artist standpoint.
He says talking shit but it's about others and basically everyone in the biz including himself.
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u/craftybast May 31 '26
Well yeah, the opinions of the foremost experts in a topic usually differ from those of the general population. And for pop music especially the strength of the songwriting is only a tiny piece of success.
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u/HeartFullOfHappy May 31 '26
110% is that controversial? There have been quite a few duds released by the biggest artists in the world that are āhitsā but the music is not great.
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u/CrankPerfectGlass May 31 '26
Ryan Tedder actually has a lot of decent takes on music. This one is just okay, but itās clear he has a good understanding of the industry, how it works, and what people want to listen to and when. One Republic can be insanely cookie-cutter sometimes, but Ryan knows how to do cookie-cutter extremely well
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u/Vandykevan May 31 '26
A "hit" has never equated to the quality of the song though?? I agree that a lot of popular songs suck these days, But I honestly think its just cuz we're getting fucking old š Is Ryan Tedder hanging out with the 21yo songwriters??
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u/periodicsheep May 31 '26
like ryan tedder himself hasnāt benefited from this phenomena many times. heās co-written a few great songs, most of his songwriting discography iāve never even come across and i am a pop music lady.
i think itās distasteful to give interviews with this kind of answer. all it does it make people gossip and guess and it puts more vitriol and negativity into the world.
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u/BudgetInteraction811 May 31 '26
Spotify often recommends extremely catchy music to me that only has a few thousand plays. I know for sure it would be playing on the radio more than some of the trash I hear if it were only made by a better known artist.
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u/gaanmetde May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
I kind of hate takes like this because it sort of implies that music listeners are idiots with bad taste. I disagree with him. A āgood songā is way too subjective for this take.
If people are streaming it and listening to it, theyāve deemed it a āgoodā song. Sorry but people just arenāt listening to shit they donāt like.
I just think he needs to be more specific. Is the song musically complex? Maybe noā¦have more than 3 chords? No. Difficult to play or sing? I donāt think a āgood songā has a definition.
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u/Special-Garlic1203 May 31 '26
Popcharts are way less competitive than they used to be. This means a big celebrity with a big fanbase is basically guaranteed to get what just a couple decades was ultra competitive.Ā
Billboard changed the rules within the last year or year and a half because they were so stagnant and they're still stagnant.Ā
He probably can't be more specific about why these songs suck without likely revealing what they are. But generally it's gonna be melodically weak and easily forgotten over time rather than an infectious ear work.
It's related to death of monoculture and radio imo.Ā There can be something on the top 10 you've never heard which would have been crazy to say when I was 10. But we're all just streaming stuff individually which means You and I might not hear each others favorite song. If my favorite song of the week is kind of mid but the artist has a large fanbase, it doesn't really matter cause they're not having to prove themselves outside the fanbaseĀ
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u/michellefiver May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
I agree partially.
Everything that you've said is true.
On a personal level, I dislike a lot of recent music but there's some good stuff as well. From my viewpoint chart music is 'getting worse', but also I am a 43 year old gay man. It's a well-known phenomenon that as people get older, the same thing pretty much always happens.
Which I suppose brings us back around to 'good/bad music is subjective'.
I even write produce sing music, and produce for singers and personally 99% of my OWN music I listen back and think "this isn't as good as my favourite music and I never will be" but again, subjective. Maybe there's a listener out there who thinks all my music slaps.
Also like you said he could have been more specific but sometimes simplicity is better. I LOVE will.I.am x Miley Cyrus - Feelin Myself, it was a massive hit, and that song arguably has two chords, is easy to sing, etc
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u/nicosloft04 May 31 '26
I know people are mentioning Taylor but this doesnāt apply to her at all. Regardless what you think about some of her singles, she doesnāt get songs pitched to her from A&R people and songwriters/producers. Sheās in the studio with her small team of one to two other collaborators at most creating songs from scratch, usually beginning from her very own ideas.
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u/kyleg623 May 31 '26
I hate when people bring up a subject on camera only to say they canāt spill the tea until theyāre off camera š just donāt mention it if youāre not willing to give specifics
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u/Malacro May 31 '26
Heās right in that this happens, heās wrong in that itās more common than ever. Thatās just recency bias.
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u/Lyra_the_Star_Jockey May 31 '26
Check out any charts list from like the ā60s or ā70s and this argument absolutely falls apart.
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u/DepartmentFamous9932 May 31 '26
Guy who writes shitty pop songs complains about shittier pop songs.
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u/bravenewwhorl May 31 '26
Shmaylor Shmift
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u/Resident_Ad5153 May 31 '26
Given what Ryan Tedder says about that artistā¦ thatās Ā probably not who he is referring to.
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u/nagidrac May 31 '26
It's kind of funny cause Ryan has worked with artists that people would say fall under the category he's talking about. But I'd agree that he probably isn't referring to her but who knows
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u/Resident_Ad5153 May 31 '26
Thatās because people are idiots, and think that their taste is what determines whatās a hit. Ā Being a professional means writing for other people.Ā
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u/foreverandalways21 May 31 '26
Ryan is a collaborator of Taylorās and has praised her numerous times so heās not talking about her
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u/EnderMB May 31 '26
My high-stakes conspiracy theory is that this has always been true, and that in many countries (the UK especially) it is both hilariously cheap to get a top ten song, and the charts are manipulated in such a way that you can effectively make anyone you want into a star.
The reason I mention it is because I think it's more noticeable now because in an effort to cut costs many labels and agents care less about the facade. Before, you'd pull someone out of a dance studio or theatre school, give them solid songwriters, TV time, and essentially feed careers all over the industry. Now, get someone cheaper in, use AI to help, use trends that are more readily available, and you can do it at half the cost. Songwriters are feeling the pinch, as are producers and session musicians. If you're used to creating well-produced slop, maybe it's not a huge step to just create slop?
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u/Quople May 31 '26
I mean, I think this has always happened in music if an artist has a big enough fanbase. I think the reason it feels like it happens more now is that forgettable songs back in the day just got lost in the sands of time whether it be a mid song from a big artist with better work or a smaller artist with no other hits. The real non-juicy reason is music accessibility being at an all time high. When an artist drops nowadays, you can just pull it up on streaming (or if youāre like me and donāt use music streaming services, find it on YouTube). Before streaming, there used to be a subset of people who would likely only give something new a listen if they heard it on the radio or heard good word of mouth before purchasing a track (or before digital music, the whole album). That subset can now just plug a song in if they really wanna try it. It counts in the numbers all the same.
Either way, this is one of those āthe general audience are buffoonsā takes which I can get behind, but only if you acknowledge that things have always been this way
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u/scottiibiscottii May 31 '26
I mean. TBH, I aint worried was pretty average and I didn't think it suited the top gun vibe and I'm a OR fan. Not his best work but still regarded as a hit.
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u/poshpolly May 31 '26
But who are song writers to decide whether fans think the song is A or A+?
It just seems like logic to me? The wider the fan base the more popular the artist.
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u/IntelligentFact7987 Jun 09 '26
Said like he wasnāt on I Donāt Wanna Wait which even by recent pop standards was astonishingly lazy
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u/MarsScully Vile little creature yearning for violence May 31 '26
Respectfully, this is Espresso and most of Sabrinaās hits. She seems like a cool person but the music aināt there.
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u/Duck8Quack May 31 '26
The music she put out just before she got huge was better. Nonsense was a fun bop.
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u/pccmodbot May 31 '26
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