Music is getting worse [video] (opens in new tab)

I like those kinds of comparisons where you also can hear a part of the song directly, even if only a few seconds. The actual "advantage" of the present songs I noticed in the video is, that after the few seconds I pretty well know the song already, which wouldn't work with "Thriller" or "Beat it". Since then, they "streamlined" not only the harmonics, but also the melodies, and it becomes harder every year to tell these songs apart. I assume we require Northcote Parkinson's theory to explain why these much simpler songs require ten times more composers than the much more complex songs from the eighties.

I don't really agree. Commercial music is getting more optimized for profitability, so whether or not it's getting worse depends on what you value in it. It's absolutely getting more homogeneous. The music that wins awards is a particular subset of music and is far from representative of the music scene overall.

Commercial music is absolutely getting worse according to my own preferences, but there is as much new excellent, high-quality music around as ever. It's just not the stuff that is topping streaming charts or winning Grammys.