🎧 Your Favorite Songs Were Written by an Algorithm – Still Think You’re Unique? | The Truth About AI in Pop Music

The Evolution of Music: From Soulful Art to Algorithmic Production

Let’s get one thing straight: most of the modern music of you’re streaming right now isn’t art. It’s merely clickbait with a beat.

Yeah, I said it.  And if this pisses you off, good!

Today’s biggest hits aren’t the result of human creativity—they’re products of data mining, psychological tricks, and cold-blooded engineering. What used to be about passion and expression is now a lab experiment to keep you scrolling.

If you don’t like being manipulated by corporations, this article is for you.

 

The Role of Algorithms in Today’s Music Industry

Music used to mean something. Whether it was a Bach fugue or a screaming Hendrix solo, music had soul. Artists made music to express something, to challenge the listener, to move them.

Fast forward to 2025, and what do we get? Formulaic hooks built for 15-second dopamine hits on TikTok. Tracks with no climax, no development—just rinse and repeat choruses designed to “go viral.”

Billboard isn’t a chart of the best songs. It’s a scoreboard of who hacked your attention span the best.

 

The Decline of Musical Complexity

Here’s the sad reality: today’s music industry doesn’t need to discover talent anymore. It needs predictability. And algorithms love predictable.

That’s why every song you hear sounds like it was made in the same sound lab by the same three producers. (Spoiler: it was.)

Just ask Max Martin. The Swedish hit factory behind Britney, The Weeknd, Katy Perry, and Ariana Grande, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Pink, Jesse J, Usher, Maroon 5, etc. etc….  He has been dominating the music game for 20+ years with the same chord progressions, same vocal productions, same strategic “drop,” now formulated to hit the TikTok climax at second 13.

Music isn’t composed anymore—it’s optimized.

 

How Streaming Platforms Influence Your Taste

Want to know how to get a hit in 2025?

•Keep it under 2:30.

•Hook in the first 10 seconds.

•Repeat the chorus at least 3 times.

•Use a loop-friendly beat.

•Avoid complex harmony (it confuses the algorithm).

•Don’t sound “too original”—listeners might skip.

What used to be the building blocks of music—melody, dynamics, storytelling—have been flattened into background noise.

Even artists you might respect have bought in. Drake? A vibe merchant with AI-level repetition. Dua Lipa? Hooks with no soul. Ed Sheeran? A factory disguised as a redhead.

None of this is an accident. It’s the business model.

 

Rediscovering Authentic Music

Let’s talk about streaming.

Spotify, YouTube, TikTok—they don’t just show you music. They train your ears. The more you listen, the more they feed you what you already like. But here’s the kicker: they’re not feeding you music based on quality. They’re feeding you music that keeps you on the app.

You’re not a fan. You’re a data point.

“Music recommendation algorithms have shaped not only listening behavior but also creation, encouraging a feedback loop that promotes homogeneity.”— Aguiar & Waldfogel, NBER

This isn’t just annoying. It’s dangerous. Because the more you let the algorithm curate your taste, the less room there is for surprise, emotion, or growth.

 

You don’t have to accept this.

You don’t have to be a passive consumer in a system built to numb your ears.  Try listening to music that hurts a little. That takes time. That says something real.

Ever heard Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1? It will make you feel you are one with the universe.

Or Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, 2nd Movement? Try not to cry.

Chopin’s Nocturnes? Literal poetry, without the TikTok filter.

This is real. And it’ll still be here when the current Top 40 is long forgotten.

 

Conclusion: Choose Art Over Algorithms

So here’s the question: do you want to live and feel or do you want to merely exist?

You can keep letting the algorithm force-feed you the same recycled loops, or you can step off the conveyor belt and find music that actually makes you feel alive and stirs emotions; music that wasn’t manufactured by a program, optimized for clicks, or designed to vanish after one viral trend.

Which do you want, the RED PILL or BLUE PILL?