Why Does All Music Sound the SAME in 2025?
- CF McHale
- May 24
- 2 min read
Because it is the same.
Finding one lick worth a dried pea on today’s charts is like finding a rare jewel. The beat, the bland, the boredom.
Not the lyrics—those are crafted by a tag-team of five AI tools and twelve brand consultants to sound “raw” and “real.”
Not the vocals—those are pitch-perfect, auto-tuned into oblivion until every scar, twitch, and soul trace is gone.
But the structure?
The production?
The vibe?
Factory standard. Template Tin. Rubber stamped drudgery. This is music!?!?!
“We’re not listening to the charts anymore. We’re listening to the center of a bell curve.”
Same beat. Same BPM. Same recycled synths.
Verse. Chorus. Verse. Chorus. Bridge. Chorus.
Drop the hook at 0:23, or lose the stream.
It’s not a coincidence.
It’s a system.
And the system is the Algorithm.
I will dance in formation dear bandmaster. Originality is dangerous.
Welcome to the Age of Moodboard Music
Today, music isn’t made for ears. It’s made for metrics.
Measured by skip rate
Scored by engagement
Mixed for playlists, not passion
Streaming services like Spotify don’t promote music—they promote data-proven sameness.
Genres are gone.
We’ve entered the reign of vibes:
“Chill Vibes”
“Sad Bops”
“Cottagecore Workout Mix”
“Mood: Aesthetic Dissociation”
All fed by AI-curated playlists that flatten the sonic landscape like a steamroller with a marketing degree.
How quaint, musicians thinking a new sound might intrigued people. Don’t waste your time! Conform!
“Music that doesn’t offend, surprise, or challenge—because the machine flags surprises as drop-off risk.”
Artists now write for the machine.
Labels sign for the algorithm.
Audiences stream within a walled garden of safe sounds.
This isn’t a dystopian prediction. It’s happening now.
As journalist Ted Gioia wrote in his 2022 viral piece:
“Old songs now represent 70% of the U.S. music market. The new music industry has become a talent cemetery.”
So Where Did the Risk Go?
Risk doesn’t test well.
Labels want guaranteed returns.
Algorithms want predictable patterns.
And musicians? Most just want to survive.
To break through, you have to play along.
Sound like the top streamers. Fit the playlist. Hit the emotion wheel just right.
It’s not that artists aren’t capable of originality. It’s that the infrastructure discourages it.
But…
“Outside the Top 40, off the playlist grid, underground and overseas, something different is happening.”
In 2025, the most exciting music isn’t coming from the front page. It’s being made:
In bedrooms
In basements
On Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and beyond
By people who still see music as a risk worth taking
Need a fix of originality?
Try:
The Creative Independent for artist interviews that don’t start with “How’d you go viral?”
So yeah, music does sound the same in 2025.
But only if you let the algorithm pick your playlist.
Dig deeper. Scroll further. Risk a bad song.
Because that’s where the good ones live.
Spin that dial. Swim in a new stream.
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