Osler's Razor

A couple of thoughts:

1) I do think this dearth of newness is less universal than it's often made out to be. Film, for instance, has plenty of people in it pushing boundaries despite Marvel/Disney's homogenization – the highest-grossing non-adaptation film of the year is a heady art-horror film chock-full of obscure biblical references, for instance. I think pop music is a special case: it's a medium that has been defined since the sixties by new instrumental possibilities (what innovation was going to happen in Eighties pop without cheap synths becoming available?), a well that has dried up now that decent production suites can imitate any possible instrument, and Spotify's market-share chokehold and deep catalog mean that most Americans have access to a near-complete library of pop music in their pocket with little preference given to newer work, making it FAR easier to rediscover older songs than, say, it is for a young author to discover older novels.

b) That said, I don't think it's true that there's nothing new and popular happening in pop music! Hyperpop is extremely popular with young people, especially young queer people, and while, like any genre, it draws from plenty of influences (in its case, EDM, ska, pop-punk, and occasionally mainstream country), it sounds like absolutely nothing else out there. (And, like all new musical genres before it, either you "get it" or it sounds like a bunch of Ewoks on fire.) It's rare for a hyperpop song to top the charts, sure, but was it common for the Talking Heads to be in the Top 40? I honestly don't think the early 2020s are shaping up that differently than any other decade as pop music goes: the safe stuff you'll forget in five years gets radio play while the weird queer art students are hunkered down in their basements making something truly new.