(Politics does not shape the culture. Culture shapes politics. You can hear the future in hit songs long before any campaign slogan grasps the new reality.)

My kids have told me this; that happy songs died a few years ago.

I’m told that the top search term at Spotify among teens is “sad.”
…
Songs are a cultural indicator… Sadness is so widespread among youngsters (especially teen girls) that the Centers for Disease Control is now tracking it. So we shouldn’t be surprised that music and cultural indicators reflect the same reality.
…
“Even the candidates for song of the [northern hemisphere] summer are filled with quiet despair—so much so that Spotify declared it the ‘bummer summer.‘
…
The most obvious feature of a sad song is the tempo,’ explains music psychologist Michael Bonshor. ‘It tends to be fairly slow …. Another telltale sign of sad songs is the minor key. 

Why music is getting sadder.

However I don’t agree with this point about timing, and again it’s based on what my kids and their friends have told me:

…our culture shifted into a darker, more pessimistic phase during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Nope. There were plenty of bright, bubbly, peppy pop songs even in the mid 2010’s. Take it away Karly Rae Jepsen.

Now it’s….. Brutal

I’m so insecure, I think
That I’ll die before I drink
And I’m so caught up in the news
Of who likes me and who hates you
And I’m so tired that I might
Quit my job, start a new life
And they’d all be so disappointed
‘Cause who am I if not exploited?
And I’m so sick of seventeen
Where’s my fucking teenage dream?
If someone tells me one more time
“Enjoy your youth,” I’m gonna cry
And I don’t stick up for myself
I’m anxious, and nothing can help
And I wish I’d done this before
And I wish people liked me more

[Chorus]
All I did was try my best
This the kinda thanks I get?
Unrelentlessly upset (Ah-ah-ah)
They say these are the golden years
But I wish I could disappear
Ego crush is so severe

God, it’s brutal out here

Awesome driving bass guitar btw. Thanks for that Ms Rodrigo.

As to the “why”. Well my youth was bombarded with news and stories about a nuclear war – likely to be launched by RWNJ’s like Ronny “Raygun” Reagan – and we had angry music from the Punks. But we also had a lot of bright, happy music, even if some of it (like that of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush) had darker undertones. And of course not so many of us were caught up in the doom and gloom of impending nukedom. It was the 80’s after all and the future was so bright we had to wear shades.

But now I have to admit that news about the future seems relentlessly bad, with Climate Change “Global Boiling”, together with all the sacrifice required to beat it, being far greater in widespread, relentless coverage than Cold War nuclear combat ever was. Combine that with house prices pushing far beyond the wage and salaries of many young people, plus all the social shite that makes the idea of a girl and a guy permanently hooking up seem like a trap. Walking on eggshells is nothing compared to negotiating a never-ending minefield of safe spaces.

And then you get shut out of school and varsity and have your social life wrecked for three years because the adults in charge shat themselves.

You can add this story to the other ones about falling rates of marriage and childbirth as the Millennials and Gen-Z push toward adulthood.

One last thing, especially for those who “don’t do culture wars”.

Politics does not shape the culture. Culture shapes politics. You can hear the future in hit songs long before any campaign slogan grasps the new reality.