I’m going to come out and say it, no fancy intro needed: the pop charts right now blow chunks. Whatever spark of energy that was infused by indie rock or EDM has evaporated and all we’re left with is a turgid slush. I think it speaks volumes that some of the best music to come onto the charts only did so because the artists that made them, David Bowie and Prince, died.

“Closer,” by the Chainsmokers and featuring Halsey has been the top song of the year. Spending 12 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the gold standard of a song’s success. It’s only now being dethroned by “Black Beatles” by Rae Sremmurd featuring Gucci Mane. That’s impressive for any song and I will give it credit for that. However, this is not exactly an endorsement on the basis of quality. The song itself is an OK song at best, the epitome of prepackaged dance-pop featuring one of the weakest drops I’ve ever heard in dance music. It may as well have been mailed to Billboard HQ with a tag labeled “#1 hit.”

This reminds me of another time in music: the late 1980s. There’s a couple similarities to our times and, say, 1987. New technologies (synthesizers in the 80s, digital audio software now) have officially lost their novelty stage and have become ubiquitous. There’s very little rock music on the charts, and what rock does make it on is very watered down. The majority of the chart is taken up by dance music and pop idols. I must add that hip-hop, a huge player today, was in its relative infancy in 1987, at least in terms of mainstream (read: white) popularity.

I must stress that the charts do not reflect my opinions in music and will concede that taste is subjective. I will also happily change what I say about 2016 if the year-end Hot 100 comes out and refutes my findings. And I can’t deny that there are some bright spots in both years. The remix of Mike Posner’s “I Took a Pill in Ibiza,” “Stressed Out” by Twenty One Pilots and “Starboy” by the Weeknd and featuring Daft Punk are all good songs from this year. 1987 had “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi, “Sign O’ the Times” by Prince and “(You Gotta) Fight for your Right (To Party!)” by the Beastie Boys. So no, it’s not all bad.

But both of these years have a similar problem: the bad stuff both outnumbers the good and is worse than other years. “Me Too” by Meghan Trainor is one of the worst songs of the decade and it peaked at #13 but it’s not representative of just how bad this year is. Most of the songs this year are too weak to be even considered songs. Every decade has crap music, but at least before now there was texture and flavor to the bad stuff.

In both 1987 and 2016, I can’t even say our bad music passes that standard. Really think about a lot of the hits you hear on the radio. There’s barely anything to the songs “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” “Closer,” “Panda,” “Pillowtalk,” “Work” and “One Dance” and that’s the majority of number one hits this year. These songs are incredibly generic and lifeless. Drake sounds so bored on “One Dance” you’d think he was singing about drying paint, not dancing. In 1987, most of the chart is soft-rock ballads and lukewarm easy listening, including a Kenny G song as the 55th most played song of the year.

So why don’t we have better music on the charts? I attribute it primarily to a music press that lost the ability to call bad music what it is. I subscribe to “Rolling Stone,” one of the most venerated music magazines, and I don’t recall seeing a music review below two of four stars. Major albums almost always get between three and four and sometimes they deserve those ratings. But there’s a difference between an honest review of a good album and a cheer section.

Another part of this is the acceptance of pop music in critical circles. Most outlets can be criticized for “rockism,” valuing rock over pop music, but on the flipside is “poptimism” valuing pop over rock. Over the past decade or so, the pop camp has become the dominant mode of discourse in music criticism, emphasizing a hook or chorus rather than the whole song or album. And part of me really can’t deny having fun with a pop song. Good music is good music. But in desperately trying to avoid being seen as old-fashioned, major outlets have simply relaxed quality control standards to favor the catchiest songs as the best. That is a bad precedent for the charts. If we only look at whether a song is catchy and ignore everything else, we get commercial jingles and memes on the top 40. And with the success of “Harlem Shake,” “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” and “Pen Pineapple Apple Pen,” we have reached that nadir.

The 90s, as a musical decade, only really began when Nirvana punched into the top 40. Before then, it was still just the 80s. So does that mean we should drop everything and find the next great rock band? No, because part of what made Nirvana so great was its contrast to everything else surrounding it. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” sounded like nothing else on the radio in 1991, and the fact that it got so huge made it even more special. And it’s on us to find that truly awesome group and support them, or else our hits will only get worse.

2016 chart source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_in_American_music

1987 chart source:

http://longboredsurfer.com/charts/1987