«Today’s Lyrics Are Pathetically Bad» Rick Beato

Disclosure - I'm a 70 year old boomer and I'm becoming crotchety in my old age. Also, I'm a big fan of Beato and I've watched quite a few of his videos. He's a musical expert and he has interviewed many of my favorite musicians.

I have SeriusXM in my car and when I'm on a longer drive I occasionally listen to the current POP station or Hip Hop or another station with new music. The lyrics of many of these songs, especially modern Hip Hop/R&B are absolutely horrible. They are venal, vulgar, misogynistic, and disgusting. Some are just banal but there is a pretty big subset of lyrics that were unimaginable 40 years ago. I drive along at 70n mph with my mouth agape hardly believing that I'm actually hearing what I'm hearing.

If you have SeriusXM or a streaming service where you can play this current music I recommend that you break out of your bubble and listen to this stuff to get a sense of what young people are hearing. As Huey Lewis sang, "Sometimes bad is bad."

@immatthewj - My parents didn't like long hair, especially when I let my hair grow, but they were pretty tolerant of new music. You mention Dylan and the Beatles and they are a great contrast with most of the popular music of today. The lyrics from the early Beatles were simple, clever, love songs and the tunes were catchy. Dylan put out some amazing poetry that was hard to dismiss by the older generation at the time.

Much of the stuff coming out now is either cliche ridden drivel or profane and abusive. There are good lyrics in some of the alternative artists but it takes a lot of work to seek them out.