2015: the last golden age of pop music?

Global hits have always existed in the music industry, long before the era of streaming and view counts. But looking at a not-so-distant past, there is one specific year that seems to shine more than the others: 2015.

Adele with “Hello”, Justin Bieber with “Sorry”, Bruno Mars with “Uptown Funk”, and then names like Maroon 5, Ed Sheeran, The Weeknd, Rihanna. In just a few months, they gave us a sequence of songs that have remained in our collective memory, that we still listen to and that still live on in our playlists.

These songs aren’t just hits. They became soundtracks of an era, part of our pop culture.

But is it just nostalgia… or has something truly changed?

Without a doubt, today’s music scene is profoundly different. Not necessarily because talented artists or original ideas are lacking, but because the system itself has changed.

Sure, even in 2015 many songs were released, but today the market is saturated. Every day, over 100,000 new tracks are uploaded to digital platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.).

Artists are increasing, songs are increasing, but is fame increasing?

Not exactly. In this new, democratized musical ecosystem, TikTok has become the main player. Born as a platform to discover music, today it’s a double-edged sword: it has revolutionized – or rather conditioned – the way music is made. Almost all hits today begin as trends and then become songs; sounds are remixed, shortened, adapted into 15-second loops in the hope of going viral, not memorable.

It’s no coincidence that the average length of pop songs has drastically decreased: many don’t exceed two and a half minutes. It’s clear that songs no longer tell stories: they focus entirely on immediate impact.

Speaking of immediate impact, two other phenomena of this social era come into play: the modern “one hit wonders,” artists who blow up on TikTok with one viral song and disappear a few months later; and the “industry plants,” artists launched with perfect strategies, massive numbers, essentially a career built more at the drawing board than on stage.

2015 was a year when music still managed to be a cultural and social glue. A year when people awaited the release of a single, commented on the music video, promoted it live and not through TikTok lives.

Maybe we’ll never live another golden age like that, or maybe in 10 years, new generations will talk about 2025 the way we talk about 2015.