Creative expression is the most essential part of any good musical artist–any artist really, but what happens when the art someone puts out isn’t…. Creative?
Ever since the boom of music streaming services and the slow twilight of MP3, CD, cassette, 8 track, and vinyl, more and more people have noticed a slow but gradual increase in music hitting the digital shelves that just doesn't seem to do it for most listeners. Music, like any art form, is a uniquely human expression. For centuries, people have made music about what they feel, how they feel, and why they feel the way they do, but with the dawn of the internet it seems as if there's an ever increasing number of artists making music not for the art, but for the money.
If you take a musical group like The Beatles and strip them down to the most quintessential reason as to why they, and many other extraordinary artists, are so popular, you get one word: innovation.
Music is culture, it’s constantly changing and shifting to match the tone and climate of the world where it is produced. What we’re seeing now, in 2026, is a sort of stagnation of the ebb and flow that makes music such an interesting art form.
Today, it seems like very few artists are using innovative techniques, sounds or even unique chords! Simple melodies and harmonies alongside unoriginal basslines and lyrics all plague the music world with their sound because people are becoming more and more inclined to make music for money instead of as art.
When you look around at musicians nowadays, you can plainly see that a sizable portion of them have really become more like internet celebrities than artists. You see them in advertisements, but not in the studio. Musicians have turned into celebrities that just so happen to make music, and that's not a good thing. It takes away from the artistry and innovation of music and replaces it with some second rate version of what “music” is supposed to be.
A very popular example of this is Sabrina Carpenter.
From Dunkin’ Donuts, skincare, Pringles, her (and her music) have been commercialized beyond belief. Oftentimes, the only media that’s pushed to us is that of her brand deals– The perfume, the lipstick, the pringles.
Commercial discourse overshadows the interviews where we actually see the creative behind the music, and that’s a real shame. While I personally would prefer to see a bit more creativity behind Sabrina’s music, she is in no means boring. Still, we should hold artists to a higher standard of creativity.
This has happened before, of course. The advent of contemporary art caused some (and still causes others) to get into a frenzy. You know the pieces I’m talking about. A banana duct taped to a wall, a plain blue square, other countless pieces of contemporary art that sell for millions of dollars only to be displayed in the fourth guest bedroom of some Malibu millionaire. This outrage, whether you think it's justified or not, is a direct response to the perceived commercialization of art. People see these artworks and think “money laundering!” and though no one has the right to tell you what art is worth, a lot of them have a good point.
Why, then, is this crisis not decried with the same intensity among the world of music? It is because of the way different mediums of art are consumed.
It’s easy to listen to a song. You don't have to put in any work to hear, you don't have to put in any effort, you just do it. All the time. And although this can be true for a variety of different art forms, where music differs is the prevalence in which it is incorporated into our everyday lives. We hear music in ads, in movies, while studying, while walking to class. It’s not like fine art–you can't study a painting while cooking, or running, or any number of other activities one may happen to listen to music while doing. Everywhere we are mostly surrounded by mediocre, subpar music– and as a result of our inability to challenge the artistry of what we consume, we are numbed to this simple fact: music is an incredibly valuable form of self expression.
Of course, there’s a LOT of artists out there, big and small, who do make great art for the sake of art– the world's not all doom and gloom. However, these big artists who do resist commercialization, such as Mitski and Paramore, need to support the art of music making and not let passionate people drown in a sea of greed. Just like people pushed back against the commercialization of physical art, we too must push back and resist the commercialization of music.
