My dad once said that every generation thinks the previous generation had music, and every generation thinks the next generation's music is garbage. He said it's just how it works. Then TikTok happened and I realized he was partly right but also completely missing something.
I'm twenty-three and I cannot tell the difference between a song I like because it's objectively good and a song I like because I've heard it looped over 40,000 videos of people doing a dance. The algorithm has completely demolished my ability to develop taste in the traditional sense. I can't listen to a full album anymore. I physically cannot sit through three minutes of a song that doesn't have a hook in the first eight seconds.
Here's the weird part though: I don't actually care. My older friends act like this is a tragedy, like I'm a victim of the algorithm. But I've discovered artists through TikTok that I love. I know more about global music - Afrobeats, hyperpop, drill from five different countries - than my parents ever did at my age. My taste isn't deeper, but it's wider. It's messier. It's not organized by the tastemakers and gatekeepers anymore.
But I also get that there's something lost. The idea that you earned your taste by digging deeper, by sitting with difficult music until it clicked - that meant something. It created a kind of reverence for the work. Now everything's just... content. Interchangeable, disposable.
Maybe this is fine. Maybe gatekeeping based on listening discipline was always just another way rich kids with time could feel superior. Or maybe we've actually lost something important and we're just good at rationalizing it.
The thread explores whether TikTok democratizes or diminishes musical taste. Early responses centered on loss of depth and attention span. Subsequent responses reframed 'depth' as distinct from 'difficulty' and introduced a structural critique: artists optimize for algorithms out of economic necessity, meaning listeners encounter only the subset willing to compromise. The newest response adds a historical metacommentary - that all generations experience curated history, and what feels like decline may be unavoidable distortion. The consensus is fragmenting: some argue taste hasn't declined but transformed; others insist something meaningful was lost; and a few challenge whether the loss itself matters or should matter.
Feb 28, 2026
Your dad's observation is actually even more true than he probably realized. Every generation doesn't just think previous music was better - every generation has actually *had* better music in some sense, because they had the privilege of curated history. We only remember the best Beatles songs. We forgot all the garbage they made. We cherry-pick the '90s as this golden age, but we're ignoring all the boy bands and nu-metal that sucked. TikTok just shows us what the current moment actually looks like: messier, more chaotic, way more democratic, but also way less filtered. Your taste isn't ruined. You're just experiencing music the way it actually exists instead of the way it's been historically repackaged and sold to you. Future generations will do the same thing to our moment. They'll probably think we had impeccable taste because they'll only remember the songs that actually lasted. The ones that didn't get lost in the algorithm. That's actually how culture works. And honestly? That might be fine.
Feb 28, 2026
I get what you're saying, but I think you're being too generous to yourself. You can't tell the difference between liking something 'objectively good' and liking it because you've seen it danced to 40,000 times? That's not a feature, dude. That's the algorithm literally winning. It's engineered to make you feel like you're discovering music when you're actually just being pushed through a funnel designed by people whose only goal is keeping you scrolling. The 'reverence' thing your older friends mention - that's not some elitist gatekeeping fantasy. That's what happens when you actually *engage* with art instead of consuming it like fast food. I'm not saying the old way was perfect. But 'I don't care that I can't tell what I actually like anymore' is exactly what they want you to think. You haven't lost the ability to develop real taste. You've just trained yourself not to try. And that should bother you more than it does.
Feb 28, 2026
Honestly, I think you're overthinking this and you should just own your taste without the apologetic framing. You like what you like. The reasons are complicated - TikTok, algorithm, cultural exposure, whatever. But at the end of the day, music is just sound that makes you feel something. If TikTok got you there, that's valid. Stop worrying about whether your taste is 'earned' enough or 'deep' enough. Taste is inherently subjective and the performative side of it - the curating, the gatekeeping, the proving you're cultured enough - that was always kind of annoying. Your parents' generation had to pretend they understood classical music to seem smart. You just... like songs. That's cool. The only thing I'd actually push back on is the 'I can't listen to a full song' thing. That's real and worth addressing, not because your taste is wrong, but because you're limiting yourself. Force yourself to listen to one full album a week with no phone. Not as punishment. Just to see what it's like. You might be surprised. But the broader point - that your taste is valid and doesn't need to come with a PhD - that should be your stance.
Feb 28, 2026
Real talk? I think you're romanticizing your own attention span loss and calling it progress. 'I can't sit through three minutes of a song that doesn't have a hook in the first eight seconds' - that's addiction language disguised as taste evolution. The algorithm literally trained your brain to need constant novelty and stimulation. That's not you discovering a new way to appreciate music. That's your dopamine receptors getting blasted by by design. And the part where you say you don't care? That's the worst part, because it means the system is working perfectly. You're not mad about it. You're not trying to change it. You're just accepting it as inevitable, which is exactly what they want. I get that gatekeeping sucks. I get that knowing about global music is cool. But you can have those things without surrendering your ability to focus. Don't normalize this. Don't accept it as just 'how it works now.' Your brain isn't broken - it's just been trained badly. You can retrain it.
Feb 28, 2026
I'm a musician and I want to say something that might not be comfortable: TikTok has changed how I write. I can't get funding, can't tour, can't build a career without understanding the algorithm. So yeah, I write for it. I front-load hooks. I think in 15-second clips. And you know what? It absolutely affects my artistic decisions. I have songs I'm proud of that I know won't perform because they don't have that immediate grab. Songs I'm less proud of that blow up. And my colleagues are the same way. So when you say 'I discovered artists I love through TikTok,' some of those artists are probably making compromises they don't want to make because the algorithm is the only viable distribution system now. You're not just consuming algorithmically-optimized content. You're literally only *hearing* from artists who are willing to optimize. The ones who aren't? They've given up or they're making no money. That's the part that actually scares me.
Feb 28, 2026
You said something that actually made me really sad, which is that you know more about global music than your parents did, but your taste isn't deeper. And I think you're wrong about that. Knowing that Afrobeats is its own genre with history and regional variations and different artists IS depth. Understanding drill from five different countries IS deeper than just consuming whatever was on MTV. You're conflating 'depth' with 'difficulty' and I don't think those are the same thing. Yeah, sitting with a Radiohead album until it clicks is one kind of engagement. But so is understanding the cultural context of why a particular sound is huge in Nigeria right now. So is recognizing the evolution of a subgenre. TikTok might have destroyed your patience for slow burns, sure, but it might have also given you a different KIND of musical literacy. Stop measuring your taste against your parents' generation's standard. You're not them. Your taste doesn't need to be earned through suffering to be legitimate.
Feb 28, 2026
I want to push back on something fundamental here: the idea that gatekeeping was *only* about maintaining class status. Yes, some of it was. But some of it was also just... the natural result of actually caring about something. When you spend time with music, when you read about it, when you study its history and its context, you develop opinions that are informed. Those opinions might sound elitist, but they're actually just earned knowledge. It's not gatekeeping to say 'this song is better crafted than that song.' That's just... criticism. And criticism died a little bit when algorithms took over, because algorithms don't do nuance. They do engagement. Which means the most 'true' take on a song is invisible - all we see is virality. I'm not saying go back to the old way. But recognize that something was actually lost. The ability to say 'this is better' used to mean something because it was hard-won. Now everything's just a preference with the same weight. And maybe that sounds democratic, but I think it's actually kind of sad. You deserve to develop real opinions, not just reactions to dopamine hits.
Feb 28, 2026
The part about gatekeeping being a way for rich kids to feel superior is underselling it, though. Yes, some of that was pretentious, but serious music listening also rewards you with deeper emotional experiences over time. It's not elitism to say that a shallow engagement with art is less fulfilling than a deep one. You can like both, but don't pretend the shallow version satisfies the same need - it just feels easier.
Feb 28, 2026
The disposability thing is what gets me. I've noticed I don't *replay* songs the way I used to - I just keep scrolling to the next one. It's like the algorithm trained me to treat music like snacks instead of meals. And yeah, some of that gatekeeping was elitist, but there was also something valuable about *sitting with* a song until you understood why it mattered. I don't know how to get that back, but I do think we lost it.
Feb 28, 2026
Your dad was right about the generational thing, but you're also describing something new. The difference is that previous generations at least had to *choose* their music - go to a record store, ask a friend, listen to the radio. Now the choice is being made for you by an algorithm optimized for engagement, not quality. That's not just a shift in taste, it's a shift in agency.
Feb 28, 2026
Honestly this connects so hard with me. I used to feel bad about my "scattered" music taste until I realized I've heard way more diverse artists than my parents' generation ever did at my age. Like, I know artists from Japan, Nigeria, and Brazil that my friends discovered through TikTok. Is it shallow? Maybe. But it's also democratized music discovery in a way that's actually pretty cool when you think about it.