Music In the Big 2025

Music has always been an interesting topic for people to discuss. It reflects a lot about a person—their personality, their style, who they are. The older we get, the more we start to care about music. Music preferences vary, and it is always fun to find out what’s happening in the music world and how it’s changed in the past years. Everyone has different opinions on music; however, there is always at least one or two genres or artists that rise above them all.

Everyone has different music tastes. Some people like a song while others hate it. Some people prefer mellow songs, and others prefer songs with loud instrumentals and yelling. Nonetheless, there are a couple of songs where most people agree on whether they’re good or not. For example, songs like “Gnarly” by Katseye, “Golden” by HUNTR/X, “back to friends” by sombr, “Die With A Smile” by Lady Gaga, “Ordinary” by Alex Warren, “Soda Pop” by The Saja Boys, and “APT!” By Rose and Bruno Mars are some examples of songs that have gone viral. According to seventh grader Melanie, “I think that Sabrina Carpenter, Tate McRae, and Billie Eilish are trending artists right now.” And she has a point! Many of Sabrina Carpenter’s songs, such as “Manchild” and “When Did You Get Hot?” were insanely popular. Tate McRae’s “Just Keep Watching,” “Sports Car,” and “Tit For Tat” took the world by storm. Billie Eilish’s “Wildflower” and even her song from 2024, “Birds of a Feather,” trended this year. Vanessa Martinez says that she thinks a popular artist is Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift has been one of the most popular pop artists for a while, with her title tracks and even B-sides always topping charts. Her newer release, “The Fate of Ophelia,” went viral as well, even though many people didn’t believe the song would be as good as she’s getting older and losing more popularity.

Some students, on the other hand, prefer genres like rap and rock. Eighth grader Simon Cessna says, “My favorite band of all time is Blink 182 or Linkin Park because they just have awesome music.” Eighth grader Liliana Nunez says, “I believe Kendrick Lamar is trending.” Kendrick Lamar’s collaboration with SZA, “Luther," was insanely popular. An anonymous eighth grader says her favorite artist is Eminem. Liliana Nunez also shares her opinion on rock, pop, and rap. “I prefer genres like pop and rap because I don’t like how rock is super loud, and it's more instrumental than singing. Also, pop always keeps me hyped up and rap makes the music super catchy,” she says. So far, students have said that rap, rock, and pop are trending, but Esmeralda Carrillo has a different opinion. “I think the music genre that is trending is K-pop because of the K-pop Demon Hunters movie.” And she’s right about that! K-pop Demon Hunters topped the charts for a long time, and many people got interested in the world of K-pop after they saw that movie. Some popular k-pop groups at the moment are BTS, Blackpink, Straykids, Enhypen, IVE, and aespa, although there are many more.

There are some major differences between music in the big 2025 than music from when our teachers were children. Some people prefer older music over the new trending music now, and other people have controversial opinions over music today. Simon Cessna says, “I think I prefer early 90s-2000s rock if you really count that as old music!” Groups from that time, such as Nirvana, Linkin Park, and the Foo Fighters are still popular today. Eighth grader Esmeralda Carrillo says, “I prefer older music because older music just hits the right spots.” Some kids also have harsher opinions on trending music. Ally Valencia and Cristine Mercado both agree that they hate the trending music. Some kids share their point of view, and others don’t. Everyone has different tastes in music, but if a song or artist is super popular, it is also going to be super hated. For example, “Gnarly” by Katseye and the artist Taylor Swift are extremely loved but also extremely hated. When Mr. Pineda and Mrs. Hudson were asked about their childhood music and artists nowadays, they shared a similar opinion. Mr. Pineda said, “I prefer old music because there was no autotune.” Mrs. Hudson said that the main difference between her childhood music and the music kids listen to now is “Autotune, because now people’s voices get modified and don’t sound natural. People also can’t sing live because even at concerts they use autotune.” When they were children, singing live was a normal occurrence. Now, in 2025, most artists lip sync and use a backtrack, and even if they do sing live, their voices get modified so they sound perfect. In many songs nowadays, artists sometimes even sound robotic because of all the editing their voices go through. Autotune has become a part of music, so normal that sometimes people don’t even realize their favorite artist is using autotune. 

To conclude, there are many different genres of music and many different music tastes. Pop and rap are the most popular genres currently, and there are many different artists, such as Eminem, Sabrina Carpenter, and more, that have been quickly rising to the top of the music world. Rock is also a pretty popular genre, although it definitely is not as popular as it was when our teachers were children. Some people don’t like popular music, but music tastes vary, and no person will ever be the same. Overall, we can safely say that music has become a big part of our lives, adults, teens, and children all included.