Why does new music sound old?

New songs playing old tunes - 16th October 2023

If you think that all music sounds familiar nowadays, you're not wrong. Around one quarter of the UK's top 40 songs used 'sampling', a process which makes use of older songs to create new ones.

Using older songs in this way has been common since the 1980s and there are many cases of hit songs which have sampled other records. Doja Cat's 'Paint the Town Red' (2023) uses Dionne Warwick's song 'Walk on By' (1964), while Puff Daddy's hit, 'I'll Be Missing You' (1997) makes use of The Police's 'Every Breath You Take' (1980).

People are keen on music they're familiar with, particularly songs from when they were teenagers.

Modern day sampling of older songs looks like love for the 1980s or 1990s, but this may not be the case. Since the start of the century, record companies have been interested in buying artists' creative work. Earlier this year, the company Hipgnosis bought up all of Justin Bieber's past songs for $200 million, and added Bieber's songs to their Neil Young and Shakira collections.

Some companies then persuade their new artists to reuse older songs in their music. However, for music journalist Jayson Greene, this has a bad effect on the creativity of young artists. Those companies also stop other musicians from sampling their collections. At the same time, since the public chooses music it already knows, fewer songs without sampling enter the top 40.

Perhaps people will lose interest in hearing the same songs repeatedly and when that happens, the fashion for sampling may change.