Fifty years from now, Seven Nation Army will still be getting played at sports events. Like how We Will Rock You became a classic.
this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2025
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It is a great song.
But that song is already 22 years old. That’s like calling the Beatles contemporary to the 1980s. And, I’m pretty sure it’s already being used in soundtracks and stuff similar to sports events if not actual sports events.
EDIT: Steven Strasburg of the Washington Nationals uses it as a walk up song.
My buddy and I were outside a sports bar over the weekend for another's birthday, and that song Sail by AWOLNATION came on. It was quite the trip realizing that song is now 15 years old.
BUHM BUHM BUHM BUHM BUHM
DOO DUH DUH DUH DUH DOO DOO
People in this thread are realising they are oooold.
I'm starting to see grays in my mane, my mortality winks at me. 😭😂
How recent is the cutoff for contemporary?
4 years, the length of high school?
I think "Uptown Funk" by Bruno Mars/Mark Ronson (2014) and "Can't Stop the Feeling" by Justin Timberlake (2016) are strong contenders when it comes to contemporary dance music. They feel as fresh today as they did a decade ago, and I think they will age well because they exemplify the fundamentals of the genre. They're energetic, catchy, and have a je ne sais quoi that makes them stand out in a crowd. If I'm throwing a party, these two tracks are easily on the track list for the evening.
OP: gimme some contemporary music
Rudyharrelson: here's some songs from a decade ago
^although I have to admit I agree with your choices^
I mean, it's still within the "contemporary" timeframe, right? Had they mentioned disco or even 90s/00s pop like Britney and BSBs, I'd understand the disagreement. 😅
I don't think pop music has evolved so much in the last 10 years that either of those songs would be outside of the definition of "contemporary music".
Given how hypercommercialized and devoid of personal artistry the throwaway modern music industry is, if something is known as a hit then I don’t see it being something good to my tastes. Even the couple of former megastars which have returned to the scene with hits seem to have been forgotten about shortly after their release (ex. The Beatles’ “Now and Then”, Billy Joel’s “Turn the Lights Back On”). There will be some pop songs that may stick around for a while out of novelty rather than quality, whether they’re simply quirky (ex. “Gangnam Style”, “Turn Down For What”, “I Glued My Balls to My Butthole Again”), they became associated with a huge fad (ex. “Friday”, “Harlem Shake”), or they prominently featured in a musical or movie (ex. The Hamilton Soundtrack, songs from a Disney movie). “Somebody I Used to Know” is the closest thing to an exception that I can think of, but that’s also a bit quirky. Does anything by Greta van Fleet count as a hit with a chance for longevity?
Given Taylor Swift’s relatively unique situation of having a massive cult of personality and now having control over her own catalog and releases, she has potential to output exceptions to the hypercommercialized rule but I’m not familiar with her discography beyond the hits that I hear played in public spaces.
"Shut Up and Dance" by Walk the Moon
The whole TALKING IS HARD album is great
That's one of my favorite songs.
Tiktok by Ke$ha. 😉
Probably a lot of Portishead songs like Numb, Roads and Only You.
Can you really call something 30 years ago contemporary?
Yes, I just did.
Darude - Sandstorm
“Good Luck, Babe!”
ONE MORE TIME by blink-182, released in 2023.
That song is pretty good, has a great emotional core to it, and seems perfectly made for reunions.
I think this was Daft Punk actually
Daft Punk made their song in 2001.
Depends what you define as a "hit" or "standing the test of time"
In a literal sense, all of it will because it's unlikely for music to just disappear in 2025
In terms of people still caring about it? Still most of it, nostalgia means what people listen to when they're young determines at least a fraction of what they listen to when older.
In terms of still coming up in conversation, it's more important to look at the artist than the individual tracks. Those who are truly talented and compose their own interesting tracks consistently over a good number of years, will still be talked about and their tracks will still be played. I think longevity is probably a big factor, if Pink Floyd only ever released dark side of the moon (I know PatGoD was their first) and then disappeared, I don't think they would be remotely as influential.
For comparison, what are other songs which have previously stood the test of time?
Basically all the songs recommended on this thread lol
We’re all old as fuck and think it’s no later than 2010.
That buddy Holly one, I forget what it's called
Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan, released in 2023.
It's got hooks and it speaks to an interesting form of teenage rebellion/identity. I feel like the song is a modern form of "This isn't just a phase, it's who I am!"
I only just heard this the first time recently and it's got some stickiness to it! Definitely a song people will recognize a couple decades from now. Centuries, maybe not.
Few years old now but I think the first few songs on Brat are fine tbh I don't see myself not ever listening to them again. That's probably the closest I come to pop music tho
I dunno about standing the test of time, but there's a compilation of the most recognizable song each year of the past 100 years (2024 version)
Alternatively, for popular modern music, here be most popular song each month in the 2020s
Moon River
Neverender by Justice and Tame Impala
that's a sick animation video
Something by Tame Impala? Maybe Yeezus and TLOP?
Ram Ranch
None.
Nothing that's a 'hit' in the modern day will have any of the staying power of say, Beethoven.
Even now, hits are dead within a few years. The average person is being conditioned to only 'consume' entertainment that has been recently released.
To hopefully drive this point home, notice how Weird Al parodies have more staying power than the songs he's parodying? Nobody thinks this will be the case when a song is new and the consumer bandwagon is being told to like it.
I'm sure people thought, say, something like SAIL would 'stand the test of time,' but it's actually cringe as fuck to listen to now. That's not going to change as time passes.
Notice how Elvis, the 'king of rock' has no staying power? I'm sure if you told people that he'd be irrelevant now a few decades ago, they'd look at you like you're crazy. Meanwhile, literally nobody gives a shit about Elvis unless they're trying to be different or for whatever reason had his music shoved down their throat.
There is contemporary music that will stand the test of time, like from Ulrich Schnauss and Felix Laband.
But have you even heard of either of those?
Notice how Elvis, the 'king of rock' has no staying power? I'm sure if you told people that he'd be irrelevant now a few decades ago, they'd look at you like you're crazy. Meanwhile, literally nobody gives a shit about Elvis unless they're trying to be different or for whatever reason had his music shoved down their throat.
You seem to have a bias where the only music that matters to you is Intelligent Dance Music and maybe classical.
I listened to a bit of Ulrich Schnauss while typing this (Blumenthal which played into Clear Day) and...it was aight. I don't usually listen to dance music, so there's probably something I'm missing, but the way you talked it up as the only modern music that matters, I was expecting some crazy composition techniques that you'd never hear in anything even remotely pop-adjacent.
notice how Weird Al parodies have more staying power than the songs he's parodying
I can name one song where I think this is true (Ridin' Dirty > White and Nerdy.) Seriously I have no idea where this comes from.
Notice how Elvis, the 'king of rock' has no staying power?
But what about the Beatles? They have a lot more longevity and aren't that much younger. Elvis was the king of an embryonic form of Rock and Roll, and in general I don't think the earliest versions of genres age well. The earliest forms of hip hop are generally seen as being cheesy and having extremely simple flows, and if you try to throw back to them today, you're seen as making a shallow parody of hip hop, but when you get to the styles that came to prominence in the 90s, the songs are still widely listened to and beloved. Anecdotally I have trouble seeing pre-bebop jazz as jazz. Bebop is what brought in so much of the complexity that we associate with jazz today.
Thanks for the constructive response.
Schnauss doesn't rewrite the rules and has even gone on record as saying that the techniques used by classical composers for traditional instruments translate very well to making music with electronics. Instead of expecting something that tries to set itself apart as much as possible from what came before, I'm referring to artists that build upon the ideas of the past.
Another artist who you've probably never heard of that fits this bill is William Orbit. He's already bigger than Schnauss and way more recognized because of his collaborations. I guarantee if you haven't heard of him, you've heard a song he's collaborated on.
Listen to some of his solo stuff: Hello Waveforms, My Oracle Lives Uptown, Strange Cargo 5. He actually 'recently' released a new album called The Painter and I highly recommend it. It's the same concept as with Schnauss. They don't ignore what came before; they learn from and integrate it into something more.
I think the longevity of the Beatles compared to Elvis coincides with how much younger they are. Sure, they're not "that much younger," but the difference seems to linearly relate to their staying power; I'd expect the Beatles to be as relevant as Elvis is now in a few years.
That's not to say there's no chance for a brief resurgence of any of their music. Look at how fusion from the 80s made a comeback a few years ago. It didn't lead or change the direction music is going, but people could still find value in it after the "been there, done that" phase has passed.