The Death of the Unavoidable Anthem (And What Replaced It)

What’s up friend!? Welcome back to Songs That Don’t Suck, I’m your host, Mark.

Let’s start with a wild thought:

Pretty much every song ever recorded lives in your pocket.

You can summon Prince at a stoplight.
Cue up The Clash in the cereal aisle.
Fire up Janet Jackson while your dentist explains why you grind your teeth.

Music has never been more available.

And yet…

When was the last time a song felt unavoidable?

Not viral.
Not trending.
Unavoidable.

🌪️ When Music Hijacked Culture

There was a time when music didn’t soundtrack your life — it hijacked it.

When Thriller dropped, you didn’t discover it. It discovered you. The premiere of the “Thriller” video wasn’t content. It was an event. There was a before and after.

At the center of that hurricane was Michael Jackson. At his peak, he wasn’t just popular — he was gravitational.

And then there was MTV — the tastemaker, the kingmaker. Early on, MTV famously limited airplay for Black artists. That wasn’t accidental. That was structural.

In 1983, David Bowie calmly asked an MTV VJ why so few Black artists were in heavy rotation. He didn’t rant. He simply asked.

Shortly after, “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” entered rotation — and the dam broke.

The ’80s monoculture gave us shared anthems.
But it also decided who got to have one.

That’s the trade-off.

📺 From Broadcast to Algorithm

Fast-forward to today.

There’s no single gatekeeper. No VJ. No radio programmer.

There’s Spotify.
There’s TikTok.
There’s YouTube.
There’s whatever your algorithm thinks you’re feeling at 2:17 p.m. on a Tuesday.

Music is frictionless.

You don’t sit with liner notes.
You don’t argue over a $15 CD.
You skip in seven seconds.

You don’t hear what everyone else is hearing.

You hear what resembles you.

And maybe that’s healthier. Maybe it’s more democratic. More inclusive. More room for artists who’d never have made it past the MTV lobby in 1982.

But nothing interrupts you anymore.

Nothing hijacks your attention.

👑 Is Taylor Swift the Last Monoculture Superstar?

Which brings us to Taylor Swift.

Biggest tours in history.
Cities economically reshaped for a weekend.
Re-recordings turning ownership into activism.
Lyrics dissected like scripture.

When Thriller hit, the culture was centralized.

When Midnights dropped, the culture was fragmented — and still snapped into formation. At least the Swifties did.

But here’s the difference:

With Michael Jackson, you couldn’t opt out.
With Taylor Swift, you absolutely can.

You can live in a separate musical universe and never encounter her unless your feed overlaps.

That’s not lesser.

That’s different.

In the MTV era, monoculture happened because there were only three channels.

Now? It happens because millions voluntarily decide something matters.

That might actually be harder.

🔥 Maybe We Don’t Miss Dominance. Maybe We Miss Surrender.

Back then, music felt like weather.

Now it feels like climate — always shaping us, but subtly.

Maybe what we’re mourning isn’t dominance.

Maybe we miss surrender.

There was something powerful about being swept up in something whether you liked it or not. About shared annoyance. Shared obsession. Shared arguments.

Now we curate. We filter. We opt in.

The campfire didn’t go out.

It multiplied.

And maybe that’s growth.

The anthem didn’t die.

It just stopped shouting at everyone at once.

🎵 This Week’s Songs That Don’t Suck

Alright — philosophy aside — let’s get into the music.

Here are five tracks that cut through the noise and actually made me feel something.

1️⃣ “Barbed Wire” – Cardinals

4

I’ve brought Cardinals back for an encore — because there’s another face of this band you need to hear.

Previously, I shared what I’d call a modern ballad. This time? More energy. More movement.

And a lot more accordion.

The The Decemberists comparison still holds vocally — and honestly, the accordion gives me early-2000s indie nostalgia in the best way.

If you liked the first taste, dive deeper. There’s range here.

2️⃣ “Secret Abuse” – Evermore

Sometimes bands slide into my DMs

I listen to everything. I like very little. I am, at this point, a picky bastard.

Evermore sent over their EP Scorn — and it scratches that itch.

These guys are from Italy, and it’s nice to see the Nu-Grunge revival spreading overseas. There’s a strong Stone Temple Pilots vibe here, and vocally I catch flashes of Scott Weiland with a touch of Cobain’s growl.

It’s sludgy. It’s angst-ridden. It feels like a basement in 1993 — and I mean that as a compliment.

3️⃣ “Madeline” – Highland Cinema

This one’s for the heartland rock lovers.

Think Tom Petty.
Think Bruce Springsteen.
Even a dash of Ryan Adams during his Gold era.

Nothing groundbreaking.

It doesn’t need to be.

It’s solid songwriting. Great production. Easy to throw on and just… exist with.

Sometimes simple is perfect.

4️⃣ “Nancy” – Alan Doyle (feat. The East Pointers)

Who’s ready for St. Patrick’s Day? Or as I like to call it — Amateur Drinker Appreciation Day 🍀

Alan Doyle — formerly of Great Big Sea — is back with a new solo album.

He hails from Newfoundland (the tropical isle… allegedly), and brings that unmistakable Celtic twist that makes you want to:

• Move
• Smile
• Raise a pint

With The East Pointers in the mix, this one’s tailor-made for your March playlists.

5️⃣ “SWEETIEPIE” – The Sophs

Two words:

Mouth Harp.

(Also known as the Jew’s Harp.)

How often do you hear that leading an indie folk rocker? Exactly.

It caught my ear immediately.

There’s a bounce here that reminds me a bit of The Dead Milkmen — especially vocally — with some They Might Be Giants energy in the production.

It’s quirky. It’s fun. It’s infectious.

And sometimes that’s all you need.

🎤 Final Thought

Maybe music isn’t less powerful.

Maybe it’s just less centralized.

Maybe the anthem didn’t disappear.

It decentralized.

So maybe the better question isn’t:

“Why doesn’t music feel unavoidable anymore?”

Maybe it’s:

“Why do we expect it to?”

Is that a good thing… or a band thing?

As always, that depends on your point of view.

Thanks for listening — and go support these artists.