Today, I will provide knowledge services on two topics. The first is the rising popularity of the brainwashing song “APT.” The second is a new trend in the pet industry.
Let’s start with the first topic. Recently, a song called “APT” has become very popular. Shortly after its release, it topped music charts on platforms like Spotify, Melon, and Apple Music, and its play count on Douyin (Chinese TikTok) has already surpassed 7 billion.
One of the most notable features of this song is its catchiness. The song is full of repetitive melodies and lyrics, and even if you don’t understand the foreign language, you can still sing along to a few lines.
In fact, it’s not just this song—many people might have a vague sense that, over the years, popular music seems to have become simpler and easier to sing along with.
Of course, when discussing the trends in music, we can’t just rely on feelings; it’s crucial to look at empirical data. Today, let’s talk about some research in this area. Just this year, Scientific Reports published a related study. Two scholars from Queen Mary University of London, Madeleine Hamilton and Marcus Pearce, conducted a statistical analysis.
They examined the top five songs from the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 between 1950 and 2023. Billboard, which is America’s premier music chart, ranks the top five songs of the year based on popularity and listenership. They found that since 1950, the complexity of song melodies has indeed been decreasing.
Note that this decrease in complexity refers only to vocal melodies. In terms of other factors such as arrangement and rhythm, the complexity of music has been increasing.
The researchers also referenced several indicators used to measure the complexity of songs, including vocal range, note density, and variability in duration. According to these indicators, pop music has become more complex in many aspects over the last half-century. For example, from 1950 to 1974, songs averaged 1.8 notes per second, while from 1975 to 1999, it increased to 2 notes per second. After 2000, the average was 2.8 notes per second. This means that songs have more densely packed notes and tighter rhythms.
However, the complexity of vocal melodies specifically has been declining. This can be understood as follows: the arrangement of the song may be more complex, and the rhythm tighter, but the vocal melody itself has become simpler, more memorable, and easier to sing along to. In short, today’s songs are more “brainwashing.”
But upon further thought, this is actually quite strange. It is said that there has always been a hierarchy in the music industry: complex music looks down on simple music, and music with high difficulty looks down on easier music. At the bottom of this hierarchy, supposedly, is the “shouting rap” or “Karaoke-style” music. This involves extracting a small segment of a song’s melody, looping it, and then adding rhyming lyrics. Now, this step can even be handled by GPT, making it even simpler than before.
So, why, knowing this hierarchy exists, does pop music become simpler? According to the findings in the study, the simplification of music is not because musicians are lazy, but because new variables have emerged.
The study highlights two significant waves of simplification: the first occurred in 1975, and the second around 2000. What happened during these two years?
Let’s start with the first wave, 1975. This was around the peak of the first disco craze in the United States. Yes, the popularity of disco made simpler music more favored. What kind of music is suitable for dancing? Music that has a fast rhythm and simple melodies. Disco music typically had a tempo of 120 beats per minute, and its lyrics were simple with repetitive sections.
The second wave of simplification occurred around 2000, driven by two factors. One was the rise of hip hop in the late 1990s and early 2000s. For example, in 1996, the Grammy Awards introduced the category for Best Rap Album, which became one of the most prestigious hip hop awards. In 2000, Eminem won the Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance, boosting the influence of rap among white audiences.
You have to understand that hip hop’s essence is simple melodies. The origins of hip hop and disco in the U.S. were closely timed. When disco arrived, young people from poor neighborhoods, unable to afford club entry, decided to create their own parties. They started gathering in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and invented a special way of playing music: DJs would loop a small part of a song’s melody rather than playing the whole track. This was the birth of DJing. And because the melodies were simple, it left more freedom for lyricists to create their own verses. This is how early hip hop was born, and its influence lowered the complexity of vocal melodies in popular music.
In addition to this, around the year 2000, the proliferation of digital audio workstations (DAWs) also played a role. While we won’t get into the technical details, these tools made it easier to copy and paste melodies, and as composers had better tools at their disposal, they tended to simplify their melodies.
So, that’s the research we’re discussing today. The study itself isn’t too complicated, but it opens up an interesting line of thought. In the past, we looked at changes in music purely from the perspective of the music itself. However, this research reminds us that the changes in music reflect changes in the broader system behind it. Whether it’s the emergence of new listening scenes like disco, or the rise of a new music style like hip hop, these changes have reshaped music.
Following this line of thought, we can brainstorm several other ideas.
For example, in a recent interview, singer Alan Tam mentioned that many young singers today focus on showing off their vocal skills and hitting high notes, emphasizing technique over emotion. He pointed out that this isn’t entirely their fault. It’s because there are so many singers now, and so many ways to broadcast music, that the audience’s attention span is limited. In the past, a singer could occupy your attention on TV for tens of minutes, but now, on platforms like Douyin, a newcomer only has a few seconds to grab someone’s attention. Therefore, singers try to make the most of that time by using every technique they know.
This shows how the scarcity of attention resources among listeners leads to changes in how music is performed.
Similarly, we might find that the disco revival in pop music around the 2010s was linked to the rise of square dancing.
In summary, by following this line of thought, we can come up with many more ideas. In other words, changes in music style not only reflect people’s preferences but are also a result of the evolving societal system, its layers of changes passing through every part of the music industry.
Now let’s move on to today’s second topic. Recently, the “2025 China Pet Industry White Paper” was officially released, and overall, the growth in consumer spending within the pet industry is quite evident. For example, in 2024, the urban dog and cat market in China will surpass 300 billion RMB, with the proportion of young people owning pets continuing to rise. Particularly, the consumption related to pet cats is showing signs of surpassing that of pet dogs.
Today, we’ll review several new trends in the pet industry that have emerged over the past year.
The first trend is the explosive growth of “traveling with pets.” According to data from the American market research firm GMI (Global Market Insights), the pet travel services market was valued at 1.8 billion USD in 2023 and is expected to continue growing at a rate of 9.5% annually until 2032. Back in China, according to the “2023 China Pet Industry Trends Insight White Paper” released by Paichong, the number of families owning cats and dogs is approaching 100 million.
In response to this trend, various industries have already started introducing new service models. For example, Hainan Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Tianjin Airlines, Beibu Gulf Airlines, and Lucky Air have all announced that pets that meet the regulations can travel in the cabin with their owners. In May of this year, the China Railway Customer Service Center issued a “High-speed Rail Pet Transportation Survey,” indicating that more comprehensive pet transportation services might be introduced on high-speed trains in the future.
The second trend is the potential emergence of pet aging in China. According to the “2019 China Pet Industry White Paper” jointly released by Dog People Network and the Asia Pet Expo, in 2019, most pets in China were in the younger age group. For instance, 17.65 million cats aged 2-6 years old accounted for 40% of the total, and 21.46 million dogs aged 2-5 years old accounted for 39%. But now, five years have passed, and the youngest pets in this group are now 7 years old, with the oldest ones exceeding 13 years. It is predicted that by 2026, the number of senior dogs and cats in China will reach 53.65 million.
This has given rise to new demands, such as the emergence of professions like pet funeral directors, pet embalmers, and pet taxidermists.
For market reference, Japan’s experience can also be insightful. For instance, Japan’s pet insurance company Anicom published the “2023 Family Animal White Paper,” noting that Japan has entered the pet aging stage. Breeds like Toy Poodles, Rabbit Dachshunds, and Kyi-Inu, among others, have an average lifespan exceeding 15 years. Similarly, breeds like Ragdoll cats, Japanese cats, Mix cats, and Persian cats also live longer than 15 years.
This trend has generated several demands. For example, there might be an increased demand for nutritional foods for senior pets, particularly those with medicinal properties. Additionally, the demand for medical and care products for elderly pets is expected to grow significantly. Many animal hospitals in Japan have introduced pet health check-up packages.
In other words, as pets age, their daily care and medical needs will increase substantially, further pushing the pet industry towards more specialized and segmented services.
The third trend is the flourishing market for exotic pets. Exotic pets generally refer to animals other than cats and dogs, including rodents, rabbits, birds, reptiles, and more.
For example, according to a “2023 Hot Trends Report” from CCTV, aquatic pets like crabs have become popular among young people. Compared to reptiles like snakes, spiders, and lizards, aquatic pets are relatively easier to care for and have high ornamental value.
In fact, a while ago, Dingdong Maicai, a grocery platform, launched pet crabs called “Xiāng Shǒu Xiè” (literally “Crab of Togetherness”), which quickly sold 14,000 units, topping the platform’s “Hot New Trends” chart.
Similarly, birds are also gaining traction. According to “First Financial Commercial Data Center,” sales of avian exotic pets rank third in the exotic pet market. For example, the Capybara, a viral pet last year, saw its price soar to 45,000 RMB per individual during the 618 shopping festival, with sales increasing by over three times compared to the previous year.
To summarize the “Pet Industry Insight Report” from Xiaohongshu, the three major trends in the pet industry going forward are: scientific pet care, specialized pet products, and mutual engagement from both the demand and supply sides. The pet industry is no longer limited to traditional products like pet food but is expanding into areas such as healthcare, offline experiences, and lifestyle services.
To conclude, today we’ve covered two topics.
First, why is popular music becoming increasingly catchy? We discussed a study by the team at Queen Mary University of London. Two key factors behind this trend are the popularity of disco music and the rise of hip-hop.
Second, what are the new trends in the pet industry? We covered three areas: the rapid growth of traveling with pets, the aging of pets leading to increased demand for specialized services, and the rise of exotic pets.
That’s all for today.
