We are going backwards when it comes to pop music. At least the way it is released.
Back in the day it was all about singles. Albums were just compilations of the newest hit singles with some "b-side filler" added in. After some time artists actually started to care about the album as a concept. Albums became the symphonies of popular music, you could say. The tracklist was carefully thought out and so on. Because of streaming, we are going back to the single release times. Except there's no physical singles or even compilation albums.
One of my coworkers (he's in his early 60's) genuinely claims that ALL albums have just one or two good songs and everything else is just filler. I once told him that I don't own any albums where the second half is considerably worse than the first half and he just laughed in disbelief. I asked him to name one album where that is the case and he said "Every album!". This is how a lot of people view albums as, as odd as it is, so this isn't anything new, you know?
Crazier still, this guy claims to be a lover of music (he even plays some piano) and that his taste in music is objective. This means that if he dislikes a song; it's objectively bad. And if a song doesn't play on the radio: it's because it's a bad song.
(To be fair, this person is also the biggest idiot I've ever met in my life. Like, you know the thing about "think of the most dimwitted person you know and imagine that most people in this world are even less intelligent than him"? Well, when I think of this man I think "at least all the people in this world are smarter than him.")
And when it comes to trends and people listening to music simply because it's popular.... Well, that has ALWAYS been the case. You really think that the screaming idiots who ruined all The Beatles concerts by having loud orgasms in the audience gave a crap when they released Sgt. Pepper? Most of those teenagers had moved on already. 1960's in general is a pretty good comparison to kpop when you think about it. A lot of bands were made artificially (The Monkees) and some released multiple albums in a year, almost like a factory line.
Most people just don't care about music in the sense I assume people on this forum do. In a similar fashion most people don't actually care about movies even if they watch something now and then just to be entertained. People either dance to music or play it in the background. They don't care about the music itself, as long as it's pleasing to their ears on the most surface level. I don't mean people need to be educated in music theory or anything like that, I'm talking about simply being passionate about music you listen to.
Just look at music festivals. Most people who go to music festivals don't care about the bands that are playing, the sound is usually pretty trash anyway and the audiences only know few hit songs by a few of the bands performing. They only go there to have fun, do drugs and to get laid.
I remember how back in the day when I discovered some good music I would always play it to my friends with such excitement, trying to explain to them how hearing this music moved me and why it enriched my life. They always had these dead cow stares as they looked back at me, like the lights were on but nobody was home. It was so disheartening to realise that I can't connect with these friends of mine through music (or movies or books for that matter). A girl once told me how she likes this band that I'm somewhat familar with, so I asked her what's her favourite album by them. She got angry at me. Apparently the word "album" is somekind of a musical snob term and I was putting her down by using it, lmao. She was only 4 years younger than me.
Since then I've met people who seem like they are actually listening to me when I talk about my favourite music. They discuss it with me and then they usually tell me about their favourite music and why they love it. These people however are in the minority: because most people don't care about music.