Metallica’s Kirk Hammett Explains What’s Wrong With Pop Music Today

While stars like Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, and Ariana Grande continue to dominate pop music, Kirk Hammett believed the genre was suffering from the age of technology. Since AI was released, countless creatives have warned about the dangers of the technology. Those fears included AI stealing a person’s likeness, voice, and mannerisms. But for Hammett, he wasn’t focused on the power of AI. He claimed that the main problem with pop music was being too perfect. 

Discussing the current state of pop music, Hammett insisted that there was no struggle in pop music. “I kind of lament [not having] those days when people had to really struggle to learn, because it’s all in the struggle. And it’s all in the determination and being inspired at the same time that forces you to come up with your own stuff and eventually your own sound and style.”  

Not having to push through those doubts, Hammett not only worried about artists but all of music. “I just worry about how things are so perfect these days, the musicianship. It’s great that all these guitar players have all this vast knowledge of technique at their fingertips. I wonder where it’s leading to.” 

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Kirk Hammett Had One Word To Describe Pop Music

Hammett looked back at his own career. Never forgetting the years of practice and failure, he said, “I started off learning off records, just trying to develop my ear and learning songs and guitar solos from playing records over and over again… And it was a real challenge because if you got three different guitar players together and said, okay, play I’m the One on Van Halen’s first album, all three guitar players would play it differently. There was some charm to that.” 

Although Hammett might not like the direction pop music is heading, the musician still had hope. “I hope it leads to a better quality of pop music, popular music, and just a better quality of songwriting. Because right now, songwriting and pop music is c***. I’m hoping that all these great musicians who can teach themselves through the internet step up and put all that great learning and all that great inspiration into creating new stuff, new songs, the future of music, and at a higher standard than what it is now.” 

And making sure every fan and pop singer heard him, Hammett concluded, “I’ll say it again, K-R-A-P. C***. Sorry for all you pop fans out there.” 

(Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images)