About this episode
The episode explores the decline of joy in music from the 1960s to the present day.
Who Killed the Fun, Fun, Fun ? Music used to be our greatest joy, then this happened… 1964. Fun, Fun, Fun. That was a song on the album “Shut Down, Volume 2” by my childhood heroes, The Beach Boys. Go have a quick listen, the song is only two minutes long. But they’re two minutes of pure joy! “Fun, Fun, Fun” was released 62 years ago. So now I’d like you to compare it to any new single from 2026 in the New Music Friday playlist. What do you notice? Yep! Somewhere between the mid-1960s and the mid-2020s it seems we lost all the fun. In six decades we’ve gone from musicians playing real instruments while their fans dance together, to AI-generated songs that are consumed alone via earphones. Wow! It’s no wonder so many people are depressed nowadays. This is the story of who killed the fun, fun, fun in music. And more importantly… Why? Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox . The first thing we need to understand is that music is only one piece of the puzzle. Take a quick look at the new releases on Netflix, and compare those to the movies from the mid ‘60s. Then take a quick look at the new books on Amazon, and compare those to the ones from the mid ‘60s. It won’t take long…
People in this episode
Host: Ray Harmony
Topics covered
- music history
- cultural change
- media consumption
- AI in music
- depression and media
Keywords
- music
- Beach Boys
- Fun Fun Fun
- AI-generated songs
- media consumption
- depression
- cultural change
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: The Beach Boys, Netflix, Amazon
Books & works: Fun, Fun, Fun, Shut Down, Volume 2
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- Forget Meditation, Listen to Music. · April 17, 2026 · 6 min
- Writers & Readers Against AI. · March 27, 2026 · 9 min
- AI Human vs Human AI. · March 13, 2026 · 10 min
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