Hooked on Out-of-Sync Track Records

Remember when bridges in songs were a thing? Where lyrics had actual meanings and the tune was something worthy of humming at work. Yeah, those were the glory days of full-bodied, slow-burn songs. Ziplining to 2025, we are living in the age of instant hooks and 20-second bursts of dopamine shots. Nowadays, songs don’t grow on you; they ambush you.

Hooking on a Viral Feeling

“I still see creators making great music that isn’t shaped by Reels,” says Mumbai-based singer and freelance graphic designer Kelly D’lima. Artists are no longer crafting music meant to be savoured. Instead, they are building catchy traps designed to keep the listeners hooked. Producers and songwriters are no longer starting with a story, melody, or setting the mood. They are starting with the moment, that 12-to-30-second beat drop or lyrical hook that's going to spawn dance challenges and become background music for makeup tutorials. “Trends come and go,” rues D’lima. “In a few years, artists will probably have to adapt to a new format altogether.”

Algorithms reward repetition, fuelling hype and letting users remix sounds to suit their reels, often at the cost of originality. “I’ll use a trending sound two or three times, but after that, it feels overdone,” says Samitth Karnekar, who juggles content creation with his job as a merchant navy officer.

Playing It Safe

Hooks are frontloaded, choruses are chopped, and verses? Let’s just say they’re on life support. Gone are the slow builds and subtle reveals. Now, it’s all bang, no buildup. Let's focus more on structure. A traditional pop song would typically flow like this: verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge / final chorus. Each section had a purpose—a place to develop the emotion, story, or rhythm. The bridge especially acted like a reset button or a reveal, a dramatic twist before the final hurrah. Singer and music composer Prithvi Gandharv is among the few holding onto authenticity like it’s the last instrument left on a tech-saturated stage. “No, I sing my heart out without thinking at all,” he says. “I never even plan what I’m going to sing—I go with what I feel at the moment.”

Now, it’s just “Intro, hook, done.” With shrinking attention spans, singles and EPs rule, and narrative arcs are out, because nobody’s sticking around for Track 7, Side B anymore. “I’ve never avoided creative risks just because something might not work for Reels or Shorts,” adds Gandharv.

Attention Spans

It’s not entirely the musicians’ fault; listeners have developed a collective case of doomscroll. They want music that mirrors their feeds — flashy and forgettable. If a song does hold its grip in the first 10 seconds, we declare it dead. We rather decided to ‘’get to the good part,’’ remixed on CapCut. For D’lima, the key isn’t in resisting change but in using it wisely. She sees trends and algorithms not as a creative compass but as a marketing tool. “Stick to making music the way you’re most comfortable with. Let the trends help you market, not dictate what you write.”

Musicians now use this to analyze what lyrics stick and what beats don’t. Which lyric got clipped most in fan edits? Which beat drop went viral? Which 9-second snippet made it into a meme? “Sometimes your content doesn’t even show up unless people search for that specific sound,” adds Karnekar.

D’lima doesn’t see this shift as entirely new. “I recently saw a video of Akon talking about how he made his songs ‘ringtone-friendly.’ He knew a catchy 20 seconds could sell more, so he built songs around that.” Whether it’s ringtones in the 2000s or reels in 2025, the medium may change, but the strategy remains: make it snappy, make it stick.

A Bite-sized Reel

Karnekar has seen this shift play out firsthand. Sometimes the views spike just because of the audio. But at the same time, it’s limited—your content might only surface if someone is actively searching for that sound.’’

Social media reels were the start of the 10-15 seconds boom, and unknown artists can now go from bedroom to billboard with one viral soundbite. Genres like lo-fi, regional rap, and hyperpop have found massive global audiences they might never have reached through traditional routes. “No song hits anymore—artists just recycle one trending tune all season like it’s a blueprint,” adds Karnekar. A perfect example? The haunting ballad Ranjha from Shershaah, and then a completely different Ranjha again, used in Masaba Masaba. Same vibe, same mood—just rewrapped for the next wave.

Karnekar, who often enhances his videos with VFX to create a more immersive experience, says the rise of algorithm-chasing and AI-generated edits is draining the soul out of content. “Earlier, there was room to build something unique—now everything’s a race to replicate,” he explains. The push for virality has flattened creative risk. For creators like him, it’s not just about views—it’s about preserving a sense of authorship in a feed that increasingly rewards sameness over storytelling.

Future Trend

We’re not going back to the ’90s. The era of the slow, romanticized album rollout is behind us. But what we can hope