Popular artists and tracks include Prince’s (l) ‘When Doves Cry’ and ‘Purple Rain,’ and Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’ and ‘Beat It’|penner; Drew H. Cohen|CC BY-SA 3.0; CC BY-SA 4.0

Maybe our parents were right, music really might have been better back in the day. A new study suggests that listeners aged 13 to 24 are increasingly turning away from today's chart-toppers and embracing older songs.

The Luminate study shows that the popularity of 2020’s music plummeted from 55% in 2021 to 44% in 2025.

Conversely, preference for music from the 1990s and earlier climbed from 18% to 25% over that same period. The ’90s music became the fastest-growing decade by streams from Q2 2024 to Q2 2025, surging 8%, followed by the 2000s at 7%.

Luminate attributes the surge in interest to older millennials introducing their teenage kids to formative tracks. An increase in Y2K trends on TikTok, as well as in videos by Addison Rae and PinkPantheress, has also contributed to the nostalgia.

Popular artists and tracks include Prince’s “When Doves Cry” and “Purple Rain” and Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” and “Beat It.”

In catalog growth, Imogen Heap’s ’90s track “Headlock” led with a 172.1 million stream increase, followed by Radiohead’s “Let Down” and “Creep.”