Candace Owens: The Death of Real Music

While millions of young people in the U.S. fill their playlists with viral, superficial, and increasingly degraded music, one conservative voice is once again saying what many are thinking but few dare to say: modern music has lost its soul. In a recent interview, Candace Owens — one of today’s most influential conservative commentators — reflected on how the soundscape shaping a generation no longer uplifts, inspires, or strengthens, but rather corrupts, trivializes, and weakens the spirit.

“I’ve become very careful with what I listen to because I realized how much it can impact your spirit,” Owens said in a conversation that quickly went viral. “You listen to a song, and suddenly you’re angry. What you consume musically has a direct impact on your soul.”

To Owens, music is no longer an art that lifts the individual toward something greater, but a product designed to reinforce fleeting emotions, destructive behavior, and anti-U.S. values.

From Lauryn Hill to Ice Spice: A cultural collapse
The comparison Owens made was striking: “We grew up listening to Lauryn Hill. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was an album that defined an era. And now, they’re giving us Ice Spice.” Her tone wasn’t mocking, but deeply concerned.

“With all due respect to Ice Spice, if she’s making money doing that — good for her. But what’s going on?” she asked. The question wasn’t just a critique of the music industry, but a wake-up call about the moral and cultural hollowing-out of an entire country.

Music used to have purpose: to communicate beauty, truth, personal struggle, and faith. We had the powerful voices of Whitney Houston, the emotional depth of Mariah Carey, and the brilliance of Black artists who sang about love, pain, and hope. Today, Owens warns that “the best singer-songwriter, according to people, is Taylor Swift.” While she didn’t directly criticize Swift, the message was clear: standards have fallen — and so has the culture.

What happened to real talent?
According to Owens, the issue goes far beyond generational preferences. The real problem is that the very meaning of ‘talent’ has been hijacked. “It’s a different world. ‘Talent’ is just another word nowadays. It has a completely different meaning,” she lamented.

And she’s right. Today’s music charts are dominated by artists whose relevance depends more on their social media presence than their technical skill, musical creativity, or positive impact. It’s a culture where image outweighs substance, where algorithms determine what we hear, and where the industry churns out emotionally vacant products on repeat.

Having realized this, Candace Owens has chosen to step back. “I feel like I haven’t been listening to music lately, and maybe I should start again. But right now, there’s just no good music.”

The issue isn’t just artistic — it’s spiritual and national
Owens' commentary has deeper implications: the musical crisis is also a spiritual one. And it’s no coincidence this is happening at a time when progressivism has aggressively advanced across every cultural front. The entertainment industry — aligned with a woke agenda — has replaced merit with victimhood, message with scandal, and art with algorithm.

This is the same spirit that has corrupted universities, media, and now the heart of the U.S.' identity: its culture. What we listen to not only defines our emotions — it shapes our worldview, our identity, our relationship with truth. And if what we’re listening to is rotten, the nation is being poisoned from within.

The call to recover art: a patriotic task
For the Republican electorate — and especially for those supporting President Donald J. Trump — this criticism is not unfamiliar. We’ve seen it in education, in film, and in the media. Now the battleground is music.

This is not about censorship or puritanism. It’s about demanding standards again, protecting the soul of our youth, and remembering that art is never neutral. It shapes citizens — or deforms them. It inspires greatness — or justifies decline.

From his first term, President Trump has promoted the recovery of traditional values. He has made it clear time and time again that culture is a pillar of the American project. There can be no strong U.S. without a strong culture, and no strong culture without purposeful music.

What kind of nation do we want to be?
Candace Owens has sparked a much-needed conversation: if the music we listen to no longer uplifts but degrades, what future awaits our next generations? What kind of citizens are we forming? Do we want to keep feeding an industry that normalizes promiscuity, glorifies ignorance, and numbs the soul?

Recovering art is not a luxury — it’s a necessity. In a country founded on freedom with responsibility, we cannot allow our culture to remain in the hands of those who do not love this nation.

It’s time to expect more. To seek beauty again. To remember that a civilization that loses its music will soon lose its soul.