Making music made me appreciate pop

Loads of people hate pop music because it's vapid, meaningless, unimaginative, repetitive and simple.

I'd agree with all but the last suggestion.

I've been teaching myself music production and songwriting as a hobby for over a year now, and I'm telling you, it is not easy. Not at all.

Those four chord, upbeat love/breakup songs that have been done 200 million times over are hard to make. A catchy initial concept is tricky even working within a limited style, but after that, there's tons of sound design, layering, EQ, compression and double tracking that goes to the final result.

When I first started, just the UI of my chosen synth (surge XT) made me want to run away. I'm more capable now, but still not at a professional level of sound design.

Genuinely, the people usually credited for pop music, i.e the singers, or idols, are, imo, not the ones doing most of the work (on the music, i know they work super hard performing and filming).

It's also a tremendous shame because i now know that with the skill of these professional producers, so much musical innovation could occur if they were allowed more freedom in the industry. But the 'boring' style of pop music - the one that gets recycled from one decade to another - is saliable. I refuse to believe that it's inherently better than any other style. 

Ok.. Ok.. I'll admit it, it's not even bad. As a kid, my parents only really played music from their childhood, folk music, or classical. When i discovered modern pop, I was obsessed. Despite remembering little else from that time, I still know the lyrics to Little Mix songs off by heart. But it's just.. stale. Can anyone listen to the same stuff over and over? And yes, it does change. But to me, its so slow that i can't get on board.

Lastly, I'll be honest.. I had a lot of hubris initially, thinking that i could do something innovative, criticizing stuff i didn't fully get. Now, I have very little to show for the work I've put in but ALL the respect for people who can make songs. Even ones I wouldn't listen to!

I will keep working on my projects, and I'm getting to a point where I think I'll be sharing them soon, outside of just feedback threads. My respect for solo artists i enjoy has doubled and i hope to feel enthusiastic rather than discouraged.