You still do hear variations on that Sonny-and-Cher "They say our love won't pay the rent" trope. I'd love to read an article on how, if it all, the trope is changing.

In the U.K. the Spectator just came out with an article on how pop music is changing in the age of social media. One point was: Studies have found that pop songs are becoming shorter and less complex, more like jingles. Songwriters are eliminating the bridge in the middle to meet the demands of TikTok.

The title of the article makes it sound like a screed--it's something like, "Yes, pop music really is getting worse"--and it doesn't focus on love songs in particular. But it quotes some interesting scholarly research I hadn't read about elsewhere.