TLDR: An academic study shows popular songs are becoming more generic as streaming and finance reshape music into assets, not just art. The rise of streaming platforms and the growing role of finance have restructured the culture industry. This is turning songs, playlists and platforms into financial assets. With nearly 16 million followers, the highly influential hip-hop playlist RapCaviar does not just reflect listener tastes – it shapes them. To test whether these pressures are leading to the homogenization of music, we conducted a comparative content analysis of hip-hop music from two eras.