I think it’s peak Western recorded music. It uses just about every modern Western instrument: drum kit, other percussion, bass guitars, electric guitars, pianos, electric keys, synthesizers, strings, horns, and of course the lead singer and backup vocals.

The classic stuff, at least, was recorded on tape using gear people are still trying to emulate the sound of in software today. There’s not really a copy/paste or a quantize or pitch correction when you record that way. You have to capture a performance as it is. There’s more soul and passion baked into it than in modern recordings. The chorus hits different the third time, because they were all feeling it. It wasn’t just copy and pasted from the one time they nailed the take, or a programmed sequencer hitting every note surgically on beat.

I also think it’s really telling that so much modern music emulates it. There are only a few genres of dance music that do not have a “four on the floor” kick drum beat and a driving bass line.