- - In 2025, music fans got Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift – and AI. | The Excerpt

Dana Taylor, USA TODAYDecember 19, 2025 at 2:10 AM

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On the Friday, December 19 2025, episode of The Excerpt podcast: In a music year dominated by artists like Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift, perhaps the most talked about “artists” were built by AI. How is the music industry grappling with the way art and music are defined? USA TODAY National Music Reporter Melissa Ruggieri joins The Excerpt to discuss some of 2025’s most memorable moments in music.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Dana Taylor:

From Bad Bunny's massive streaming numbers to Taylor Swift's The Life of a Show Girl, 2025 electrified music fans across the globe. There was a wild card this year though, AI. As artificial intelligence continues to push the music industry into strange new territory, how might it impact what we call music?

Hello and welcome to USA TODAY's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Friday, December 19th, 2025. Joining me to discuss some of the biggest stories in music this year is USA TODAY National Music Reporter, Melissa Ruggieri.

So good to have you on the show again, Melissa.

Melissa Ruggieri:

Love being here.

Dana Taylor:

Before we dive into how 2025 shaped up for some of the world's most loved artists, I want to talk about a rapidly emerging point of friction. AI has forced the music industry to confront what creativity really means, how we define art and artists. At the end of 2025, where does that conversation stand?

Melissa Ruggieri:

It stands in a really precarious place, actually. The Grammy Awards had to reckon with AI a couple of years ago. If you remember that artist, Ghostwriter, who dumped this fake duet between The Weeknd and Drake online and then wanted to submit it for a Grammy, and then the Grammys came back and said, "No, no, no, no, no. That is not how this is going to work. There has to be a human element involved in it." Which is also very different than what The Beatles did in the end of 2023 with "Now and Then," when they re-released a song or they put together a song using technology, but from old tapes that the band was actually part of.

So those are two very distinctive things that I think we need to keep in mind as AI really does infiltrate everything. I mean, it's not just the music industry, it's so many other industries as well, our own included.

And there's something to keep in mind too. Time Magazine recently made a really good point about that song "Walk My Walk." And it was a number one song on Billboard's digital country music sales chart by an artist called Breaking Rust. And as Time pointed out, because so few people actually purchase digital music, it only really takes a few thousand purchases to top the chart. So it doesn't necessarily mean when you see that these AI-generated songs are going number one... The charts aren't also what they used to be, so maybe we panic just a little more mildly, I guess.

But AI in general, you see it in the acting industry as well. And there's going to come a point where we're not going to be able to discern what is real and what is fake, and that's the scariest part of all. I do hope that our organizations like the Grammys are already showing how they can get in front of this and make sure that the human element is still going to be involved, and that we are able to know the difference between it.

Dana Taylor:

In the age of AI, live performances could be the differentiator in terms of connecting with fans. Who crushed it on stage this year?

Melissa Ruggieri:

I saw so many concerts this year. I traveled to a lot of tour kickoffs, which was great because I was there when... The first shows aren't always the smoothest shows, but they're always the most fun to be at, because sometimes if I'm lucky enough to see a show later in the tour, to see what was tweaked since the beginning and what little gaps may have been fixed or whatever.

But to answer your question, Lady Gaga. I think she put on just a stunning piece of performance art. It was like seeing a Broadway play mixed with an opera mixed with a pop show. She puts so much effort and care and creativity into her live shows. And fans had been waiting to see her back on stage for a while. It was great to see her in arenas. She did stadiums last time. So when I say intimate, 20,000 people, not exactly intimate, but relatively speaking it was.

And Benson Boone, I love this kid. It was his first arena tour. Completely sold out. He can sing. He's got memorably catchy songs. And if you've ever seen a performance of him, whether on an award show or something, you know that his acrobatics are a big part of what he does. And I have to say, I held my breath many times during that show when he's doing back flips off pianos and going, "Ooh, the tour insurers must not be happy about this." But he really knows how to entertain a crowd. And for someone so young, I think he's doing a great job.

And I also caught Doechii on her Live from the Swamp Tour. She is a captivating performer. And if you didn't catch her Grammy performance this past February, try and check it out, because that just gives you a really great idea of what she's capable of doing. She says that her rapping is inspired by Buster Rhymes, and it really is, in the best way possible.

And one more, I mean, this is an evergreen, Earth, Wind & Fire. I just saw them this month. And that band is just incredible. There's three originals left, Verdine White, Ralph Johnson, and of course Philip Bailey. Philip Bailey still cracking glass all over the place with that falsetto of his. I mean, the fact that he's 74 and can still hit those notes. And there are nine other musicians with them on stage just recreating some of those amazing funk pop hits that just never go out of style, really. And to see them still out there and just... You could tell how much they enjoy also being on stage and derive that energy from the audience.

So those are just a few of the highlights this year, I think.

Dana Taylor:

Melissa, we still have Coachella. We still have Red Rocks. Is the Las Vegas Sphere now the must-play venue for major artists?

Melissa Ruggieri:

It should be, but the thing is not every major artist can play the Sphere because there's certain criteria that goes into that. You have to be an established band. You have to have the catalog that could sustain 20, 30 shows. A lot of these artists that played this last year, they started off just doing five or six, like Kenny Chesney and the Backstreet Boys. And of course the Eagles are still performing from when they started in September of 2024, adding dates here and there.

But what we're seeing is because the demand has typically been so big for these acts, that they do continue adding shows. So the Backstreet Boys are coming back next year. So are the Eagles. The beginning of the year, they've got some dates. No Doubt is kicking off their residency in May. And I think they're a great addition. I do hear that there are some more acts that will be announced in the next couple of months for later in the year.

The thing about the Sphere though, it is just really an incomparable venue. And whether you're going for a concert or whether you're going to see The Wizard of Oz, which is one of the most stunning things I have ever seen in a room, there's just nothing that... You're not going to see this anywhere else. You're not going to get the sound that you get there. You're not going to get the visuals that you get there, like what they did with The Wizard of Oz, with rerecording the entire soundtrack on the original soundstage with a hundred-piece orchestra. I mean, it sounds absolutely amazing. And then all the effects that... You know, people, there are some purists who didn't like the fact that they made some tweaks to the movie or cut some things from the movie. Honestly, you don't really even notice what's cut. And they did such a magnificent job with recreating it.

And there was a use of AI actually, but also in what I call the good AI. The good AI to clean things up, to make it look better. When you've got this all-encompassing screen, you need the frame to be a little bit bigger, so they had to add some stuff on the edges to fill the space, basically.

But yeah, the Sphere is just one of those places that a lot of venues... It's great... Look, for a while, it ruined me for other concerts. It really did. And it's still great to see arena acts and stadium acts and club acts and everything else, but there's just something different when you walk into that place that you just get a feeling that you're just not going to get anywhere else.

Dana Taylor:

Bad Bunny surpassed Taylor Swift as the most streamed artist of the year on Spotify. In terms of music, is 2025 the year of Bad Bunny?

Melissa Ruggieri:

I think the last couple of years have been the year of Bad Bunny actually, but it's hard to argue that this one wasn't the start of one that will definitely continue into 2026 as far as the spotlight on him, of course, with the Super Bowl halftime show coming up. He's got six Grammy nominations at the February ceremony, and he is the first Latin artist to be nominated for Album, Record, and Song of the Year.

So his album Debí Tirar Más Fotos, which means "I should have taken more photos," has gotten several nominations as well as the title track, "DTMF," basically an abbreviation of that. And there's a lot of controversy around him for the Super Bowl halftime show. I would say the NFL has been playing games overseas for the last few seasons trying to corral in a global audience, and there is no bigger global star right now than Bad Bunny.

And he's also a fantastic entertainer. He loves his hometown of Puerto Rico. He's done so much for them. And I just think that, yeah, I think that we're going to see maybe 2026 be an even bigger Bad Bunny year.

Dana Taylor:

Well, Taylor Swift put Eras to bed and released The Life of a Show Girl this year. Does she still have a lock on the world of pop?

Melissa Ruggieri:

She is the goddess of everything still, yes. No, she does, because The Life of a Show Girl went straight to the top, sold millions of copies, which really doesn't happen anymore. She's one of the few artists who can actually still sell records. Also helps that she releases different versions, different colors of her records, and fans just eat that stuff up and they'll buy five different versions of the same record. But the fact that they're buying all of them still speaks to her immense popularity.

And even though she's not touring behind The Life of a Show Girl, because she has a wedding to plan now too, but she's still out there. The End of an Era, the documentary series that just landed on Disney+ this month that will continue through the rest of December is there. And it's really, really fantastic. I was lucky enough to catch the first two episodes of it in New York last week. With her. She was there, and she talked about it ahead of time. And just to see what went into that tour I think is going to be really enlightening for a lot of people who might not understand how touring works and what it's like to have to essentially build a small city every time that that show went on, and then dismantle that city and bring it to another city and put it together again.

Not to mention the money that goes into it. I mean, sure, of course the tour made $2 billion in ticket sales, but you also have to think about what the production costs were behind all that. And you see some of that. And you also see a lot of her human side and some of the things that she had to deal with while that tour was happening. And it kind of reminds you that, yes, she is still the biggest pop star in the world, I think, but she's also a person too, and that really comes through on the documentary.

Yeah, I think maybe next year, if she leans more toward her personal life, we might not have Taylor in the spotlight quite as much, but for now, yeah, no, she hasn't gone anywhere.

Dana Taylor:

I want to turn now to the world of K-pop. When we talk about animated movie soundtracks, Melissa, has the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack, with Huntrix and the Saja Boys, earned a place alongside Disney classics like The Lion King and The Little Mermaid?

Melissa Ruggieri:

Hard to tell. I mean, songs from the film have three Grammy nominations, two for "Golden," including Song of the Year, which is one of the most prestigious categories, and also for a best compilation soundtrack. So I'm just not sure it's going to have the same classic appeal of music from The Lion King or The Little Mermaid, just because of the way we consume things compared to 1989 when The Little Mermaid came out or 1994 when Elton John's Lion King songs came out.

I mean, we live in a world of TikTok attention spans, and even though "Golden" has gotten tremendous radio play, it is inescapable, I'm not yet convinced that 30 years from now, we would be talking about it like you are referencing The Lion King and The Little Mermaid. I think that's yet to be seen.

But I also think American fans of K-pop have been waiting for this breakthrough for years of when... BTS, of course, was huge, but then it's sort of like, okay, when is this really, really going to take over? And I don't think anyone was expecting an animated movie on Netflix to be the thing. But what it has done for pop culture and just put Huntrix out there. And I guess we'll see after the Grammys, depending on if "Golden" actually wins anything or if it's just a, "Hey, we're going to capitalize on the zeitgeist right now and see what happens after that."

Dana Taylor:

You wrote that the girls weren't just having fun at the 2025 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, they stole the stage. What was your most memorable moment?

Melissa Ruggieri:

Seeing Salt-N-Pepa reunite with Spinderella, which I still think is the greatest DJ name in the history of DJ names, and I'm very jealous of it. I mean, the legal stuff that they all went through for several years and the infighting and everything else, and to see that they have made up in the last year or two, I think, and then were able to be on the stage together. I mean, Salt-N-Pepa were such pioneering forces in hip hop. And I think people sometimes forget about them. We talked about them with the 50th anniversary a couple of years ago of hip hop, but unless they're really in the conversation, you don't remember just how formative they were.

And Cyndi Lauper. When I was growing up, it was always Cyndi versus Madonna. And we always knew who had the bigger career, but I used to argue, even when I was a kid, that Cyndi Lauper was the better artist and the better singer. And even though Madonna was the one just steamrolling the charts and filling stadiums, I always thought that Cyndi was just the more substantial pop star.

And you look at what she's done for 40 years from Broadway to her work with the LBGTQ+ community to activism in other areas and the creativity in her music. I mean, that award was long overdue. I was thrilled to see her get it.

Dana Taylor:

Melissa, I can't let you leave without asking about your recent USA TODAY exclusive with legendary hit maker Diane Warren. Just how many hits is she responsible for? And did she leave you with a story about her life and career that you could share with us here?

Melissa Ruggieri:

She left me with about 90 minutes of stories, actually. It was wonderful. I met with her at the Middleburg, Virginia, film festival end of September and October. She was talking about her documentary, Relentless, which is on the shortlist for Oscar nominations and has been nominated for a Grammy. And that documentary really shows you just the intense work that this woman does all the time. She's had nine number one songs, 33 that were in the top 10. She's worked with everyone from Cher to Aerosmith to Celine, to Michael Bolton, to Toni Braxton. And it's just this crazy list. And her current song is with Kesha, which is from the documentary.

And yeah, she told me some really great stories about what it was like writing those songs, how a lot of them were in honor of her dad. Celine Dion's "Because You Loved Me" was written for her dad. And a lot of people don't necessarily know where her influences come from, and a lot of times it really is just from her own life.

She's just a really interesting, clever person, and I absolutely adored spending time with her, and just was like one of those moments where you go... You know, a lot of people probably would rather spend the day with Bad Bunny or Taylor Swift or whatever, but I was perfectly happy sitting in front of a fireplace with Diane Warren for 90 minutes and hearing her talk about her legendary career and also her animal activism. She has a rescue farm in California where she lives. And she said that aside from music, that animals are the thing that is closest to her heart. So how can you not love that?

Dana Taylor:

Finally, Melissa, I know you had an incredible 2025, but what are you most looking forward to in the world of music in 2026?

Melissa Ruggieri:

Well, I am really looking forward to this No Doubt at the Sphere starting in May, because I missed them at Coachella, so I didn't get to see their little reunion there. I haven't seen them since the last time whenever they toured in probably the early 2000s or 2010s. So I think that's going to be fun.

I'm really excited about Rush heading back on tour in June. They've got a female drummer, Anika Nilles, taking over on drums for the late Neil Peart. And you should just look her up if you have any doubt of what this woman can do behind a drum kit. She will definitely make Neil proud.

And before all that, of course, Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl. I am really interested to see. He knows the kind of spotlight that's on him, and he knows what people are saying... some people are saying about him. And I think he's really going to bring something spectacular, and just any naysayers are not going to have a whole lot to complain about.

Dana Taylor:

Melissa Ruggieri is a national music reporter for USA TODAY. I love speaking to you about music, so thank you so much for coming back.

Melissa Ruggieri:

Thank you so much.

Dana Taylor:

Thanks to our senior producer Kaely Monahan for her production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to [email protected]. Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. I'll be back Monday morning with another episode of USA TODAY's The Excerpt.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift dominate 2025’s year in music | The Excerpt

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