2014 had so much potential and turned into a nightmare

More like 2016 lmao

I disagree. I'd argue that pop culture was already starting to gradually move in a "darker" (not that is really a word that I would use to describe the pop culture of the time, but I digress) direction by the second-half of 2013, when Lorde's "Royals" became a massive hit and electropop had largely been phased out of the Top-40 charts. 2014 was a pretty tumultuous year for world events and I don't doubt that the events that occurred had an adverse effect on people's perceptions of the times, however pop culture itself was largely unaffected by what was going on in the social and political world. Even in an alternative universe where the Ebola crisis, disappearance of MH370, the rise of IS and the MH17 disaster had all not occurred, at least 95% of the music (as well as movies and TV shows) that was released around that time would have still been the same.

Exactly what I thought. I thought it was just my personal life which was like that.

Tbh I don’t remember this year because I was studying my ass off. Other than it was pretty much the last year I listened to country radio as it was going very downhill and was not to my taste anymore.

Nah, more like the 2010s.

What do you think was the cause of it? I don't remember there being any changes in October 2014.

2015 was still a very pop-orientated year for music though. Many of the biggest hits of that year were pop songs, such as "See You Again", "Shut Up and Dance", "Cheerleader" etc.