I feel the music direction has gone in a slower beat tempo. Some songs are OK today, but not like in the past, where I felt artists was not afraid to take risk and go out of the comfort zone. You don't find much of those songs anymore. Only Son Tung M-tp is doing the upbeat genre.
This is down to record labels and managers. They likely found something that makes money and they want all artists to be following the same money-making music theme. It sucks because I feel the same but at least we can still enjoy earlier vpop.
Music does this all the time, no matter the genre. It gets to a point where labels only focus on making money and the soul within the music is removed. I prefer older Vpop myself for this reason.
I see some vietnamese saying Vpop will be the next thing in Asia pop. To be honest, they are fooling themselves. The current Vpop sound will find little international fans. Korean music was once like Vpop, very ballad centric. But they changed and made Kpop to what it is today. Had KPOP continued with sad ballads, it wouldn't have been as popular as it is now in the globe. Only Son Tung M-TP and a handful artists can make it.
I'm not saying Vpop should drop ballads completely. Sad and ballad music is a important theme for vietnamese culture and people in general. But they need to modernize the genre and start to incorporate more different genres. Like those videos I posted. There are ballad influence in them.
I think some of it has changed but at its core, it is still the same. I like the current vpop just as much as I did 5 years ago. I guess it really depends on who you are following. A lot of the younger talent is being controlled more by labels and managers which is why it might not sound as good.