Is "Coworker Music" just music you don't happen to like?: 'You've all watered it down'

Internet slang sometimes has a short shelf life. 

When something becomes popular on the internet, it's only a matter of time before it rots on the vine and becomes uncool. It happens to all the best terms. First, it comes about organically, then it gains widespread appeal, and then brands start to use it in their marketing, and everyone hates it. The term "coworker music" seems to be at an interesting point in its slang journey. If you're not familiar with the term, it's hard to define, because that's part of the controversy. 

For some, it seemed to signify the kind of music that your coworker, whose taste you didn't really value, would show you while you were in the break room of your low-paying job. It seemed to be kind of a universal experience, but it meant something different to everyone. For some, it was "cringe rock" like Imagine Dragons or Nickelback. For others, it was hyper-Gen Z internet music, like Lil Peep or Yung Lean. Two very different sides of the coworker music spectrum, but it seemed to still hint at something universal. After all, aren't we all coworkers in our own right? What if the people we work with call the music we like "coworker music"? It's one of those terms that we can't all agree on, but we all have a different version of that. For some, it meant that the shelf life of the term must be close to over. Is this just the way of internet slang, or is there something more going on here?

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  • Everyone has different tastes, especially when it comes to music. Some of my closest friends, people with whom I have a ton in common, have vastly different tastes in music than I do. And you never know if a recommendation is going to hit for someone or not. I've played plenty of songs for friends who I thought would be impressed, but ended up missing majorly. So is coworker music just a way to deride all of that music at once? Or is it a genuinely useful term? Keep scrolling to read the full discourse around this term.

  • JAKE G is seething @JAKEGCO Follow coworker music was actually such a phenomenal term to refer to a very specific genre of music but you've all watered it down to just being "well known band i don't like" 5:35 PM Feb 17, 2026 151K Views
    via JAKEGco
  • . Alex Dumbske @Chunkypiss1 · 4h 0 ... yeah it's supposed to be "hey, you like metal. have you seen the ned flanders metal band? hahaha" but now it's just used to refer to sabrina carpenter Q4 175 1.2K JAKE G is seething @JAKEGco⚫ 4h EXACTLY 15K ☐ 1
    via Chunky**** JAKEGco
  • • ... Jeonghanscheekbo... @yjhcheekbo... 56m Ø Saw fall out boy get called coworker music (and not just Centuries, like their whole discography) I had to take a lap to avoid getting banned from the app. 1 27 39 IlII 1.3K ☐ 1
    via yjhcheekbones_
  • eilidh @demon_dolI • 3h Replying to @JAKEGCO coworker music should be sh like ed Sheeran, imagine dragons and noah kahan ...
    via demon_dolI
  • Billy Cobb @COBBTIMUS PRIME ⚫ 1h Replying to @JAKEGCO • When the coworkers start saying coworker music
    via COBBTIMUS_PRIME
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    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • human @vladimirlesbian ⚫ 2h Replying to @JAKEGCO 0 Coworker music is when my coworker asks "have you heard of this song" and it's just Dracula by tame impala but remixed by a band I'd never heard of, and also came out 5 months after the popularity wave of the original song
    via vladimirlesbian
  • EdRants @Ed_Rants • 3h A new term people should start using "corporate music"! Music that is so sanitised and inoffensive it's great for corporations to use for advertising. Perfectly boring for the workplace.
    via Ed_Rants
  • MartianFruit (Dom) @DominicHootie ⚫ 2h • 0 Co-worker music used refer to stuff "that one co worker" would show you, rather than stuff your co workers listened to as a normie collective
    via DominicHootie
  • BeepDuck @beepduck_ • 2h. ... this has happened with every good term ever on the internet ○ 2 27 146 lil 4.8K □ ↑ JAKE G is seething @JAKEGco ⚫ 2h sadly Q1 27 7 ılı 4.3K ☐ ↑
    via beepduck_
  • Disgruntled Goat @Dsgrntldgt • 4h ... Help me understand because I've worked remote for over a decade. Why wouldn't co-worker music be normal-a popular music? Co-workers are normal- people. That's the whole point. Work is one place where we can't self-select for our own brand of weirdo. a
    via Dsgrntldgt
  • Wimblits @Wimblits • 3h I have a coworker who exclusively listens to coworker music and also drives the work van so we're all forced to listen to it. I've been forced to listen to a country cover of crazy rap by afroman, that sleep token cover of hey ya, a squid game theme remix. It is h | ...
    via Wimblits

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