It is surely influenced by a broader social outbreak of pleasure-seeking behaviors. Then there is the sad case that we have become so habituated that we don't expect anything more from music than what is presented to us by the Machine. It is this group that I feel for, but to say as much is to present myself as some sort of listening elite, who has some delusion about how sophisticated his tastes in music are. But I was once among them, and I have emerged from the cave. Allow me to describe the nature of my delusion, and then judge me, if you will.
Music is, first, about identification.
Catchy songs may serve to lift us out of ordinariness and provide a sense of enjoyment and pleasure, at least for the duration of the song. But the nature of this identification is that it is only based on easily-perceived sensory impressions. That is almost to say that this response is a physical reaction to the music. At another, I daresay, deeper level, we might resonate with the lyrical content of the song. When this happens we are finding a common ground with the artist, some space wherein we are no longer alone because someone else has had that same feeling or experience.