2020s in music

This article describes trends in popular music in the 2020s.

For music from a year in the 2020s, go to 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29
Popular music
Timeline of musical events
List of popular music genres

The beginning of the decade was a difficult time for the music industry, with the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in widespread concert cancellations due to risks of mass infection.[1]

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the cancellation or postponement of numerous music-related events scheduled to take place in the early 2020s, including major tours, festivals, and television appearances. Due to the restrictions, many artists conducted virtual experiences as an alternative to live events (e.g. Dua Lipa's Studio 2054 and Taylor Swift's Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions).[2] The COVID-19 pandemic has also resorted to postponements or the rescheduling of major tours to at least a year or two from its initially scheduled tour dates, examples including The Stadium Tour (co-headlined by Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard), Ozzy Osbourne's headlining tour No More Tours II and Rage Against the Machine's reunion tour.[3][4][5]

Success of "Good 4 U" by Olivia Rodrigo (pictured left) and "Happier Than Ever" by Billie Eilish (right) indicated pop punk revival.

Media outlets and fans online observed a music trend called "Sad Girl Autumn" or "Sad Girl Fall" in early 2020s, which refers to the release of melancholic and introspective music by female artists during autumn, such as Swift's Red (Taylor's Version), Adele's 30 and Mitski's "The Only Heartbreaker"; it is a counterpart to "Hot Girl Summer", a catchphrase coined by American rapper Megan Thee Stallion with her 2019 song of the same name.[6]

The early part of the decade carried on the cross-genre trap music influence which started in the late 2010s.[7] Thanks to the rise of social media platforms such as TikTok, music genres old and new had a moment in the spotlight. Genres such as synth-pop, nu-disco, slap house, pop-punk, K-pop, emo-pop, indie rock, and afrobeats garnered considerable attention in the mainstream media.[8][9][10][11][12]

British rock magazine Kerrang! wrote that Olivia Rodrigo's "Good 4 U" (2021) leads the commercial comeback of rock music in 2020–2021, noting how it is the first rock song since Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life" (2003) to spend four or more weeks atop the UK Singles chart, alongside chart success of other rock-adjacent artists, such as Willow Smith, Machine Gun Kelly, Måneskin, and Miley Cyrus.[13] Slate proclaimed that Rodrigo "might be the dying genre's best hope", pinpointing that "Good 4 U" is the "most up-the-middle rock song to top the [U.S.] Hot 100 in a decade or more".[14]

Pop

Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, The Weeknd, Adele, Dua Lipa and Lil Nas X are some of the best-sellings pop artists of 2020-2021.[15][16][17]

Synth-pop
Dua Lipa's singles "Don't Start Now" and "Levitating" were part of the nu-disco trend.

Influenced by the 1980s retro musical elements, Lipa and the Weeknd incorporated heavy disco, funk and synth-pop influences in their works such as Future Nostalgia and After Hours, respectively; both the albums were met with critical acclaim. Lipa's singles "Don't Start Now" and "Levitating", and the Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" and "Save Your Tears" were commercially successful.[18] "Blinding Lights" went on to become the biggest Billboard Hot 100 song of all time, spending 90 weeks on the chart—the most for any song.[19] Future Nostalgia won Best Pop Vocal Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.[20]

Pop rap

Pop rap, a genre hybridizing pop, hip hop, and R&B styles, remained prominent in the 2020s and continued to grown in popularity. Examples include "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)" and "Industry Baby" (with Jack Harlow) by Lil Nas X,[21][22] and "Say So" and "Kiss Me More" (featuring SZA) by Doja Cat.[23]

Hyper-pop

Hyper-pop is a genre of pop music that features exaggerated, eclectic, and self-referential elements such as boisterous synth melodies, Auto-Tuned "earworm" vocals, and severe compression and distortion, as well as surrealist or nostalgic references to 2000s Internet culture and the Web 2.0 period.[24] Artists such as Charli XcX, Dorian Electra, A.G Cook, and 100 Gecs began the decade with a string of critically acclaimed album releases. Due to themes of self-reflection and social isolation that connected with listeners during the covid-19 pandemic, Charlie XcX's album 'How I'm Feeling Now' became a modern classic and a must listen for the genre.[25] My Agenda by Dorian Electra was a polarizing film at the time of its debut, with many critics finding the abrasive satirical overtones annoying, while others found the openly queer experimentation exciting and enjoyable.[26] American rapper Rico Nasty experimented with hyper pop sounds on her album Nightmare Vacation, which lead to critcal acclaim and the mainstream hit IPHONE.[27] The death of beloved music producer Sophie was felt through out the entire musical landscape, not only a major contributor to the hyper-pop genre but a voice for transgender musicians in the electronic scene.

Pop punk

Pop punk, fueled by 2000s nostalgia,[28] had a revival in the early 2020s with artists such as Machine Gun Kelly, Willow Smith, Maggie Lindemann, Meet Me @ the Altar,[29] Kenny Hoopla and Travis Barker releasing tracks that achieved general praise from the public. Tickets to My Downfall by Machine Gun Kelly reached number one on the Billboard 200 chart in 2020. Willow Smith collaborated with Travis Barker from Blink-182 on the song "Transparent Soul" which reached the top 10 on the rock charts. Avril Lavigne also returned to the genre in collaborations with Barker and Mod Sun. "The Chaos Chapter: Freeze" and the repackage "Fight or Escape" by the Korean boyband Tomorrow X Together brought pop punk and emocore references, mainly on their lead singles "0X1=Lovesong (I Know I Love You)" and "Loser=Lover".[30] Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Halsey, and other pop/alternative singers, also brought influences from pop punk and power pop in Sour, Happier Than Ever and If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power, respectively.

K-pop
Lisa of Blackpink made her solo debut in 2021

Lisa made her solo debut with her single album Lalisa in September 2021. The album sold over 736,000 copies in its release week in South Korea, making her the first female artist to do so.[31] The music video for its lead single of the same name recorded 73.6 million views on YouTube in first 24 hours of its release, becoming the most-viewed music video in the first 24 hours on the platform by a solo artist.[32]

Latin pop

Latin pop and other Latin music genres such as reggaeton continued to be successful in the 2020s.[33] Selena Gomez released her first Spanish-language project, Revelación, in March 2021. It incorporated urbano influences.[34] The soundtrack of Encanto, Disney's 2021 animated fantasy film, written and produced by American playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, was a viral phenomenon, enjoying widespread popularity on the internet. It has spent multiple weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart. Far Out called the phenomenon "Encanto-mania".[35] The TikTok videos tagged with the hashtag "#encanto" have received more than 11.5 billion views in total, as of January 23, 2021.[36][37] The most popular song of the soundtrack was "We Don't Talk About Bruno", a salsa tune which experienced widespread commercial success in 2022.[38] "Dos Oruguitas" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 94th Academy Awards.[39]

Folk/indie

Influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, many artists created unplugged, "stripped-down" music mainly driven by acoustic or classical music instruments and melancholic subject matter. Swift abandoned mainstream pop for indie folk, alternative rock and chamber pop styles. She released two of the best selling albums of 2020, Folklore and Evermore.[40][41] Folklore spent a record eight weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart,[42] and won the Album of the Year at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.[43] Lorde ventured into psychedelic folk-pop in her third studio album, Solar Power (2021).[44] Lana Del Rey released two folk-inspired studio albums in 2021: Chemtrails over the Country Club and Blue Banister.[45][46]

Indie music had a major revival in the latter half of the 2010s thanks to bedroom pop slowly entering the mainstream music scene. Tame Impala, Phoebe Bridgers, Glass Animals and Fiona Apple released records in the early 2020s. Tame Impala's The Slow Rush was a commercial and critical success, leading to five of Kevin Parker's songs' reaching the Billboard top ten in 2020.[47] Up-and-coming acts such as Clairo and Girl in Red also started achieving radio success with their songs "Sofia" and "Serotonin" respectively.[48][49] Glass Animals' breakout song "Heat Waves" stayed number one on the Billboard Alternative Charts for seven weeks in 2021, making it one of the most successful singles of the year.[50] English singer-songwriter PinkPantheress released her debut mixtape To Hell with It, which received widespread acclaim in reviews from music critics upon release. To Hell with It was named the third best album of 2021 by Time and the fifth best album of the year by The New York Times's Jon Caramanica and Gigwise.[51][52][53] American rock band the Strokes released The New Abnormal on April 10, 2020, produced by Rick Rubin The album charted in the top ten in six other countries, including the US and the UK. It was also nominated for and won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, marking the band's first nomination and win.[54][55][56]

Country

Dangerous: The Double Album by American country singer Morgan Wallen became the first country album to spend its first four weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart since Shania Twain's Up! did so in January 2003.[57] Having finished third on American Idol, country artist Gabby Barrett released her debut single "I Hope" in 2019. It reached number one on the Billboard Country Airplaychart dated April 25, 2020,[58] and eventually topped the Hot Country Songs chart dated July 25, 2020, making it the first debut single by a female artist to top the latter since 2006.[59] Swift's re-recordings, Fearless (Taylor's Version) and Red (Taylor's Version), were the top two best-selling country albums of 2021.[60]

Rock
Power Up by AC/DC (pictured left) and Senjutsu by Iron Maiden were among the successful hard rock and heavy metal albums of the 2020s.

The genres hard rock and heavy metal had both declined in popularity by the early 2020s. However, several veteran acts have continued to maintain popularity worldwide, including AC/DC, whose 2020 album Power Up reached number one on the charts in various countries (including the United States and their homeland Australia),[61] while Iron Maiden earned their first Top 5 album on the Billboard 200 chart, Senjutsu, for the first time in its 41-year recording career.[62] Other veteran heavy metal acts, including Testament and Dream Theater, debuted on the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 chart with their respective albums Titans of Creation and A View from the Top of the World.[63][64]

Hip Hop

Since 2017, R&B/hip-hop has become the most popular music genre on the Billboard charts in the United States, surpassing pop and rock to define modern popular music.However, since 2019 it has been displaced by pop.music [65][66]

Trap

Trap music's domination from the 2010s was still felt throughout the whole musical scene in the early part of the decade. Complex hi-hat rhythms, tuned kick drums with a long decay, and lyrical material that often focuses on drug addiction and violence characterize trap music.

Experimental Rap

Artists such as Yung Lean, PlayboyCarti, JPEGMafIia, Clipping, Run the Jewels, and Genesis Owusu Dominated the Alternative Hip-hop scene in the early 2020's. On November 23, 2020, Carti revealed that Whole Lotta Red was finished and has been sent to his record label. Carti was featured on Lil Yachty's deluxe album Lil Boat 3.5 on the song "Flex Up" with Future on Thanksgiving Day, 2020. The following month, DJ Akademiks, a hip-hop pundit, stated that Whole Lotta Red would be released on Christmas Day. Carter has stated that the film will be released on December 21, 2020, just in time for Christmas. Carti's 24-track album Whole Lotta Red was published on December 25, 2020. It was Carti's first chart-topping release, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200.[67][68] visions of Bodies Being Burned is the fourth studio album by American hip hop group clipping. It was released on October 23, 2020 through Sub Pop. It received positive reviews from music critics. With inspirations from modern industrial, noise, power electronics, and 1980s horror movie soundtracks, the album's production is powerful, often bordering on distortion. Producer Jonathan Snipes expressed his dissatisfaction with many concept albums he heard that were still basically "guitar-drums-bass," stating that the band attempted to select timbres and sounds that were significant in the context of the songs and referenced topics discussed in the lyrics. The band is recognized for their thorough sampling and for not using royalty-free sounds, instead recording all of the samples and sound effects themselves. Clipping also uses a variety of dawn chorus recordings made by Snipes and field recordist Christopher Fleeger at notable murder locations for the closer, "Secret Piece," and throughout the album.[69][70]

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