Music is universal, but it’s also an industry heavily influenced by trends. The problem is that trends evolve fast, and the process has become even faster in recent years with social media. Just tuning in to any radio can produce a vastly different listening experience in the same year nowadays.
So, if you feel like you’ve been missing out, don’t worry because we’ll help you identify the latest music trends in this article. That way, you’ll be able to listen to what’s trendy while relaxing, or enjoying hobbies and chores or driving to your destination and understand what you’re hearing.
Hip-Hop: The Ever-Evolving Genre
Few genres have been able to stay relevant as long as hip-hop music. Just look at the Billboard Hot 100. Out of the 10 most played songs, six are rap songs, and the number one spot is currently occupied by Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar.
The genre has been around since the late 1970s but truly attained commercial success in the 1990s thanks to the rise of “gangsta rap”. It produced icons like Tupac Shakur, Notorious BIG, NAS, Snoop Dogg and many more. These artists have gone beyond the world of music, starring in movies and TV shows and appearing on national television for sporting events.
However, the hip-hop of today isn’t the hip-hop of the 1990s because hip-hop is, first and foremost, a fusion genre. It’s able to mix influences and reinvent itself constantly. Here are the current trends in hip-hop. Yet, it’s important to note that even past genres are still represented, like with Avalanche The Architect, who can rap over boom-bap in a song and go for a more Crunk vibe in the next.
Trap music is the consolidated base for most current music genres. Its name comes from street artists. Trap first started to appear in Atlanta and other southern US cities with an impoverished community. It’s known for its hard-hitting electronic batteries, and the 808, an iconic bass drum from the Roland TR-808, was pitched down and used as a rhythmic sub-bass.
When you say Drill, most people think about Pop Smoke. However, the New York rapper wasn’t the first; he took a genre that was going viral, originating in the UK. Yet, this sound really is American, as explained by King Louie, a Chicago rapper, in an interview for Vlad TV. The sound evolved and changed quite a bit when it got overseas and got tinted again by the New York style when landing in the hands of Pop Smoke.
New Wave is pretty recent, but the title now is a bit of an overstatement. This genre is visually associated with taking back what was cool in the late 1990s/early 2000s, including oversized clothes mixing unconventional colours and patterns.
For the sound, it means going back to synth sounds and drums that sound more robotic than before with the low-resolution numeric treatment of the time. Contrary to Drill and Trap, New Wave, like its inspiration, is all about being flashy, owning the best things and showing it to the world. This genre also taps into different influences like House and various electronic genres like Trance with arpeggiators and fast-paced drum patterns.
Rock Music: All About the Process
At the other end of the industry spectrum, rock music is the other genre topping the charts. While hip-hop is about financial success and results, current rock shows more interest in the creative process and distancing itself from the negative influence of labels.
Alternative is mainly rock, but it can encompass other genres like country or even pop (which is kind of a paradox on its own). This genre isn’t defined by the sound itself. It’s more about the music being created using alternative (get it?) ways to produce and publish. Freed from deadlines and requests from major labels, it’s believed that the artist can then offer a more genuine performance and go in new directions.
Cinema and the internet can be huge influences on music. In 2022, a new Batman movie came out with a new take on the character, and in 2024, we’ll get a new The Crow movie. Both movies have one thing in common: the grunge aesthetic.
Everything from the soundtrack to the clothing style of the heroes and their brooding comes from Grunge. People who weren’t born then are rediscovering this style thanks to the Matt Reeves movie and going back to other movies which embraced this movement. Naturally, this leads to prolonging the experience by listening to the music featured in these movies, and that’s how Grunge is making a comeback.
Electronic Music: The Rhythm of the Night
Electronic music has always been around since we’ve had synthesisers. However, no one is really listening to Jean-Michel Jarre or Gorgio Moroder in 2024. Still, like hip-hop, it has evolved while remembering its history, mixing influences and making callbacks to former hits.
Electronic has left its mark on many generations and many dance floors. It’s been an inspiration to many movies, series and youtube channels. You can also find electronic music as a backtrack to popular games, even with select casino games, such as Fire Joker. The rhythm and beat naturally gets your body ready to dance.
EDM, or electronic dance music, has had its ups and downs, and if many consider the peak to be around the 2010s, it seems like it’s coming back in a new form. Remember the 1990s hits like “The Rhythm of the Night” by Corona or “Pump Up the Jam” by Technotronic? These hits are being remixed and reused by new artists, whether it’s DJs in the club or hip-hop producers.
A few years ago, there was a resurgence of the 1980s, and it led to what we now call Vaporwave. This genre is part of a more significant movement that includes visual arts. It’s a new interpretation of the 1980s.
Musically, it translates with the use of analogue synths, big, dense sounds overpowering an upbeat drum pattern, usually followed by melodic uplifts and sometimes samples from movies. This genre then had many variations, like horrorwave, for example, borrowing the style of 1980s horror movie soundtracks.
Will More Genres Emerge?
Even though the top trending songs are mostly part of the genres we’ve mentioned here, there are other genres emerging constantly. They’re often absorbed by the behemoth hip-hop, such as Phonk and Afrobeats, and every genre uses syncopated drums. Don’t forget to check out our Presenter’s pick to find the latest trends in music.
