What new music genres have emerged in the 2020s?
Has popular music passed the point where new genres are possible? While the 2020s have shown no sign of mainstream or alternative music running out of consistent quality and an ever-evolving climate of innovation, can a truly ‘new’ genre be identified? Ever since rock and roll‘s fusion of R&B, country, and blues exploded in the 1950s and invented the teenager, the chemical combinations of genres to form new movements and possibilities arguably have meant genre labels have always been somewhat arbitrary.
That said, there are new and interesting ‘happenings’ in the 2020s musical ecosystem. While it has roots in the latter end of the 2010s, the contentious termed ‘eggpunk’ has enjoyed a notable upswell, with Bandcamp littered with its rubbery, synth-laden, cartoon yolk. Spearheaded by Melbourne lo-fi garage rocker Billiam, Sydney’s Warttmann Inc label, and Prison Affair’s Barcelonian alien hardcore, the genre’s characteristic mosquito mulch has hovered over subsequent acts such as Snooper or Tommy Cossack and the Degenerators.
Similar to ‘eggpunk’, genres can often be arbitrarily dreamed up with tongue firmly in cheek. Bristol-based noise punks Belle Royals combine pummeling walls of psychedelic din replete with highly idiosyncratic humour and references to the Geordie cultural landscape in what they call ‘9wave’. Key distinguishing features of ‘9wave’ are hard to tell, but thematic obsessions with Peter Beardsley, King Kong, and Sunderland’s Metrocentre perhaps reveal a joking disregard for pigeonholing.
Emerging from the Johannesburg townships, the South African twist of kwaito and house music has had a major presence online. Amapiano, a loose Zulu translation of ‘the pianos’, features big, chunky, programmed log drums and thick basslines perfect for all-night quick-stepping and body popping.
Speaking to The South African in 2021, Amapiano DJ and pioneer Kabza De Small revealed producer MDU, aka TRP’s genesis of the scene: “I don’t know what happened. I don’t know how he figured out the log drum. Amapiano music has always been there, but he’s the one who came up with the log drum sound. These boys like experimenting. They always check out new plug-ins. So when MDU figured it out, he ran with it.”
TikTok‘s seismic impact on music, both as an industry and in consumption, has created a climate where content can swiftly bring someone overnight global attention. It even created its very own Billboard Top 50.
Strangely, the 2020s have seen the return of the ‘novelty’ single repackaged for the Gen Z generation. There is no better example of this ‘influencer/creator genre’ than Megan Boni’s ‘Looking for a Man in Finance’. Initially, just a satirical sketch posted on her profile, the viral clip saw an approved remix by London production duo Billen Ted and extra remixing by David Guetta to much success, affording Boni the chance to ditch her sales job and pursue a music career.
With AI’s ever-evolving sophistication, the discourse around its threat to creative livelihoods and the arts, already struggling with a cost-of-living crisis, continues apace. The rise of software such as Udio or Suno could usher in a wave of AI music sooner than you think. “A grotesque mockery of what it is to be human” was Nick Cave’s response to AI’s musical ambitions, and most would agree with him.
