Which music genres defined 2024?
With the ever-evolving dissolution of the genre as we know it, picking the musical flavours that defined any given year is becoming more challenging in the age of mood-centred playlists and atomised online communities increasingly unmoored from the mainstream. The search for easy categorisation in the industry and streaming data wonks has resulted in the fascination with ‘genre-blending’, the novel practice of fusing one style with another that we used to call ‘creativity’.
Afrobeats (the all-important ‘S’ distinguishing from the original afrobeat as coined by Fela Kuti) and its amapiano offshoot are enjoying a continued swell in popularity, reaching well over a billion streams on Spotify this year and charting its regional popularity in the UK and USA second to the movement’s native South Africa.
Loosely translating as ‘the pianos’ in Zulu, ama piano’s big, chunky, programmed log drums and thick basslines scored many a pre-party and fiercely youth-focused, 40% of streams from 18 to 24-year-olds.
The baggier end of shoegaze saw renewed interest this year, various acts invoking the ‘Second Summer of Love’ that pumped out of Manchester in the late-1980s/early-1990s straddling indie such as Mary Cherry, but also Isle of Wight’s Ugly Ozo pushing their shoegaze toward grungier sonic abrasions on their excellent ‘Remains’ single.
Country’s enduring reputation for rustic authenticity has found its way among the pop charts; Beyoncé and Post Malone’s Cowboy Carter and F-1 Trillion all imbuing their hip-hop with a dash of country twang, plus upcoming pop artists Dasha and Shaboozey saw success with their own country ‘genre-blend’. A yearning for the arcane also hovers amid the underground, experimental woodland folk like Shovel Dance Collective or the ethereal trio Tristwch Y Fenywod exploring the British Isles’ traditional musical foundations in earnest reach of ‘olde’, communal activity lightyears away from the contemporary miasma.
With social media’s powerful influence driving much of pop music’s viral reach and TikTok emerging as the ultimate prize for many artists—often at the expense of a deep, immersive connection to their work—Charli XCX’s Brat and its accompanying “Brat Summer” campaign offered a refreshing alternative. By shifting focus back to the album as a cohesive art form, Brat became a standout event in 2024. While it may not have ushered in a new genre, it effortlessly carved a space for optimism in a pop climate increasingly stifled by algorithmic formulas and fleeting trends.
The online sphere is still ever-evolving as a domain of cross-media genre exhibits and fandom, whether webcore artists or furry musicians who are crafting their own distinct scenes away from the mainstream spotlight. Less pinned down by rigid genre markers, furries illustrate the abandonment of genre starkly, jumping just as easily from Pent Up Pup’s indie skulk, Patricia Taxxon’s experimental ambient, to Ivycomb’s emo-electro.
Some ‘genres’ defined 2024 for the discourse they triggered. The rise and rise of software such as Udio or Suno has thrust the prospects of AI-generated music into a worrying new reality. With allegations of Spotify directing reach toward its own AI artists like Jet Fuel & Ginger Ales, Awake Past 3, and Gutter Grinders, 2024 has thrown another obstruction to the independent artist, struggling for reach among a sea of automated covers.
