Over the years, music has gone from mainly CDs to almost completely digital streams. With the popularity of the internet, more and more music trends have been influenced by this. The culture of music is shifting faster than ever.

Nowadays, many songs become famous based on the app TikTok. For example, songs like “Toosie Slide” by Drake and “Lottery (Renegade)” by K CAMP have become very popular on the app. Any single dropped by Drake is expected to be popular, but “Toosie Slide” was manufactured for TikTok. For that reason, sales of the song skyrocketed. Also, songs like “Say So” by Doja Cat and “Savage” by Megan Thee Stallion are trending on TikTok currently. Right now, especially with quarantine, TikTok has had one of the largest influences on the whole music industry. 

Beyond songs going viral on TikTok, many artists become more popular posthumously.  After the deaths of artists like Juice WRLD, their fan bases have grown exponentially. This trend has become more common though with more and more deaths in the music community. Most recently, Pop Smoke was shot and killed in California. The up and coming New York rapper became even more popular after this event, almost to the point of breaking mainstream. This has not been a new idea of posthumous artists becoming more popular. Most notably, 2Pac and Biggie Smalls were assassinated in the late nineties. Their loss of life created more news coverage that helped them be cemented in as rap legends and to influence this generation of rap. 

The music that becomes mainstream recently has much to do with many other influences as well. Earlier this year, two albums were released that became instantly popular. “After Hours” by the Weeknd and “Future Nostalgia” by Dua Lipa have had recent success due to the traces to 80’s music trends. Other than just old trends resurfacing, pop music has been dominant as the most mainstream genre. With the largest stars like Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Harry Styles, and many more coming from the genre, it is hard to deny the claim of pop music being on top. Nowadays, the second place genre is becoming more clear as well. Hip-Hop/Rap has grown to the mainstream in recent years. On the radio, even pop channels will play certain rap songs. “The Box” by Roddy Ricch most recently has been an example of this. Also, pop and hip-hop have been mixed into some hits like “Roxanne” by Arizona Zervas that have gone mainstream. 

Marketing has one of the largest impacts on the music game. Using social media to create anticipation and hype for singles or albums has proven large success especially in 2020. Most notably, “After Hours” from the Weeknd was heavily promoted by his Instagram page in order to create the hype of his first studio album since 2016. He revived his career with one of the largest comebacks in music history. Other than just Instagram creating the hype, features are used as a way of bringing extreme excitement to fans listening. Many times, fans of the other musician will listen to songs of other artists just because their favorite artists are featured there. This can extend the fanbase of artists by connecting the fan bases while benefiting both artists.

Music trends nowadays are created in a formulaic way that bring rise to the artist and music styles in general. There are always new ways arising every year though, which makes looking into the music industry always interesting. There is always one big question that can almost never be answered. Who will be the next big thing and how will they get to the top?