The Music That Defined The 2010s

Written By Nick Canovas

How do you define the sound of a decade? A period of ten years can hold hundreds of moments that guide the course of the popular sound, some monumental and influential on impact, and some miniscule, sowing their seeds to be reaped months or years down the road. The 2010s are no exception - in fact, the past decade might be THE most difficult to narrow down. Thanks to the near complete adoption of streaming by industry and listener alike, not to mention the immense influence of the internet, the possibilities for genre cross-pollination have been endless. Is it even possible to define the sound of the 2010s?

...I think so! Or at least I’m gonna try. In this video, I want to narrow down the releases in the 2010s that were most representative of the way music transformed within the decade. In other words, what pop music sounded like on January 1, 2010, what it sounded like on December 31, 2019, and what music changed it between those dates. I wanted to do 10, but I needed to put it to 13. Some ground rules:

  1. This is NOT my favorite music of the past decade. If you wanna see me talk about my favorite albums of the 2010s, go check out this video.

  2. I don’t want to try ranking these pieces of music, so instead this will be a chronological look at the decade.

  3. If I don’t include something that you think should be on here, that’s okay! I want this to be an opportunity to encourage well-meaning discourse, and if you think something should be on this list, I’d love to know why in the comments. (Just be respectful about it.)

  4. The music I select can be definitive for any reason related to the music. It might be how it was composed, how it was released, who worked on it, how it was integrated into pop culture, and so on.

  5. A big ol disclaimer: musical influence or impact is not confined to a specific period of time, and it’s not as if the developments and changes in this decade appeared out of nowhere.

  6. And this is a BIG one: a piece of music does not have to be good to be definitive.

And with that, let’s go all the way back to 2010… actually, let’s go back a bit further. (2008)

PRE-2010

(Recession footage) The 2008 financial crisis left the world in the worst recession it had ever experienced. Financial struggles impacted nearly everyone, from those who made music to those who just listened to it. In terms of personal consumption, the most popular way to listen to music was through digital downloads, and the biggest marketplace for digital music was Apple’s iTunes. 

Simultaneously, social media was exploding in the collective consciousness - Facebook and Twitter were revolutionizing communication on the internet. Some companies saw an opportunity to merge both the musical and the social: sites like YouTube and Soundcloud allowed anyone to post their own music. This was thanks to a massive boom in consumer-ready audio equipment, letting anyone with a computer to record, mix, and release music. And all the while, a small startup in Sweden called Spotify, led by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon, was about to launch in the UK.

So with that background:

2010

What does pop sound like in 2010? Well, it’s big, it’s loud, and it’s constantly telling you about the great time you’re having. Artists like the Black Eyed Peas, Ke$ha (still in her dollar sign phase), Taio Cruz, Flo Rida, Pitbull, David Guetta are all thriving with music built off bright synths, head-shaking bass, and a clear driving influence from electronic dance music, or EDM. Rap pops up in the charts occasionally, though it’s often bolstered by a guest contribution from a more pop-leaning artist. There are also a few acoustic flukes… “aflustics.” Newcomers like Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber have blown onto the scene, in large part thanks to platforms like YouTube delivering their work (or parody covers) to listeners. 

This newfound influence from club music came from the desire for listeners to escape the often harsh realities facing them. Will.i.am said this was a major reason for the Peas’ turn to EDM, saying:

“It was a conscious decision to make this type of record. Times are really hard for a lot of people and you want to give them escape and you want to make them feel good about life, especially at these low points.” (Annie Reuter, Marie Claire)

But with the shift to club and EDM influences, there was an artist who came from out of nowhere, who infused electronic music with a rock mentality, and gave pop songwriters a tool that they would be using for the rest of the decade. (YES OH MY GOD)

#1: SKRILLEX - “SCARY MONSTERS & NICE SPRITES”

Our first defining piece of music came from a screamo musician who mixed his first project out of one speaker while living on a friend’s couch. Electronic music producer Skrillex’s debut EP (and specifically the title track) subsequently redefined the mass public’s understanding of EDM and specifically dubstep. With all the (IMITATE NOISE).

But there’s another reason this is on here, probably the more important reason, and that reason is… “the drop.” While Skrillex did not invent the drop, his gnarly and garish approach to production made the drop dramatic and ear-catching. Plus, with his future collaborations and remixes with pop artists, Skrillex helped to prove that the drop could work in a pop song. Every EDM artist that would follow and reframe the genre and “the drop” in a more pop-friendly manner owed it to this song for bringing EDM to a higher level… Speaking of levels!

2011

On first glance, 2011 is a year of major yet insular achievements. Avicii took EDM to a peak of critical and commercial success with “Levels,” Foster the People landed on the charts with one of the first indie-pop crossovers, Tyler the Creator ate a bug, some duo called the Chainsmokers put out a song called #Selfie I bet we won’t hear from them again, that little startup Spotify was finally able to launch in the US, and um… Adele. (ADELE) Adele’s 21 smashed every conceivable record in music and it saved the music industry - and the world. 

But all the while, something was quietly brewing on the internet, by a virtually unknown Canadian crooner who had just released the first of three mixtapes. A few tracks from it were uploaded to Youtube, here’s what you’d see. (XO into HOUSE OF BALLOONS) 

#2: THE WEEKND - HOUSE OF BALLOONS

Abel Tesfaye, known as The Weeknd, released his debut project House of Balloons in March 2011. This near total unknown had posted some tracks online in late 2010, and became very popular after a cosign from a very big artist who we’ll get back to. It was the first instance in the 2010s of an artist fully building their persona online, and an example of how effective mystery could be in promoting an artist.

While he brought the hooks like a popstar, his unique take on R&B, along with his despondent lyrics on partying and drugs, were one heck of a respite from the pop music of 2011. The Weeknd looked at the state of pop, with its hyper-active focus on partying, and said “No, this is not fun. Sex and drugs and partying are not fun, but you should do them anyway.” And that downtrodden approach was a defining experience, not just for the casual listener, but for the artists who would follow and take from him. Speaking of which, let’s briefly talk about an artist who guested on Abel’s 2nd mixtape: (THE ZONE)

Drake’s second album Take Care was released several months after House of Balloons, and it capitalized on the ground that album broke to establish Drake as a more emotional, open rap artist. But while Take Care was the bigger album, between the two, I consider House of Balloons to be the more crucial and defining album for this decade. (Don’t worry though, Drake’s gonna come back… oh boy is he ever)

By the end of 2011, The Weeknd had put out another two mixtapes that cemented his reputation as one of R&B’s leading innovators, all while maintaining that elusive persona. But it wouldn’t be the last time in 2011 an artist would blow up from mysterious singles uploaded to Youtube, and it might not have even been the biggest instance. Let’s turn to another song posted in August 2011, the artist who would become huge from it, and the album that would follow:

#3: LANA DEL REY - BORN TO DIE

“Video Games” by Lana Del Rey might not sound groundbreaking today, but it’s primarily because of how influential Lana’s work has become since her grand unveiling. At a time when pop music was still loud, fast, and bombastic, Lana was inward, slower, and reserved. At the time of its release, Pitchfork said:

“...it flits between surrendering to romance and depression, moving with the elegant wastefulness of the kind of day drunk that's a true privilege of the beautiful, idle class.” (Ian Cohen, Pitchfork)

What Lana had crafted here wasn’t even a persona, it was an aesthetic. A retro pastiche, a nostalgic invoking of a time that many of her early fans may not have even been alive for. (To frame this appeal a different way, her debut album Born to Die is not only one of the top selling vinyl albums of the 2010s, it’s the only one that actually came out in the 2010s.)

She was that good at it; that first single and its follow-up “Blue Jeans” created this melding of artist and art, the first of its kind in the 2010s. A large part of that was the production and musicianship; the instrumentals mimicked a hybrid between lush soundscapes and hip-hop ornamentations, and Lana’s voice gave this intimate quality, as if she was singing just to you. (It also doesn’t hurt that this kind of music worked especially well on headphones or earbuds.)

And because of that unique connection, her fans loved her dearly, but her critics tore into her. If you go back and read pieces on her back then, many of the criticisms leveled at her are as much about her as they are about the song. To discuss Lana’s music was to discuss Lana as a persona, and vice versa. 

It certainly didn’t help that her first live performance was on SNL in January 2012 as a lead-up to her debut album, Born to Die. She didn’t do great - not horrible, just rough enough to confirm the critics’ worst suspicions. When Born to Die came out in early 2012, it received similarly tepid reviews, but upon revisiting for this video, I found that a) it’s not nearly as bad as some have painted it to be, and b) it actually embodies several musical elements of the 2010s. Critic Steven Hyden recently called it the most 2010s album, saying:

“It’s very vibe-y. It’s extremely internet-y. It is exceedingly thinkpiece-y in all of the usual “who are we, really?” kinds of ways. It’s an indie record that’s also a pop record. It was on the Billboard charts for more than 300 weeks. It’s also obsessed with celebrity and the afterlife, which are the twin concerns driving our collective fame-addicted death wish.” (Steven Hyden, UPROXX)

Lana’s mellow, retro production makes for a nice compliment with The Weeknd’s sullen songwriting, they made pop music feel darker but also more personal, and the two records together (I believe) laid down a blueprint for how pop music would move forward - though we won’t see the fruits of their labor just yet. First we have to get through:

2012

Looking back on 2012 in total, it’s easy to think that it was a natural continuation of both 2010 and 2011. Pop music was wearing its club and EDM influences proudly, with some major players getting their first big hits this year. Rihanna and Calvin Harris with “We Found Love,” Nicki Minaj and RedOne with “Starships,” Sia and David Guetta with “Titanium.”

However, look to the three most successful songs of the year, and you’ll see the start of a turning tide. In reverse order, they were an indie upstart breaking through because of a Super Bowl commercial (said band also featuring a soon-to-be producing heavy hitter), a bubbly song by a Canadian that got popular from Justin Bieber and friends dancing to it, and a true indie fluke that basically begged for parody because of its video - and parodied it was! All three of these songs reflect a changing mentality in how pop was approached and promoted.

But one song came out of nowhere, bolstered almost entirely by online engagement and parody, that would forever reshape how we quantify a “hit song.” (Gangnam) No I’m not kidding.

#4: PSY - “GANGNAM STYLE”

Yep, instead of any of those three songs, I’m choosing a K-pop song, which is a quiet satire of upper class South Korean life, that most people remember for the horse dance and the part where a guy yells at a butt. That guy is K-pop star Psy, and his song “Gangnam Style” was a major turning point for pop in the 2010s for three reasons.

First, and most obviously, the memes this thing produced. The video was so singular in its humor, and the parodies that came with it were plenty.

Second, “Gangnam Style” was the first K-pop crossover hit of the 2010s. As a major Korean music executive told Pitchfork:

“‘He proved that a Korean artist didn't have to be young, pretty, and skinny to become a global K-Pop star,” Bernie Cho, president of Korean digital music export agency DFSB Kollective, tells Pitchfork. “He also proved that a contagious worldwide hit wasn't contingent on singing a song entirely in English.’” (Patrick St. Michel, Pitchfork)

Now I have no way to know for sure, but I have a good feeling that, had it not been for Psy opening the doors for K-pop to enter the US, we might not be seeing the massive success of current K-pop groups. However, we won’t see the song’s impact in that regard for a few years.

The third reason this song is here, though, would become immediately apparent. You see, even for how big it was, “Gangnam Style” never got to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. (If you’re curious as to what song kept it from that spot, well, ask yourself: what song would be even more popular and leave an ever stronger mark on pop culture in late 2012? That’s right, Maroon 5’s “One More Night”!)

So why didn’t “Gangnam Style” get to number 1? Because while it did get radio play and digital downloads, the bulk of its plays came from its music video on YouTube - a video that has, as of this video, over 2 billion views. At the time, Billboard didn’t count YouTube plays - but they would change that at the start of 2013. And while they don’t outright say it, it seemed like “Gangnam Style” was a major reason for that adjustment. 

“You saw it with Psy. We didn’t have YouTube on the charts when he was on, but everything that was borne out of that play, from sales to streaming, was certainly displayed and got that song to No. 2.” (Marah Eakin, AV Club)

I think that change would’ve been made eventually, but without “Gangnam Style”, I don’t think it would’ve been made that soon. So the next time a big viral hit gets to number 1 on the Hot 100 primarily through YouTube or social media or streaming, thank Psy.

2013

If pop in 2012 was the start of a changing tide, pop in 2013 felt like the wave crashing onto the shore. Billboard and Nielsen changed their rules to include YouTube streaming, helping tracks like “Harlem Shake” and “Thrift Shop” to become massive hits. Nielsen also allowed streaming services to be counted, such as Spotify - which is starting to gain some real steam (or should I say, stream.) And it feels like everyone’s collaborating with everyone, leading to some unexpected genre crossovers. Coldplay and Rihanna, Avicii and country, Robin Thicke and Pharrell putting out a lyrically questionable song that gets them sued by Marvin Gaye’s estate.

However, once again, we’re looking to the future, and two projects this year would help guide pop music to where it would go. First:

#5: LORDE - “ROYALS”

Yeah, this one had to be on here. New Zealand singer/songwriter Lorde uploaded a handful tracks to Soundcloud when she was just a teen. Specifically, “Royals” went on to be one of the biggest hits of 2013. A time when every song was like (SUIT & TIE), Lorde wasn’t caught up in their love affair.

So lyrically, “Royals” was a sharp counterpoint to the fashion-focused topics of 2013 pop. It said to its audience, “we’ll never be the kind of people who live the lives in pop songs, and that’s fine. In fact, our lives are better for it.” It was pop that was more grounded and assured in the proper reality of everyday people.

Musically, it was also a total change-up from what pop was. It was slower in tempo, it was sparse as all heck, it used mixolydian mode - c’mon how you not gonna like a song that uses mixolydian?

It was pop music that was as inspired by moody hip-hop production as it was indie pop - and this is a good time to bring up a key term. This same year, writer Chris Deville did a piece for Stereogum about the “monogenre,” a musical singularity where, because of the internet and streaming, genre walls in music were crumbling. Saying:

“On a “pure” artistic level — the follow-your-muse argument — years of overflowing hard drives, the limitless feeding frenzy of online streaming and the death of the guilty pleasure could only result in a generation of music that crossbreeds disparate styles… On an “impure” commercial level — the follow-the-money argument — why put all your eggs in one basket and pray that you’ll capture the attention of a small subset of the population when you can hybridize and appeal to many different cliques?” (Chris Deville, Stereogum)

Lorde was one of the article’s main focal points, the other being HAIM’s Days Are Gone. Both are projects that feel free to pull from any influences they’re drawn to, which are easier to pull from than ever before because of how open and sprawling the internet is. And that “monogenre” hypothesis is going to be hugely influential to the thinking of the music industry, for better or worse.

Speaking of hugely influential:

#6: MIGOS - “VERSACE”

Atlanta trio Migos broke out in 2013 with their… lyrically diverse hit “Versace.” 

I bring this song up for two reasons, one very large and clear as day, and one that’s smaller but just as influential. One, it represented the first broach into the mainstream of a genre that would become dominant by the end of the decade - trap music. Now Migos did not invent trap music; trap had been building up for over a decade, thanks to artists like T.I., Gucci Mane, and producer Lex Luger. But “Versace” represented the first breakthrough of trap in the 2010s, born from Atlanta, GA. Production revolving around weighty bass, minimal synths, and of course, those hi-hats.

Two, while they didn’t outright invent the sound of trap, the Migos brought their own spin to it - specifically, with a rhythm that would become all but ingrained into pop music. (TRIPLET) Sounds familiar, right? They’re rapping in a triplet rhythm which, when placed against a 4/4 beat, creates an engaging syncopation that people go crazy for. The triplet rhythm would soon come to infect many of pop’s most successful songs (though we wouldn’t see it for a hot bit).

So those two songs out of the way, we should probably move on to 2014- Beyonce just dropped an album. Like, she just put out an album, with no hype and lead up or anything. Can she just do that?

#7: BEYONCE - SELF-TITLED

Yeah I lied, there’s one more project we need to acknowledge. In December 2013, Beyonce essentially broke the internet by releasing her self-titled album with absolutely no prior warning. That might not feel like a big deal given the music landscape today, but in a year when big artists were doing long elaborate rollouts for their albums… y’know what, let’s use an example: Arcade Fire’s Reflektor. 

Between its unassuming Twitter announcement in July and its release in November, the public was treated to mysterious street art alluding to a fictional band, property damage caused by that very same street art, music videos, an SNL spot, several other TV performances, and a 30-minute long TV special that was stuffed with celebrity cameos. Beyonce’s self-titled? Bop, there it is. Have at it, ya filthy animals. Also, have music videos for every single track - the first instance of a “visual album” in the 2010s.

Was the music good? Yeah… I guess so. Some solid tunes, some great production. “Blow” is one of her best songs ever, up until Timbaland comes in with that (TURN THAT CHERRY OUT). But Beyonce The Album will go down in history for changing the rules for an album rollout and redefining how artists could release music in the digital age.

A SMALL DETOUR

Before we go to 2014, let’s take a small detour. In June of 2013, The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was treated to a talk by Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Alan Krueger. The talk’s main focus was on the increasing divide between the industry’s top earners and everyone else, and how it was a microcosm of the US economy following the recession. He states:

“We are increasingly becoming a ‘winner-take-all economy,’ a phenomenon that the music industry has long experienced. Over recent decades, technological change, globalization and an erosion of the institutions and practices that support shared prosperity in the U.S. have put the middle class under increasing stress. The lucky and the talented – and it is often hard to tell the difference – have been doing better and better, while the vast majority has struggled to keep up.” (Alan Krueger)

I don;t have anything to add, I just thought that’d be important for context later. Moving on:

2014

2014! Not much happened this year! 

Okay, that’s not entirely true. Plenty of things happened in music in 2014. Sam Smith’s solo debut, Pharrell striking big with “Happy,” Katy Perry and Ariana Grande following up their star-making records, the Frozen soundtrack. On the business end too - Billboard starts counting streaming on their main album chart. Spotify was spreading like wildfire, with Nielsen reporting a 54% increase in streaming over the course of the year. But not everyone’s crazy about this fire; for instance, Taylor Swift, who wrote a lengthy op-ed in the Wall Street Journal criticizing Spotify for how little they paid artists.

So things WERE happening. It’s just that, looking back, 2014 was a time of limbo for the sound of pop. The club-sound and EDM of the early 2010s was starting to fade out, and the future sound of the late 2010s was still a proper way off. That said, let’s talk about one song that managed to redefine an artist and pave the way for an eventual sub-genre of rap. Let’s talk about Young Thug.

#8: YOUNG THUG - “STONER” (FEBRUARY 4, 2014)

In a sense, Atlanta-bred rapper Young Thug and his track “Stoner” are a great representation of the in-between period that was 2014. Young Thug’s influences were clear, especially in the earlier part of his career - artists like Gucci Mane, Waka Flocka Flame, and Migos. On top of that, his presence was as enigmatic as the Weeknd’s back in 2011. The fluidity he brought, in both his music and his fashion style, made him a wholly unique character. The full potential of that character, though, wasn’t fully realized until “Stoner.” 

“Stoner” builds further on the 2010s trap popularized by artists like Migos, but it’s Thugger’s lyrical and timbral approach to it that makes it so appealing. Jeff Weiss from the BBC said about the song:

“On Stoner, he shrieks and moans, vomiting nightmare cantillations and euphoric wails, stretching syllables until they collapse under the stress, disappearing into the vanishing point.... Thug’s voice contorts into neon lava; he uses it like Jimi Hendrix using a wah-wah-pedal. It’s a live power cord writhing in the street during a lightning storm.” (Jeff Weiss, BBC)

It certainly helps that the production surrounding Young Thug’s demented wails is spaced-out, ethereal, and almost laid back (LIKE A STONER). It really gives him the space to go all out. Young Thug essentially created his own lane in rap with this song, and many of today’s biggest rap stars (especially those who came from the internet) might not exist in the same way had it not been for Young Thug paving said lane.

2015

Alright, NOW we’re getting into it!

The stage that had been set in 2013 and 2014 is now coming to life. Realizing the potential of streaming, several competitors come for Spotify’s throne, including Apple and Jay Z’s Tidal. That lawsuit over “Blurred Lines” ends with the Gaye family winning, thus affecting music copyright law for years to come. Hamilton, Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone, the Drake/Meek Mill beef - so many huge moments for music this year… and we’re only gonna talk about one.

Okay, I need you to just hear me out on this, cause it might sound kinda dumb. But I know this to be true. The next album I’m gonna talk about is the closest thing I could find to a fulcrum point for pop in the 2010s, it’s the place where pop stopped being what it was in the first half of the decade and started to beoame what we know it to be today. And I know some of you will stare at me through your screen and say, “What do you mean?”

#9: JUSTIN BIEBER - PURPOSE

I’m gonna say it here: Justin Bieber’s 2015 album Purpose was an all-out gamechanger for pop. In the same way that FutureSex/LoveSounds by fellow Justin, Justin Timberlake, charted a new course for pop in the late 2000s. Lemme explain myself with three points:

Number 1, this album reflected the growing popularity of tropical house in the US. This subgenre of deep house had been steadily growing for the past year, thanks to artists like Kygo and Felix Jaehn (who would go on to have one of 2016’s biggest hits). It primarily revolves around tempos under 120 bpm, and a lean towards more natural sounding instrumentation like pan flutes and marimbas. On Purpose, tracks like “Sorry” and “What Do You Mean” embody these qualities with great chart success.

Number 2, the personnel featured not only represented those who were already stars, but also those who would soon become stars. Skrillex and Diplo are here as producers (and we’ll get back to them very soon) but the album also showcased the work of producers Poo Bear and Benny Blanco, as well as guest artists like Travis Scott and Halsey.

For number 3, we need to examine “Where Are You Now”, Bieber’s collaboration with Skrillex and Diplo (known together as Jack U). Specifically, this moment here when the first verse ends (ANTI-DROP). Now, that sounded like a drop, right? Maybe like the one we talked about all the way back with Skrillex’s breakout hit? But it’s obviously not the same - it’s not massive, it’s comparatively understated. What they’ve created here is an “anti-drop” or a “pop drop” which is more in line with the genre they’re pulling from. On top of that, this kind of drop essentially becomes its own form of chorus in a sense. With “Where Are You Now” and also “Sorry,” their choruses are more like the build to the pop drop, and the pop drop works as a post-chorus. This kind of songwriting technique will become ubiquitous as we approach the end of the decade.

Okay, so yeah Purpose is a defining album of the 2010s, and I’m sure the album he recently put out is just… just as good.

2016

2016 was a year of landmarks and losses. Beyonce, Kanye, Frank Ocean, Solange all released new albums that dominated the discourse, the Chainsmokers hit it big again by singing about stolen mattresses with Halsey, streaming services continued their battle for dominance, and we lost two of the most iconic figures pop music had ever seen. 

You could say that this year was quite a lot of work… work work work work.

#10: RIHANNA - “WORK (FT. DRAKE)”

Kicking off this year was global pop superstar Rihanna, her album ANTI, and its lead single, “Work.” Many listeners at the time noted that Rihanna was going back to her Barbadian roots, infusing her music with dancehall elements - which is NOT the same as tropical house! For real, so many people confused the two when this came out.

How are they different? Well, dancehall originated in Jamaica in the late 1970s. Unlike tropical house, dancehall was an offshoot of reggae. That said, they do share a similar emphasis on tempos under 120 bpm and natural sounding instrumentation. Rihanna bringing that part of her culture into the American pop consciousness not only helped to more firmly establish her OWN identity, but also to increase the US’s knowledge of Latin American genres - which OH BOY will we get back to.

Aside from the genre, though, there was another reason this song gained so much attention, and… it’s how Rihanna sings. (CLIP) Many people saw fit to joke about how her singing isn’t all that decipherable. And part of it has to do with his own background and culture, but I want to bring it up because it marked the point where her vocal influence over the past decade could no longer be denied.

For Pitchfork, Jayson Greene wrote:

“...listen to radio, when Rihanna isn’t on it… and you will hear molecules of her vocal style swarming around everywhere. Even-toned, husky but nasal, tinged with island breezes but essentially free of regional markers—that describes a whole lot of pop songs now, by a whole lot of people.” (Jayson Greene, Pitchfork)

This ties into a larger phenomenon of artists (typically women) finding ways to modify the timbre or delivery of their voice in order to stand out. Buzzfeed coined the term “indie girl voice” back in 2015 to category a growing trend in indie music to wring vowels out in new and unique ways. (Hmm wonder who got that started?) For an artist, it was calling card and potential meme all wrapped into one, and Rihanna was a driving force in popularizing that… (see Drake) oh yeah Drake’s on this. That reminds me:

#11: DRAKE - VIEWS

Okay, you know what? Maybe my comments on Purpose won’t be the most controversial thing I say here. For the second piece of music from 2016, I’m bringing in Drake’s bloated behemoth of an album, Views. And it has nothing to do with this music.

Well maybe a little? Much of Views is comprised of the same downtempo trop-house or dancehall influences that were blowing up in pop culture at the time, but Drake didn’t really pioneer any of it this decade. Even the lyrical matter wasn’t anything special - or at least, it was in the wrong way. (DEHH) No, the reason I bring this up is entirely to do with business.

See, back in 2015, Apple Music launched with a massive co-sign from Drake - he introduced it at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference and gushed about its various features. As part of his partnership with Apple, Views came to Apple Music as an exclusive. You remember streaming exclusives? They were huge in 2016, with artists premiering their latest albums on only one streaming platform and listeners responding with (PIRATE BAY). They essentially ended that year too, once Universal’s CEO came out and said they were ending the practice. 

But anyway, Views was a major representation of how fragmented the streaming ecosystem was becoming, and how far streaming services were willing to go to be the biggest game in town. There’s a really, REALLY good piece by Michael Nelson over at Stereogum talking about how distorted Views’ record-breaking streaming numbers were, I cannot recommend it enough. The most salient quote from it is this: 

“Drake’s a loss leader: a commodity being leveraged to attract customers not to Drake, but to Apple Music. It’s hard to say Drake has suffered as a result of this partnership — my man hasn’t really suffered a day in his life, near as I can tell, and he ain’t about to start now — but he’s sacrificed the world stage for a niche platform built to enhance the perceived value of a luxury brand aimed at higher-end consumers with middlebrow tastes.” (Michael Nelson, Stereogum)

There’s one more reason why this album defined the business end of music, and that’s its length. This thing is long as hell - but it isn’t long because the songs are long, it’s long because there are 20 tracks on it. This was one of the first instances of artists stretching out their track listings to get more plays and more revenue. And it was a practice that Drake would continue going forward, crafting projects that were less like albums and more like playlists - literally so in one instance! Views was a defining instance of how the medium (streaming, in this case) was leading to changes in how music itself was composed and structured. 

2017

2017! Emo rap was all the rage, Chance the Rapper managed to get the first ever album to chart on Billboard solely through streams, Fyre Festival became famous for their sandwich mastery, “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran was a song that existed.

The past three projects I’ve brought up, though, they’ve all been influenced by some kind of Latin American music. So one might think that, y’know, it’s only a matter of time before a proper Latin American artist crosses over and blows the lid off the popularity of the genre - it’s Despacito, we’re talking about Despacito. (DESPACITO)

#12: LUIS FONSI & DADDY YANKEE - “DESPACITO”

Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito”, in accordance with its title, grew in popularity slowly over the course of 2017. It was released in January, but it wasn’t until April that it gained traction in the US. A large part of the credit goes to our good pal Justin Bieber, who hopped on the remix that would eventually become the Song of the Summer. It’s really cool that Bieber would give a spotlight to this genre, I bet he’s a big fan of Spanish language musi-(CLIP OF HIM BUTCHERING) Well, that’s unfortunate.

But Bieber aside, “Despacito” was the culmination of our adoption of Latin American musical elements. It was the grand arrival of reggaeton in the US, a hybrid fusing the rhythms of dancehall with elements from hip-hop. One of its main characteristics is the dembow rhythm, a musical pattern that sounds somewhat close to the triplet we talked about earlier. This rhythm (and its Cuban counterpart the tresillo rhythm) would eventually find their way into so many pop songs, including one that would become the biggest song of that year. (Shape of You)

It also spurred an obscene increase in Latin American music listening, often referred to as “the Despacito effect.” Artists like Bad Bunny and J Balvin were able to cross over, and American artists saw the value of guesting on these tracks. By the end of 2017, the RIAA reported an 18% increase in consumption for the entire Latin America music industry.

There are a number of reasons why “Despacito” was THE song to pull this off; Bieber’s influence, streaming’s propensity for discovering new music with ease, the fact that reggaeton was heavily influenced by hip-hop (which itself was about to be crowned as the most popular genre in the US). But no matter how you slice it, “Despacito” was a defining moment for Latin music in the 2010s.

2018

There aren’t any albums or songs I want to talk about for 2018 - which doesn’t mean things didn’t happen. Kendrick got a Pultizer, Soundcloud rap was burning bright, hip-hop was announced as the most popular genre of music in the US (at least according to Nielsen), BTS began their worldwide dominance, Lady Gaga did that song where she did the AHHHH.

But while I have this sort of lull before the last piece of music on this list, I’d like to talk about Spotify for a sec.

HONORABLE MENTION(?): SPOTIFY

If Spotify was an album or song, it would be the single most defining piece of music in the 2010s. Daniel Ek and company saw an opportunity to reverse the course the music industry was on after piracy threw it into shambles in the early 2000s. By 2015, it had 28 million users and inspired a whole host of streaming competitors. By the end of 2019, it had 128 million. 

Now, Spotify’s success and the rapid ascension of streaming as the primary form of music listening have been good in some ways. The ability for artists from all genres of music to find a fanbase - and the lack of barriers between said genres - have led to a more diverse music landscape than the one that existed in 2010.

But it hasn’t always been good; discussions surrounding the revenue gained from streaming have always been a contentious topic, with several artists and critics raising legitimate concerns over how the money should be split. The result is a divided ecosystem that benefits the top earners who have millions and millions of listeners, but can’t support the thousands of up-and-coming bands. As NYT music Jon Caramonica put it, “I think it’s probably easier than ever to make a little bit of money. I think it’s harder than ever to make a lot of money.

And that’s not all; Spotify and streaming have impacted how music is conceived and made. I touched on Drake earlier, but it’s also in the songwriting and composition too. The “pop drop” popularized by Bieber, songs beginning with a later section like the chorus, the shrinking length of pop songs, the tendency to produce songs for listening in an isolated place like on headphones. Liz Pelly wrote a phenomenal piece for the Baffler, and it has two quotes that I love. First:

“Musical trends produced in the streaming era are inherently connected to attention, whether it’s hard-and-fast attention-grabbing hooks, pop drops and chorus-loops engineered for the pleasure centers of our brains, or music that strategically requires no attention at all—the background music, the emotional wallpaper, the chill-pop-sad-vibe playlist fodder… All of this caters to an economy of clicks and completions, where the most precious commodity is polarized human attention—either amped up or zoned out—and where success is determined, almost in advance, by data.” (Liz Pelly, The Baffler)

The second quote comes right at the end of the piece, where she says:

“What is considered useful to streaming services? Music that streams well. This is all part of what independent artists are up against today: a supposedly neutral platform that manipulates them into creating value on its own terms… one that cares more about playlist streams than creating a sustainable situation for artists. The problem is not the chill-pop musicians, but a self-replicating system that continuously rewards the same styles—the ones that users will stream endlessly, whether they’re paying attention or not.” (Liz Pelly, The Baffler)

I know this might come across as negative or even cynical on my end, but it’s not my intent to come off that way. My intent is to just highlight where the music ecosystem currently is. To quote another YouTube media critic, it’s not that thing bad, it’s more that thing exists. And with that off my chest, let’s move to 2019 and our last piece of music.

2019

#13: BILLIE EILISH - WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?

I’ll be real, there was a moment of time where I didn’t want to put this here. Billie’s been the subject of much discussion ever since she swept the top four categories at this year’s Grammys. And like any time where someone gets any of the big awards, the backlash was all but guaranteed.

But my hope with my last pick is to not only show the growth of popular music in the 2010s, but also show where pop might go in the 2020s. I considered “Old Town Road,” but that felt more like the culmination of trends like social media and genre blurring and not like a potential jumping-off point. I can’t see “Old Town Road” impacting how songs sound in the 2020s. I considered something like Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Burning, but again that felt more like a culmination rather than a point of progression. I may be wrong in 3 years or so, but as of right now, Billie Eilish’s debut album is the best representation of what pop became by 2019 and what it will become in the 2020s.

It reflects several musical trends in the 2010s: production inspired by hip-hop and Soundcloud rap, mixing that rewards intimate listening on headphones, hushed vocal performances thank you again Lana, lyrical focuses on death and emotional instability, the boom of audio production equipment that would allow an album like this to be made mostly in a bedroom. The way it combines all of these together, however, is what makes it a natural jumping off point for pop in the 2020s.

It’s interesting; the 2010s started off in a rocky cultural and socioeconomic place, and the music of that era was loud and boisterous and encouraged you to forget the anxieties of the world. The 2010s are ending in a similar place, but music is taking the opposite route, encouraging listeners to sit with their individual anxieties. Why that’s the case could be its own video, but for better or worse, Billie Eilish is leading that emotionally afflicted charge into the 2020s.

EPILOGUE

In late 2019, there was a viral clip of Lady Gaga going around, where she called for greater diversity in music, specifically streaming. Now, a lot of people criticized her for this, saying that there’s a whole cavalcade of diverse artists and genres out there, in some part thanks to the internet and streaming. And… I agree with this to an extent. But I think it’s worth remembering how the majority of people out there aren’t necessarily actively seeking new music. Especially considering that we as humans tend to stop looking for new music around the age of 30. 

More importantly, it’s also worth remembering that the homogenized music on the surface level that Gaga is criticizing is a reaction by the industry to serve the most amount of people possible. Think back that quote from Chris Deville about the mono-genre - 

“On a “pure” artistic level — the follow-your-muse argument — years of overflowing hard drives, the limitless feeding frenzy of online streaming and the death of the guilty pleasure could only result in a generation of music that crossbreeds disparate styles… On an “impure” commercial level — the follow-the-money argument — why put all your eggs in one basket and pray that you’ll capture the attention of a small subset of the population when you can hybridize and appeal to many different cliques?” (Chris Deville, Stereogum)

These 13 pieces of music I’ve highlighted here, I think, represent the different ways popular music has transformed this decade, and on their own, they reflect the expansive variety of artists, genres, communities, ethnicities, and cultures that were involved in music. So is it a surprise that the larger industry’s reaction to this explosion of diversity would be to “hybridize and appeal” to them all?

Again, this isn’t necessarily bad, it just is how things are now. Will things be different by 2030? Absolutely, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be better or worse. The ground was constantly shifting below music’s feet in the 2010s, and the only guarantee going forward is that the ground will shift even more in the 2020s. Here’s to the next decade.

Nick Canovas