2024 was a year of music like any other with many amazing albums and projects released by many artists. With the award season approaching and 2024 having recently concluded, I want to recap some of the music from the year and give an opinion on the best music released.
There were a lot of albums released in 2024, such as “CHROMAKOPIA” by Tyler, The Creator, “HIT ME HARD AND SOFT” by Billie Eilish and “GNX” by Kendrick Lamar, among others. My favorite album of the year was “Sincere” by Khalid which was released on Aug. 2 and is an album that I believe is underrated because I didn’t hear people talking about it as much as other popular albums, like the ones listed above. The album peaked on the U.S. charts at 43 on the Billboard Top 200, but I think that if this album had been released with more marketing on popular social media apps like TikTok or Instagram, then it would have been much more popular in the U.S. Due to it being a more simplistic project, it was overlooked and not listened to as much by the mainstream population.
Since “Sincere” was not nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy, I believe that the next best choice would be “HIT ME HARD AND SOFT” by Billie Eilish. I enjoyed listening to this album due to its diverse feel with songs containing a similar theme but all having different sounds, which is something necessary for a hit album such as this. My favorite song on this album was “BIRDS OF A FEATHER,” and it ended the year as one of the top songs on my Spotify Wrapped. I enjoyed the simple vibe that this song had with a good melody that never got old, which is why I believe that “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” should be the winner of the Song of the Year category at the 2025 Grammys.
Other notable releases this year that must be talked about are Kanye West’s “Vultures 1” and “Vultures 2”, which ended up being severely underwhelming based on the music that he normally releases. The only savable part from the first album is “BURN,” a song that I think is carried by Ty Dolla $ign and that I listened to throughout the first few months after release. “CARNIVAL” on this album had a moment where it was good originally, then became quickly overplayed across social media which caused me to dislike the song. Later in the year Kanye released “Vultures 2” and yet again, I was very disappointed in the quality of the music, with “FIELD TRIP” being the only song on the album that I listened to more than once.
There were many viral sounds throughout the year that caught people’s attention through social media. This year the most viral song was “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey. I thought this song was overplayed within a few weeks of its release and was ready to never hear it again, despite it staying atop the charts for 19 weeks, making it tied with “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus for the longest time at number one on the Billboard Top 100. Every week I was shocked to see “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” at the top of the charts as I believed that there were way more deserving songs. I don’t know where the streams for this song came from because the only content I saw of this song was the question of how it was still at number one.
Overall, 2024 was a good year for music with many great releases from artists such as Billie Eilish, Khalid, Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, The Creator. However, with every good song released it felt like two more bad songs were released as well. I am very curious to see if the style of music labeled as “TikTok music” releases less often due to the uncertainty surrounding the app’s future and what could fill this music’s space in popular culture.
