Is Music Falling Off?
When people hear 2024 and music, various people could have multiple opinions. If they listen to rap, they could think of the Kendrick Lamar-Drake beef, Future’s WE DON’T TRUST YOU, or Lil Tecca’s PLAN A. For pop, they could think of Charli XCX’s BRAT, Taylor Swift’s THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, or Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet. And for R&B, they could think of 4batz’s ‘u made me a st4r’, or Bryson Tiller’s ‘Self-titled’.
But some people who listened to this year’s music are unsatisfied. (For the sake of correctness, when I refer to music from now on, I am only talking about rap music, because that is the only genre I listen to.)
Around the beginning of the year, there wasn’t much to be thrilled about. However, with Future’s WE DON’T TRUST YOU, and Kendrick’s verse on Like That, everyone was ecstatic about what was to come. After this diss against Drake and J. Cole, what was to follow was one of, if not the greatest, rap beef to emerge out of the 21st century.
After a few jabs between Kendrick and Drake, the final song that would appear from this beef was Not Like Us, by Kendrick. When this song was released, everyone was shocked by the West Coast-influenced, DJ Mustard-produced beat that Kendrick rapped on, as he had never done any song like that previously. This song exploded in popularity, with everyone singing about Drake’s demise.
After this beef ended with Not Like Us, little to no releases garnered enough attention to be as relevant in the rap space. Around 2-3 weeks ago, I went to talk to Oakmont Sophomore Julian Cavanaugh and asked him who he was listening to, and he was listening to a song off of USHER’s Confessions. I asked him why, and he said that music today has gotten very mediocre. Mind you, this was the Monday after PLAN A and Mixtape Pluto dropped on the same day.
He denounced both of those projects as “mid” and then expressed his frustration with the current music scene. He said, “My personal opinion is that the current music scene is boring and too repetitive. There hasn’t been an artist that has dropped an album that could be listened to for a whole week. Everyone in the mainstream music industry today is all too similar. I’m looking for more artists with a more unique sound and that aren’t just looking for what will sell.”
This was also backed by Oakmont Junior Michael Harris, who agreed, “No new artists have been making songs. [Playboi Carti] is being very lazy; Ken Carson just got a Satanic tattoo, so I can’t listen to him anymore.”
However, some people respectfully disagree with this statement. Krish Patel stated his thoughts about the current music industry. “I think it’s been pretty stable since around 2012, but it has gotten better than it was before that period. 2015 to 2021 was the peak.” When asked if rap had gotten repetitive, he said that only a few artists come to mind, like OT7 Quanny, Yo Gotti, and Tee Grizzley. When Oakmont Junior Joseph Nsubuga was interviewed for this, he said that today’s rap music is “great” and then refused to elaborate.
The person who had the most to say was Oakmont junior Joshua Bedard. He said that rap today has a lot of variation and “there’s something for everyone.” When the dilemma of people complaining about how today’s music is boring was introduced to the conversation, he had a lot to say. “I’d have to disagree because just this year, there have been multiple mainstream projects that vastly differ from each other, such as 2093 by Yeat, which leans heavily on a cinematic, sci-fi-esque soundscape.”
What Joshua is trying to tell us is that there have been multiple different massive mainstream global artists who have been experimental with their work and growing as artists themselves. showing more of their own sense of self with their albums that have came out this year.
Later Bedard shared, “WE DON’T TRUST YOU by Future and Metro Boomin, which leans on a more modern trap, hard-hitting style. I LAY MY LIFE DOWN FOR YOU by JPEGMAFIA, which is very experimental and conscious. Kings Of The Mischievous South Vol. 2 by Denzel Curry focuses on an aggressive, Southern trap style. HARDSTONE PSYCHO by Don Toliver incorporates elements of rock to make a trap-rock fusion. And those are the mainstream albums. Mind you, there are hundreds more by smaller artists that sound different.”
To answer the question, “Is music falling off?” it depends on who you ask. Some music fans enjoy analyzing every piece of music they listen to and exploring a wide variety of genres and their subgenres. On the other hand, some casual listeners enjoy music but often don’t pay attention to the lyrics; they focus more on the instrumentals and how the music makes them feel. While some people have strong opinions about music, others are indifferent.
Ultimately it is subjective. A song or album that one person loves may be dismissed as garbage by another. With the rich diversity of modern music, it’s difficult to argue that the rap genre is fundamentally mediocre. In conclusion, music is not falling off.
