Is Pop Music Really Dying?

          There has always been that one genre of music that hits the charts in the American music industry, and that's pop. Pop music has been popular for the past 40 years because of its catchy sounds, artists, and collaborations. Ever since 2015 and the blow up of SoundCloud rappers and independent artists, pop music has been lowered in the charts. Today, it is as easy as blinking for any one to upload their music to any streaming platform because the industry has dominated digitally rather than physical CD distribution.
       Yes, we still have CDs at convenient stores and vinyls at vintage shops, but where is everyone mostly listening to music? We can curate our own playlists and listen to whatever we want on streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, etc. Rather than hassling with distributors and labels, everyone can publish their music. However, not anyone can publish a song and get a million streams in a day; its up to the artist to gain leverage and grow their platform with the assistance of promotion on social media.

via HipHopDX

via Complex

      The majority of popular artists on platforms such as SoundCloud are all rap artists who produce hip-hop music. Chance The Rapper was one of the first rappers to make it big independently without the support from a label. With his growth on SoundCloud, he became his own label. After artists like Chance rose from the independent label, more and more grew such as XXXTentacion, Lil Uzi Vert, Juice WRLD, Travis Scott, Ski Mask The Slump God, Post Malone, 21 Savage, and more who have dominated the charts for the passed 2-4 years. All of a sudden, everyone wants to spit bars and a name to call new rappers who seem to have little experience with hip hop are called "mumble rappers," according to media sources. What ever happened to pop artists?

via ABCNews

via POPSUGAR Australia 

       The 2000s was the time for pop music to become the most popular. Alternative rock began to lower and hip-hop was still up there, but never reached higher ranks on the charts. Especially, 2010 to 2015 pop artists took over the charts. Female artists like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Kesha, Rihanna, Beyonce, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, and more. And of course, male artists such as, Maroon 5, Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, One Republic, Cold Play, Ed Sheeran, Kanye West, Usher. The majority of pop artists were usually female, and many have turned to rapping rather than singing, giving listeners what they want. These iconic artists who ruled from the early 2010s are sleeping, either they have not posted music recently or their newer music is not what the world wants to listen to at the moment. Younger artists who did not have such a grand name are becoming international superstars, such as Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendez, Dua Lipa, etc.
       Similarly, disco music dominated the American charts for about 10 years in the 70s, but suddenly died in the 80s after the use of synths became more popular. However, since pop music has been around for about a hundred years, we can assume that it will make its come back one day in the near future. Eventually, when the growth of rappers has come to the point bombardment, pop will then rise again.





by Sara Zevallos