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2020s in music
This article outlines trends in popular music during the 2020s, primarily in the United States and English-speaking countries.[clarification needed] The early years of the decade were particularly challenging for the music industry, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced widespread concert cancellations and disrupted traditional live performances. In response, video platforms like TikTok quickly rose to prominence, becoming key tastemakers and driving musical trends by launching viral hits. By mid-2023, the industry recorded its highest annual revenue to date ($8.4 billion), partly due to the growth of streaming subscriptions.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the cancellation or postponement of numerous music-related events scheduled to take place in the early 2020s, including major tours, festivals, and television appearances. Due to the restrictions, many artists conducted virtual experiences as an alternative to live events (e.g. Dua Lipa's Studio 2054 and Taylor Swift's Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions). The COVID-19 pandemic has also resorted artists to postponements or rescheduling of major tours to at least a year or two from their initially scheduled tour dates, examples including The Stadium Tour (co-headlined by Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard), Ozzy Osbourne's headlining tour No More Tours II and Rage Against the Machine's reunion tour. 2020s also marked the massive rise of genreless music and fragmentation of music thanks to COVID-19 lockdowns for isolation and loneliness, and the use of internet, streaming media, TikTok with its algorithm, playlists and unlimited access. Katy Perry's concert residency, Play happened during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
TikTok emerged as a key musical tastemaker for Generation Z during their adolescence and Generation Alpha in their early childhood, shaping their music tastes through viral songs and trends. Similar to short-form video platforms of the 2010s like Vine, TikTok's interactive content—such as comedy skits, fan edits, memes, dance routines, and makeup tutorials—helped songs gain popularity as users incorporated them into their videos. While viral success on TikTok didn't always translate to lasting success on the Billboard Hot 100, it had a unique ability to pull relatively unknown artists out of obscurity. These artists built impressive fanbases and often attracted attention from major labels, leading to opportunities to sign record deals. TikTok's focus on music, niche communities and pop culture fandoms allowed these artists to thrive within specific subcultures and subgenres.
Strategic collaborations with popular TikTok creators, sponsored hashtag challenges, and the use of licensed music in viral videos became integral components of contemporary music marketing strategies. The TikTok Billboard chart was created in September 2023 to meet the demand for viral audios from the platform.
In 2020, LP records surpassed compact disc (CD) sales for the first time since 1986, LP records 28.7% ($619.6 million) with the rapid decline in CD sales by 23% ($483 million), with 62% ($1.1 billion) of revenue derived from physical music sales across the United States according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) 2020 Year-End Music Industry Revenue Report.
The 2020s saw the continued impact of streaming on the record industry, a trend that began in the 2010s. Platforms like Spotify played a central role in shaping music trends, driving the success of both mainstream and emerging genres. Social media, particularly TikTok, further amplified music with viral trends, while popular genres like pop, hip-hop, R&B, rock music including pop punk and shoegaze, country, K-pop and indie music dominated the Billboard Hot 100 charts. At the same time, underground genres like hyperpop, plugg, jersey club, phonk and rage thrived in niche communities.
British rock magazine Kerrang! wrote that Olivia Rodrigo's "Good 4 U" (2021) led the commercial comeback of rock music in 2020–2021, noting how it is the first rock song since Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life" (2003) to spend four or more weeks atop the UK Singles chart, alongside chart success of other rock-adjacent artists, such as Willow Smith, Machine Gun Kelly, Måneskin, and Miley Cyrus. Slate proclaimed that Rodrigo "might be the dying genre's best hope", pinpointing that "Good 4 U" is the "most up-the-middle rock song to top the [U.S.] Hot 100 in a decade or more".
Media outlets and fans online observed a music trend called "Sad Girl Autumn" or "Sad Girl Fall" in the early 2020s, which refers to the release of melancholic and introspective music by female artists during autumn, such as Swift's Red (Taylor's Version), Adele's 30, Clairo's Sling, Phoebe Bridgers' Punisher, and Mitski's Laurel Hell; it is a counterpart to "Hot Girl Summer", a catchphrase coined by American rapper Megan Thee Stallion with her 2019 song of the same name.
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2020s in music
This article outlines trends in popular music during the 2020s, primarily in the United States and English-speaking countries.[clarification needed] The early years of the decade were particularly challenging for the music industry, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced widespread concert cancellations and disrupted traditional live performances. In response, video platforms like TikTok quickly rose to prominence, becoming key tastemakers and driving musical trends by launching viral hits. By mid-2023, the industry recorded its highest annual revenue to date ($8.4 billion), partly due to the growth of streaming subscriptions.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the cancellation or postponement of numerous music-related events scheduled to take place in the early 2020s, including major tours, festivals, and television appearances. Due to the restrictions, many artists conducted virtual experiences as an alternative to live events (e.g. Dua Lipa's Studio 2054 and Taylor Swift's Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions). The COVID-19 pandemic has also resorted artists to postponements or rescheduling of major tours to at least a year or two from their initially scheduled tour dates, examples including The Stadium Tour (co-headlined by Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard), Ozzy Osbourne's headlining tour No More Tours II and Rage Against the Machine's reunion tour. 2020s also marked the massive rise of genreless music and fragmentation of music thanks to COVID-19 lockdowns for isolation and loneliness, and the use of internet, streaming media, TikTok with its algorithm, playlists and unlimited access. Katy Perry's concert residency, Play happened during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
TikTok emerged as a key musical tastemaker for Generation Z during their adolescence and Generation Alpha in their early childhood, shaping their music tastes through viral songs and trends. Similar to short-form video platforms of the 2010s like Vine, TikTok's interactive content—such as comedy skits, fan edits, memes, dance routines, and makeup tutorials—helped songs gain popularity as users incorporated them into their videos. While viral success on TikTok didn't always translate to lasting success on the Billboard Hot 100, it had a unique ability to pull relatively unknown artists out of obscurity. These artists built impressive fanbases and often attracted attention from major labels, leading to opportunities to sign record deals. TikTok's focus on music, niche communities and pop culture fandoms allowed these artists to thrive within specific subcultures and subgenres.
Strategic collaborations with popular TikTok creators, sponsored hashtag challenges, and the use of licensed music in viral videos became integral components of contemporary music marketing strategies. The TikTok Billboard chart was created in September 2023 to meet the demand for viral audios from the platform.
In 2020, LP records surpassed compact disc (CD) sales for the first time since 1986, LP records 28.7% ($619.6 million) with the rapid decline in CD sales by 23% ($483 million), with 62% ($1.1 billion) of revenue derived from physical music sales across the United States according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) 2020 Year-End Music Industry Revenue Report.
The 2020s saw the continued impact of streaming on the record industry, a trend that began in the 2010s. Platforms like Spotify played a central role in shaping music trends, driving the success of both mainstream and emerging genres. Social media, particularly TikTok, further amplified music with viral trends, while popular genres like pop, hip-hop, R&B, rock music including pop punk and shoegaze, country, K-pop and indie music dominated the Billboard Hot 100 charts. At the same time, underground genres like hyperpop, plugg, jersey club, phonk and rage thrived in niche communities.
British rock magazine Kerrang! wrote that Olivia Rodrigo's "Good 4 U" (2021) led the commercial comeback of rock music in 2020–2021, noting how it is the first rock song since Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life" (2003) to spend four or more weeks atop the UK Singles chart, alongside chart success of other rock-adjacent artists, such as Willow Smith, Machine Gun Kelly, Måneskin, and Miley Cyrus. Slate proclaimed that Rodrigo "might be the dying genre's best hope", pinpointing that "Good 4 U" is the "most up-the-middle rock song to top the [U.S.] Hot 100 in a decade or more".
Media outlets and fans online observed a music trend called "Sad Girl Autumn" or "Sad Girl Fall" in the early 2020s, which refers to the release of melancholic and introspective music by female artists during autumn, such as Swift's Red (Taylor's Version), Adele's 30, Clairo's Sling, Phoebe Bridgers' Punisher, and Mitski's Laurel Hell; it is a counterpart to "Hot Girl Summer", a catchphrase coined by American rapper Megan Thee Stallion with her 2019 song of the same name.