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This Is the Best Start to a Year We’ve Had in Pop This Decade (Essay)

Thanks to Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Drake and a lot of new and rising artists, pop music in 2024 is in its best place so far this decade.

11 hit “Rich Baby Daddy” — but she’s taken it to a new level this year with her first solo top 20 hit, the dancefloor shout-along “Get It Sexyy.” Glorilla has taken a similar path to solo success with her own self-referencing smash “Yeah Glo!,” while also joining forces with Megan Thee Stallion for the chart-storming “Wanna Be.” Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan were pop favorites with critical acclaim disproportionate to their actual top 40 presence — but following opening slots on Taylor Swift’s and Olivia Rodrigo’s recent tours, they’ve both seen raised profiles and higher levels of crossover stardom with new singles “Espresso,” and “Good Luck Babe!,” respectively, both all but sure to keep growing into the warm-weather months. 1 hit reign for 15+ weeks seemingly almost by default: “As It Was” and Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” didn’t dominate because they kept finding new ways to infiltrate pop culture (a la Lil Nas X with “Old Town Road”), but simply because the competition usually just wasn’t strong enough across the board to consistently threaten their supremacy. TikTok is still the greatest promotional accelerant in music, but increasingly it feels like the app is pouring gasoline on fires that artists have already started, simply offering well-liked songs additional exposure through word-of-mouth spreading, rather than spawning self-made hits through viral dance challenges and influencer button-pushing.

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