| United States music history |
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Ethnic music
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| United States |
Popular music of the United States in the 2010s
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Many EDM genres such as electropop, dance-pop, dubstep, house, new wave, trance, and electro hop have dominated so far in this decade.[1] Also, auto tuning singers voices to change the pitch drastically in a song has become more popular- with songs such as Ke$ha's "Blow" and "We R Who We R" (among others) become more popular. These two songs use Auto-Tune to add drastic changes to the singer's voice.
Country music still remains to be increasingly popular in the United States, with songs sometimes nearly topping the Billboard Charts. Country music is beginning to spread to other countries in Europe and Latin America. Artists such as Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, The Band Perry, Zac Brown Band, and Lady Antebellum top highly in the pop and country charts. Scott McCreery, the winner of American Idol in 2011, along with runner up Lauren Alaina may help revitalize country music. Country music still remains popular in Australia and New Zealand with artists such as Keith Urban.
Eurodance music, which has been consistently popular in Europe for 20 years (since the early 1990s), has broken into the mainstream outside of Europe, in a more modern style than the first wave into North America in the 1980s and early 1990s.
By late 2010 through to mid 2011, the re-emergence of ballads into the mainstream became a trend, starting with country music and then emerging into other genres. Ballads in mainstream music lost popularity after the year 2000. The popularity with ballads started with "Grenade" by Bruno Mars. Other ballads of 2011 are "California King Bed" by Rihanna, "Need You Now" and "Just a Kiss" by Lady Antebellum, "Cactus in the Valley" by Lights, "You and I" by Lady Gaga", "1+1" by Beyoncé",[2] and "Best Thing I Never Had", "Back to December" by Taylor Swift", "Set Fire to the Rain" and "Someone Like You" by Adele, "Skyscraper" by Demi Lovato, "Wish You Were Here" by Avril Lavigne, "For the First Time" and "Nothing" by The Script, and "Jar of Hearts" and "Arms" by Christina Perri. Still, dance pop and auto tune are currently the most popular mainstream trend.
Music sales continue to decline, they fell 12.8% in 2010 from 2009 levels.[3]
The saxophone is re-popularized by the song "The Edge of Glory" by Lady Gaga. Saxophone solos were common, almost cliche, in pop from the 1950s to the early 1990s, but declined later in the 1990s. Songs released after "The Edge of Glory" include "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" by Katy Perry, "Mr. Saxobeat" by Alexandra Stan, "In the Dark" by Dev, and "Midnight City" by M83. Another trend is the use of whistling in songs such as "Good Life" by OneRepublic, "I Wanna Go" by Britney Spears, "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5, "It Girl" by Jason Derulo", "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People, "The Lazy Song" by Bruno Mars, and "I Like How It Feels" by Enrique Iglesias. Accordions start to revive in music, especially in dance and Latin music, with songs such as "Stereo Love" by Edward Maya, and Jennifer Lopez's "On the Floor".
The ukulele has become a popular and acceptable instrument in this decade as well, which was not popular since the 1940s,[4] used by artists such as Nevershoutnever.
As in the 1980s, the 2010s bring back the usage of an echoed voice during the song which was popularized by Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Ne-Yo, Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull. This was basically unheard of throughout the 1990s and the 2000s until about 2007 or 2008 with Rihanna's "Umbrella", and Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi". This trend continues at present and is not expected to fade any time soon.
Electropop, dance pop, synthpop and electrohop, along with other forms of dance/electronica music that originated in the 1980s, have become very popular throughout the US in the early 2010s, due to such acts as LIGHTS, Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Adam Lambert, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Selena Gomez, Mike Posner, Usher, Britney Spears, Timbaland, 3OH!3, Kelis, Far East Movement, Chris Brown, and The Black Eyed Peas. Dubstep is becoming very popular with pop artists such as Britney Spears and Rihanna.
Melisma pop artists/divas such as Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, and Whitney Houston, extremely popular in the 1990s and somewhat popular in the 2000s, with artists such as Beyoncé, declined by the early 2010s in favor of more low-key pop singers.[5]
Teen pop artists, especially artists that are produced by Disney executives, are widely popular in the 2010s so far, though this fad dates back to about 2006 and it is yet to be seen if it will last beyond 2011. Artists such as Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus, Emily Osment, Miranda Cosgrove, Eva, Clique Girlz, Demi Lovato, Willow Smith, and The Jonas Brothers have been popular among the current generation of youth.
Pure pop music comes back after about a ten year hiatus in late 2009, especially after the death of Michael Jackson, and this trend continues well into 2010. While most of the 2000s decade was dominated by hip-hop and rock music, pop music sales rose 5% in 2009, which did not happen since 2004 and was not prominent since 2000;[6] This includes artists such as Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, and Katy Perry.
R&B is not as important in the early 2010s as it was from the late 1980s to mid 2000s, when New Jack Swing and neo-R&B were fixtures in pop music. Slow jams have largely been replaced by dance numbers and pop ballads performed by artists such as Bruno Mars.
Some of the most successful contemporary R&B artists in the 2000s, such as Usher, Alicia Keys and Beyoncé, continued their success during the early 2010s.
R&B begins to get a more dance influence to it and many artists that were traditionally R&B artists start to change to more of a dance flavor. This is notable in artists such as Ne-Yo, Usher, Chris Brown and Rihanna with songs such as "DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love" by Usher, "Club Can't Handle Me" by Flo-Rida/David Guetta, "Only Girl (In the World)" by Rihanna, "Yeah 3x" by Chris Brown, and "Beautiful Monster" by Ne-Yo.
A slight soul revival takes place with artists such as Cee Lo Green and Adele.
Although the rock genre is not as prominent in the Top 40 as in recent decades, it still maintains some popularity on rock only stations.[7][8] Some in the music industry have gone as far to declare rock music's epitaph, claiming the genre is dead. This has also been attributed to the genre's lack of edge or anger compared to previous years.[9][10]
Other sources contest this, claiming several indie rock bands such as Vampire Weekend, The National, MGMT, and Arcade Fire released albums that top the Billboard Top 200 and thus has heralded a new era for rock in the wake of an era of pop dominance by the likes of Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Justin Bieber.[11]
The most successful hard rock album to be released in the 2010s thus far is Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns.[12]
Punk rock/pop punk music has decreased in mainstream popularity since the late 2000s, though a number of acts such as Social Distortion, Bad Religion, NOFX, Paramore, Green Day, The Offspring, Rancid, MxPx, AFI, Rise Against and Pennywise have continued to enjoy some success, while emo, popular between about 2002 and 2008, has declined in popularity and relevance compared to its mid to late 2000s peak.
2011 has a large number of new rock albums as well as comebacks on the way with bands such as Sublime with Rome, Soundgarden (who will release their first album since their 13 year breakup from 1997 to 2010), System of a Down (who will embark on their first tour since their 4 year hiatus from 2006 to 2010[13]), R.E.M., the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, Tool, Foo Fighters, Limp Bizkit, The Strokes and Blink-182 (who will release their first album since their indefinite hiatus from 2005 to 2009).
Synthpop and New Wave has seen a large revival such as the second wave, artists such as Passion Pit, Owl City and Lights enter the mainstream.[14]
Hip Hop is not as important as it was throughout the 2000s however, artists who incorporate pop influences find acceptance by far-reaching audiences, as hip hop moves out of its "bling" phase.[15][16] Several artists such as Kid Cudi and Drake have managed to attain chart-topping hit songs, "Day 'n' Night" and "Best I Ever Had" respectively,by releasing their music on free online mixtapes without the help of a major record label. New artists such as Wale, J. Cole, Lupe Fiasco, Drake[17] The Cool Kids, Jay Electronica, and B.o.B, openly acknowledge being directly influenced by their nineties alt-rap predecessors in addition to alt-rock groups while their music has been noted by critics as expressing eclectic sounds, life experiences, and emotions rarely seen in mainstream hip hop.[18]Also, music industry experts say that young people are fed up with the violence, constant references to drug use, and degrading imagery used in the genre.[19] However, hip hop was the only genre to have a sales increase in 2010.[20]
Hip hop music was the only genre to have a sales increase in 2010.[21]
In 2010 Eminem, who was the best-selling music act of the previous decade, set an early record on the US Billboard Charts with two #1 singles and the fastest selling album of the decade so far.[22] This has Eminem starting the new decade in a similar way he did the previous one.
Kanye West and Lil Wayne also released albums in the early 2010s that were highly successful, with Kanye's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy debuting at number one on the Billboard 200.
Alternative hip hop has been the most popular form of hip hop in the mainstream during the early 2010s with acts such B.o.B, who has already had a number-one album and number-one single plus two other top ten singles in the Billboard Hot 100.
Electronic and dance music dominates the music through U.S. and North America in the early years of 2010s, replacing hip-hop and R&B music as the dominate style of music. The start of the 2010s has many musical influences from the 1970s Disco, and the 1980s Hi-NRG, Spacesynth, Italo and New Wave music, and influences from the 1990s and 2000s Eurodance, Techno, House, Trip Hop, Europop, Garage and Trance music (this last breaking into mainstream in late 2010 in the USA). Trance can be incorporated into electropop songs, which it is called the new Electrance music genre. Examples of trance melodies are Rihanna's song "Only Girl" and Jennifer Lopez's single "On the Floor" (ft. Pitpull).
Synthpop artists such as Lights, Owl City, and The Ready Set have already had mainstream success.
Industrial or formally electro-industrial music is starting to breakout into mainstream, more notable is in the emerged with dance and electropop music on early 2011. It came out because of the reflex that has with the early 2010 Dubstep popularity. Some examples are Britney Spear's "Hold It Against Me" which debuted on #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. and Ke$ha's song "Blow". Lady Gaga's new album Born This Way is set to have electro-industrial beats on tracks and particular songs.
As music sales continue to slip,[23] country music has seen only slight decline in sales.[23] This has been attributed both to the faithfulness of country fans and to a rise in popularity of the genre, such as the immense popularity of Taylor Swift in 2009-2010 and the popularity of Lady Antebellum and the Zac Brown Band on Top 40 radio. Carrie Underwood remains a big main stay for the genre. Country music also becomes increasingly popular in the later part of 2010, with artists such as Zac Brown Band, Billy Currington, and many other artists. Miranda Lambert gains major popularity with her third studio album Revolution.