Athenian Students Explored a Variety of Music in 2024
Music is a unifier. Music can bring people from all walks of life together with a good beat and a strong message. In a tumultuous year where much was uncertain, music was a constant. Trends came and went, but music continued to bring people together.
More than half of Athenian students surveyed said their favorite music genres were niche or specific sub-genres. Although pop and rap music still topped the survey, many provided niche genres including vocaloid, bedroom pop, psychedelic, and “white girl music.” Faculty and staff, on the other hand, tended to prefer more broad genres, with only 25% of staff naming niche or subgenres as their favorites. Math teacher Jamie Julin said, “Once you’re forty, you’ve listened to a lot of music and my favorite genres have changed a lot over time. It’s hard to pin it down to one more specific thing so that’s why I’m offering a broader genre.”
The major overlap between what adults and students preferred was music from the 1970s-90s. Music reminiscent of older styles, particularly classic rock, gained significant popularity last year. Ninth-grader Kendall Gilliard said, “I love old music. I say we bring back 70s and 80s music, especially rock music. Like David Bowie and the Beatles, bring back Fleetwood Mac and The Cure.”
Over the last year, there has been a huge rise in country music. Beyoncé and Post Malone, both of whom are huge pop stars, released country music albums, encouraging many people to explore the genre. A few country songs, including “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey and “Austin (Boots Stop Working)” by Dasha, were also released, and their popularity on social media caused a significant rise in country music listeners. Ninth-grader Reagan Fusco said, “I love country music, I used to hate it and then I was introduced to it and I started listening to more country music in general.”
In addition to old stars reemerging, many new artists came out of the year bigger than ever before. Last year, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan both released pop albums, which quickly gained significant popularity. Taylor Swift had her biggest album yet with the release of “The Tortured Poet’s Department,” which broke the record for the most streamed album in a single week, and its leading single, “Fortnight,” broke the record for most streams in a single day.
Another emerging pop artist, Charli XCX, took over the music scene last summer with her album “Brat.” The album took social media by storm, causing many people to refer to summer 2024 as “brat summer.” The Collins Dictionary even named ‘brat’ the Word of the Year. However, like most trending albums, it faded into obscurity after a few months. Ninth grader Vivienne Wright said, “It [Brat] came up really quickly and then it was gone just as quick. It was all over the internet and everyone was talking about it, and then it was gone in a snap.”
Another topic all over the internet throughout the year was the feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. The two artists started as friends who collaborated on music but soon grew apart. They began releasing music to tear each other down. After the release of Kendrick’s “Not Like Us” and Drake’s “The Heart: Part 6”, this came to somewhat of a conclusion. Most consider Kendrick the winner as the popularity of his music overshadowed Drake’s, but not everyone agrees. Senior Eden Lucas said, “I like Kendrick, but I’m an even bigger fan of Drake, he’s been my top artist for three years straight. I would say I have very strong feelings on this.”
All of these trends were spread through social media. TikTok has a huge impact on the media people consume and that applies strongly to music. Through TikTok, people can discover smaller, rising creators and topics they might not have found otherwise, such as Tiffany Yu, who spreads awareness about mental health issues, and Cian Ducrot, a rising artist who has quickly gained a large TikTok following.
Emily Shinkle, Upper School advanced choir teacher, said, “I always ask students, when they bring up a song, where they learned about it, and most of the time it’s TikTok. I feel like a lot of music gets promoted and learned through TikTok, which is something I don’t participate in, so I feel really behind.”
People have a lot of different tastes in music, but at the end of the day, just about everyone listens to it. Music opens doors to connection, and no matter what you listen to, there is a community of people who love it, allowing listeners to connect with others. Humanities and choir teacher Victoria Akinsanya said, “Music has always been the way for humans to build connections and community.”