Summer 2024 in Music: Roundup and Takeaways
Labor Day has come and gone, marking the end of the summer season for music releases. And what a summer season it’s been! Kendrick Lamar and Drake (finally) entered the most consequential rap beef in at least two decades. Two genre titans pitted against one another in an aggressive and oft-personal battle that seemed to definitively, if not already, coronate the king of rap for this generation. Three female stars — Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Charli XCX — changed the tempo in pop music, marking a shift from moodier and more confessional songwriting toward a somewhat vintage philosophy of prioritizing joy in pop music. And while “The Tortured Poets Department” was released in late April, the Taylor Swift album — her eleventh — was a perennial presence on the albums chart. Using Billboard’s Songs of the Summer chart as a guide, let’s review some major takeaways from the last few months in popular music.
The winners of Brat Summer: Dudes with guitars
If you’ve been on the internet in the last few months, chances are you’ve come into contact, one way or another, with BRAT, the new record from Charli XCX. It’s been co-opted by a presidential campaign, it both references and reconciles a pop-star feud and, for nothing else, it’s one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the year. If you thought a single off of the record — maybe “360” or “Von dutch,” or perhaps the “Guess” remix featuring Billie Eilish — would be topping, or at least present on, the songs of the summer chart, I’d understand.
And yet, the crown goes to a country song. “I Had Some Help,” Post Malone’s completion of a country transformation that features Morgan Wallen, was the number one song of the summer, Billboard reported. Charli isn’t on the list at all.
Interestingly, the chart success of “I Had Some Help” marks two straight summers dominated by Wallen; his “Last Night” song took the title for summer 2023. It’s an interesting data point for charts that feel to have a decidedly hip-hop tilt in recent years. Number two of this year, Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” is even more authentically country; the age-old genre of drinking-music mixed with vague economic concerns (“This 9 to 5 ain’t working!” he laments in the opening verse). Also on the list are Luke Combs, Zach Bryan, Dasha and another Morgan Wallen track. In the coming years, it’ll be interesting to see the push-and-pull on the charts between country and rap music, which puts a shape-shifting artist like Post Malone in a uniquely beneficial position.
Sabrina Carpenter is not an emerging superstar; she is already one, right now
No one is represented twice in the top ten this year; no one, that is, except for Sabrina Carpenter, whose “Espresso” and “Please Please Please” placed fourth and sixth, respectively. It’s a remarkable turnaround for Carpenter, who broke (and then broke again) her personal bests for charting after already having released music for a decade. In fact, at the time of this writing, she is represented three times in the top four on the Hot 100, with the addition of “Taste.”
I’d argue a handful of factors contributed to her wild rise: opening for Taylor Swift surely helped, as did a uniquely effective public and marketing persona. The forever-relevant “Who is this song about?” question was also certainly at play. But, most importantly, the songs are just fun; I’d say “Please Please Please” is solidly better than “Espresso,” but both are joyful, silly, exciting records from someone who is undeniably personable; there’s a mix of broad accessibility and earworm-y-ness that pushes songs to the top of a chart like this.
Carpenter’s self-aware silliness is an interesting reflection of a desire for escapism in popular media. In the face of an upcoming election where both sides present the other as existential threats to American life and culture, there’s something refreshing about major pop songs requiring little emotional investment. There remain, through Carpenter especially, opportunities for Americans to point to something decidedly of-the-moment without it being an end-all-be-all of some component of life.
If there ever was a doubt about whether Kendrick won
For many years, the only claim, more or less, that Drake fans had in asserting he was the best rapper in the world was his chart success. That success is certainly impressive, but it emerged, at times, from attempts at the broadest, lowest-common-denominator music possible. Those who have always preferred Lamar (present company included) would argue that Kendrick could have had similar success if dull chart-topping was a primary goal.
This summer was proof positive of that hypothesis. The beef between Drake and Kendrick was one for the ages, evoking a particular fire from the latter that only he could deliver. The five tracks Lamar put out — a feature on “Like That,” “Euphoria,” “6:16 in LA,” “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us” — are, at worst, remarkable. At best, they’re some of the most exciting, upsetting, aggressive, well-written and full-on murderous diss tracks (or any tracks, for that matter) that rap music has seen in some time. “Not Like Us” in particular caught the ears of even those outside of the rap world, and it ended the summer at number three; not a remarkable feat in theory, but it becomes borderline miraculous when you view the content of the lyrics, which feature pure, unadulterated hatred of Aubrey Graham. If anyone needed a reminder of who really runs rap music, they got it this summer.
An overall incredibly high-level collection of tracks
Certainly, not every song on this list is all that good. I’ve never heard an interesting Marshmello song, and I’m mixed on the Benson Boone track, which feels the most TikTok-y of the bunch (except, perhaps, for “Million Dollar Baby”). But in general, pop music seems to be in good hands; there’s a lot to be excited about throughout that Songs of the Summer chart. The almost unprecedented rise of Chappell Roan was one of the most exciting turns in recent years; her growth since the release of her “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” album is staggering. I’d argue “Good Luck, Babe!” placed right outside of the top ten, is a borderline perfect pop track, the most obvious “star is born” moment in pop music since Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license.” I’d also argue that Hozier’s “Too Sweet” is wildly exciting and that Zach Bryan’s “Pink Skies” is genuinely moving (seventh and twelfth, respectively). Even the Eminem song is good! In the year 2024, that is not a given. It’s not surprising that songs from Taylor Swift, SZA and Kendrick Lamar are great as well, although Taylor’s lone track to make this list — “Fortnight,” with Post Malone — isn’t exactly a standout on Tortured Poets.
With that, we wrap the summer in music. It’ll be exciting to see how these trends shake out over the rest of the year and beyond!
Photo Caption: A record table for the summer in music
Photo Credit: Clovis_Cheminot / Pixabay
