The year of 2024 was a big year for music. It felt like we were getting fantastic music every week. With artists like Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Kendrick Lamar, Tyler the Creator, Shaboozey, Bruno Mars, Billie Eilish, and many others topping the charts, taking awards, and putting out great projects, you could count on something to listen to constantly.
It seemed to follow into the first two months of 2025. We got projects from The Weekend, Drake, and a posthumous release from Mac Miller. Then, big releases began to slow down, and the top songs began to look the same as 2024’s. The only songs out of the aforementioned albums that really had any staying power as a hit was Drake’s “Nokia.”
On the flip side, we also got bad projects around this time. Both “WHAM” and “Mayhem” from hitmakers Lil Baby and Lady Gaga, respectively, were both poorly put together projects and didn’t have the hit-power that both artists are known for.
The Drought
As we enter into mid-May, songs like “Pink Pony Club,” “Espresso,” “Die With a Smile,” “Tipsy (A Bar Song),” “I Had Some Help,” and “Luther” remain firmly in Billboard’s top 20 songs. All of these songs were 2024 releases and half of them are a year old, with the other half being at least six months or more. In the top 20, only four songs haven’t reached double digit numbers on the charts. Only 20 of the top 100 songs have been released in the last five weeks (as of the May 17th chart).
There was hope that the drought may end with Playboi Carti’s March release of his “I Am Music” album. While it was both long awaited and extremely hyped up, the project didn’t have the same cultural impact, innovation, and success as his past albums. It had some hits, but they didn’t last long on the charts, with the two songs that made it to the top 10 falling down to the 20s after about 2 weeks. It was a disappointing failure that rather highlighted the severity of the drought than ended it.
Is There Hope?
I believe that this drought will eventually end, as the cycle of the music industry will produce more hits and replace the old ones. Currently, we are just suffering the backlash from the music explosion that was 2024. I assume that we should be receiving some major hits in the back half of the year.
This past week, Morgan Wallen dropped his long awaited “I’m The Problem” album. If the country superstar can’t put new hits on the charts, I don’t know who can. We will also be receiving projects from Lana Del Rey, Lil Wayne, Ed Sheeran and others in the coming months. If you need new hits, I’d advise patience because the drought is coming to an end soon.