2010s in music

For music from a year in the 2010s, go to 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19

This article includes an overview of the major events and trends in popular music in the 2010s so far.

General Overview

Many EDM genres such as electropop, dance-pop, house, new wave, trip-hop, trance, & electro hop have dominanted in the early part of the decade. One of the most notable trends in the early 2010s is the re-emergence of the synthesizer in popular music and the use of Auto-Tune as a vocoder.

In Latin America Pop music, pop rock, El Pasito Duranguense, reggeaton and tropical music still popular through the early part of the decade. A new type of music emerged from the reggeaton, the new electroflow music, and it is breaking mainstream in late 2010 in Latin America, a new dance from reggeaton hooks with electronic sounds.

LGBT artists have been dominant thus far in the 2010s; Lady Gaga, Kesha and Katy Perry are all bisexual or bi-curious (Kesha, Perry), Adam Lambert and Ricky Martin are openly gay, as a few important examples. Many songs about self empowerment came out in 2010, to the point of it being a trend. Such as Kesha's We R Who We R, which reached the number one spot in the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart toward the end of 2010. Martin's single The Best Thing About Me Is You debuted #1 on the US Billboard Latin Pop Songs in late 2010. Lady Gaga's new single Born This Way debuted at number one in the US billboard Hot 100, honoring the single as the 1000th single to reach the number one spot. The song debuted at number one in many other countries around the globe.

Music sales continue to decline, they fell 12.8% in 2010 from 2009 levels.

Pop

Lady Gaga is considered one of the most successful female Pop artists of the early 2010s.

Electropop, dance pop, synthpop and electrohop, along with other forms of dance/electronica music that started 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, David Guetta, Taio Cruz, Cascada, Christina Aguilera, Kylie Minogue, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Selena Gomez, Mike Posner, Usher, Britney Spears,Timbaland, 3OH!3, Kelis, La Roux, Far East Movement, Chris Brown, Enrique Iglesias 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.

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, 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.; This includes artists such as Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, and Katy Perry.

Within Australia and New Zealand independent and local acts continued to remain popular, shirking international trends towards Top 40 and other Demographically targeted music. Rather than buying music people opted to go and watch bands and socialise, spending their money on merchandise and amphetamines. This is an ongoing and longstanding trend. Bands that were popular in this period were, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Dappled Cities, Tame Impala, Operator Please and Art vs. Science.

Contemporary R&B

Rihanna is considered one of the most successful female R&B and Pop artists of the early 2010s.

Some of the most successful contemporary R&B artists in the 2000s, such as Rihanna (though categorizing her music as R&B is questionable), 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, Rihanna, and Taio Cruz with songs such as "DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love" by Usher, Flo-Rida/David Guetta "Club Can't Handle Me" Only Girl (In the World) by Rihanna, Yeah 3x by Chris Brown, and Beautiful Monster by Ne-Yo.

Rock

Rock still remains in the alternative state it has been in since the nineties, with relatively few innovations, though so far the genre is nowhere as prominent as it was during the previous two decades. So far, the top 2010 Billboard Alternative Songs number-one single of American performers include the single "Kings and Queens" by the American rock band 30 Seconds to Mars, the single "Back Against the Wall" by the American rock band Cage the Elephant, the single "Mountain Man" by American rock trio Crash Kings, the single "Between the Lines" by the American rock band Stone Temple Pilots, the single "Another Way to Die" by the American rock/metal band Disturbed and the single "Lay Me Down" by the American reggae rock band The Dirty Heads featuring Rome Ramirez (of Sublime with Rome). Avenged Sevenfold's latest album, Nightmare has debuted at #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 charts. The most successful hard rock album to be released in the 2010s thus far is Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns.

In the Northern Europe, especially in Sweden, 80s Glam Metal and Sleaze Rock got revived with such acts like Hardcore Superstar, Crazy Lixx, Crashdiet, H.E.A.T and Reckless Love.

Emo, popular between about 2002 and 2008, has declined in popularity and relevance compared to its mid to late 2000s peak.

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, and 2011 has a large number of new rock albums on the way with bands such as Sublime with Rome, R.E.M., the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, Tool, Radiohead, Foo Fighters, The Strokes and the reunited 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, Cut Copy, Hot Chip, Owl City and Lights enter the mainstream.

Hip hop

Nicki Minaj is one of the most successful Hip hop artists of the early 2010s.

Hip hop music was the only genre to have a sales increase in 2010.

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. Recovery was also the best-selling album of 2010. This has Eminem starting the new decade in a similar way he did the previous one. Nicki Minaj, a female rap artist also became extremely popular during 2010. Minaj's debut album Pink Friday debuted at number on the Billboard 200. This marked the second-highest sales week for a female hip hop recording artist, behind Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in 1998. 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.

Asian hip hop hit the #1 spot for the first time in the United States with Far East Movement's Like a G6, featuring Californian singer Dev.

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.

Country

Taylor Swift is considered one of the most successful female Country pop artists of the early 2010s.

As music sales continue to slip, country music has seen only slight decline in sales. 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.

Electronic music

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 Rihannas song Only Girl and Jennifer Lopez featuring Pitbull (rapper) new single On The Floor.

Dubstep started to break into the mainstream by 2010. Especially in Britain, where it has combined with Grime, a genre that moved into the mainstream in 2009.

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 the new song from Britney Spears 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.

See also

• 2000s in music
• 2010s