US Charts Rank Global Artists On Top Spot In 2020

Move over Country, there’s a new sheriff in town! Just kidding, Dolly Parton has our heart forever. However, the face of American music is witnessing a paradigm shift. The highest-ranking numbers, for streams, in 2020, went to global genres like K-pop music, Afrobeats, and Regional Mexican music.

When ‘Not In Rome’!

Statistics show that U.S. listeners gravitated more and more toward global genres than in the last few years. When studying streaming behaviour in 2020 compared to 2019, Afrobeats, K-pop, and Regional Mexican were among the genres that saw the highest growth in streams. 

It’s brilliant, if one can’t go to South Korea, one simply brings the Korean flavour to them. And that too through music!

The last year has proved to be stressful. The entire world was to be within the confines of their home. So it comes as no surprise that other types of music listened to on streaming platforms were mostly Easy Listening, Children’s music, de-stressing music etc.

The next set was fun Latin pop numbers by artist like Bad Bunny‘s Booker T, Natanael Cano‘s Yo Ya Se, dance-y K-pop tunes like BTS‘s Dynamite, NCT Without You, BLACKPINK‘s Whistle, and oh-so catchy Afrobeats by Burna Boy‘s Fall, and Davido‘s Aye).

A Closer Look!

Within Latin, the subgenres that saw the biggest leaps weren’t reggaeton and Latin pop, which have seen crossover success in the States for years, but regional genres steeped in Latin American traditions.

K-pop streams fought against mainstream competition and totally held their own! BTS reign supreme as their record is a total of 1.6 billion streams, beating global stars like Beyonce, and Halsey. 

Afrobeats and dancehall music has reached American audiences a little late but they have still made giant strides in the Industry, with streams doubling since 2019.  

A well-deserved change. It’s about time the whole world grooved together!

By: Aatira Kakroo