Selling Culture: Part 4, What’s Next in Music?
Exploring K-pop, Reggaeton, and Afrobeats
What cultural trends are coming next in music?
Welcome to the final part of this mini-series, where I will introduce a few other ‘cultural’ trends that are emerging in music!
In the previous parts, I brought up an analogy comparing cultural music trends to ethnic restaurants. We are now at a point where there are already several ethnic restaurants in the neighborhood, it’s nothing new. It’s unlikely that the next new type of restaurant will sweep the whole neighborhood like the first few did. Rather, we will see interesting fusion restaurants, contemporary street food, and even vegan places opening up in different districts.
So without further ado, let’s see what music is on the rise!
1. Arabic Pop and Arabic Hip Hop
Several big artists in the US have been collaborating with Arab musicians who are popular in the Middle East. Recently, the song ‘Sah Sah’ by Marshmello and Lebanese singer Nancy Arjam gained traction for becoming the first Arab song to hit the Billboard Dance/Electronic Charts.
There are also numerous Arabic Hip Hop artists who are gaining international recognition such as Sudanese artist Soulja, Egyptian rapper Felukah, and many more. Please note, ‘Arabic’ is a pretty general term, so please go and listen to how each artist from different regions sound like!
2. J-pop
J-pop recently gained global attention due to the popularity of anime, as well as artists like YOASOBI going viral on Tik Tok. Specifically, tracks created by Vocaloid (computer generated voice) producers, but sung by a human, are trending around the world. YOASOBI also consists of the Vocaloid producer Ayase and singer-songwriter Ikura.
Vocaloid songs were in fact not considered ‘J-pop’ until quite recently. More traditionally, ‘J-pop’ would point to songs performed by Japanese idol groups akin to K-pop idol groups, though it was not really intended for international audiences like K-pop. This was the mainstream J-pop when I was growing up in Tokyo:
Vocaloid used to be a rather niche genre that was popular on Niconico. The platform is basically like if Twitch and Youtube had a baby, and mostly used by gamers, anime lovers, etc. These hobbies are not that niche these days, but a few years back, they were considered somewhat outsider activities.
Then as Vocaloid songs started gaining popularity, producers started making tracks with human voices rather than computer generated voices, breaking into the mainstream. Though no longer sung by a computer, these songs have a pretty distinct sound from traditional J-pop idol group songs, and are more likely to reach international markets with the support of the global gamer/anime community. One of my favorite songs actually sung by a Vocaloid:
Including this song, most Vocaloid songs these days have a cover sung by a human.
3. Amapiano
There are already lots of articles written on the rising popularity of Amapiano, which is a style of House music that is said to have emerged in South Africa. It is undoubtedly an upcoming trend in the States and globally, especially with the increasing attention towards styles of music from Africa and the rise of Afrobeats.
Currently, the charts of South Africa is filled with Amapiano, which I actually found surprising. Not because I don’t like the genre (I‘m a fan), but because most of these songs are 7–10 minutes long. Dance music is popular in Europe, but 10-minute long trance songs are definitely not making it onto the top 50 charts.
Personally, House music is one of my favorite genres, and this is an excellent segue into the next series. I will be talking about Electronic Dance Music and the rave culture surrounding it, so stay tuned if you’re interested!
Honorable Mentions
1. French Hip Hop and French Reggaeton
France has the second biggest Hip Hop market after the US, and it’s in Europe. Still, I decided to give this an honorable mention as it’s quite recently that non-white Francophone artists started sweeping foreign markets like Anglophone or Hispanophone artists. I was probably also just living under a rock.
The global success of French-Malian singer Aya Nakamura especially played a huge role in representing black women in the French music scene.
In general, I wanted to bring up French music to highlight the potential of French-speaking artists to appeal to the large Francophone community across the world. French stars like Ninho and OBOY are already quite popular in several African countries:
Very soon, songs in French that are not necessarily from France are likely to trend in global markets.
2. Multilingual Music
This isn’t really a specific regional style, but something that has been trending with the globalization of the industry. Artists are mixing in not just English, but various languages they speak into their music. For instance, Moroccan rapper ElGrandeToto sings in Arabic, French, and English, and has penetrated into different markets that speak those languages. Especially with the increasing number of immigrations, being ‘multicultural’ by itself is a culture that many can relate to.
Speaking of multilingual artists, I will throw in a shameless self-promo. I also make music with influences from my multicultural background, incorporating English, Japanese, and Korean lyrics. A sneak-peak into my upcoming EP:
Find me on streaming services and follow my instagram to hear the full version!
Obviously, there are many other emerging genres that I could not fit into this article for lack of space. I will write about those in the future, but in the meanwhile, go explore yourself on this interactive dashboard :)
