What Our Favorite Songs Teach Us About Media Fragmentation

Previous EOY music: 2023 | 2022 | 2021

Two big questions re: music in 2024:
1) What were the most popular songs?
2) Who were the most popular artists?

Big question #1: What were the most popular songs?

Most popular songs of 2024, according to Billboard:
1) “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar
2) “Good Luck, Babe!” by Chappell Roan
3) “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter
4) “Birds of a Feather” by Billie Eilish
5) “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey

Mr. Screen's familiarity score: 60%

Most popular songs of 2024, according to Spotify:
1) “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter
2) “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar
3) “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey
4) “I Had Some Help (Feat. Morgan Wallen)” by Post Malone
5) “Million Dollar Baby” by Tommy Richman

Mr. Screen's familiarity score: 40%

Most popular songs of 2024, according to TikTok:
1) “Million Dollar Baby” by Tommy Richman
2) “Carnival” by Kanye West, Ty Dolla $ign, and ¥$
3) “Tell Ur Girlfriend” by Lay Bankz
4) “Type Shit” by Future, Metro Boomin, Travis Scott, Playboi Carti
5) “Never Lose Me” by Flo Milli

Mr. Screen's familiarity score:20%

Most popular songs of 2024, according to YouTube:
1) “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar
2) “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims
3) “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone
4) “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey
5) “Wanna Be” by GloRilla, Megan Thee Stallion 

Mr. Screen's familiarity score: 40%

Most popular songs of 2024, according to YouTube Shorts:
1) “Million Dollar Baby” by Tommy Richman
2) “Tell Ur Girlfriend” by Lay Bankz
3) “Pop like this Pt. 2 (Slowed)” by prodbycpkshawn
4) “Keep Up” by Odetari
5) “What You Won't Do for Love” by Bobby Caldwell 

Mr. Screen's familiarity score: 0%

Mr. Screen’s familiarity score (YoY growth):
1) 2023 - 35%
2) 2024 - 32% (↓ 9%)

Yikes: I only aged 2%, yet I lost 9% of my familiarity with music.

Quick math on top 5 song lists for 2024:
1) 17 different songs appeared in the top 5
2) No song appeared in all 4
3) Average song appeared on 1.5 lists (29%)

Interesting: Spotify/Billboard and TikTok/YouTube Shorts were the most aligned, with a 60% overlap.  YouTube and YouTube shorts were the least aligned, with 0% overlap! 

Big question #2: Who were the most popular artists?

Most popular artists of 2024, according to Spotify:
1) Taylor Swift
2) Drake
3) Zach Bryan
4) Morgan Wallen
5) Kanye West

Most popular artists of 2024, according to TikTok:
1) Sabrina Carpenter
2) Ice Spice
3) NLE Choppa
4) Billie Eilish
5) Meghan Trainor