Best Music of 2024... So Far

R&B music used to be my favorite genre of music. It still is, but over the past decade or more, R&B music has declined. If you look at the Billboard charts over the past five years and even past ten years, the number of R&B acts who have charted at the top is very rare. R&B music has declined since the 1990's. It was at its height 30 years ago, but since the 2010's, R&B music has essentially gone away. The BET Awards saw the categories of Best Male R&B Artist and Best Female R&B Artist change 10 years ago at the 14th BET Awards to Best Male R&B/Pop Artist and Best Female R&B/Pop Artist. Even a program that was a place that built itself on R&B music knows to some degree that rhythm-and-blues isn't what it used to be, so BET put it with pop music.

Arguably, there are still a lot of great R&B acts out there. Usher Raymond released his ninth studio album Coming Home (2024) and it was the best-selling R&B album in about a half-decade but still couldn't crack number-one. Those acts simply aren't selling as well. Hip Hop still continues to do well and a lot of R&B and Hip Hop collaborations are out there, but again solo R&B acts and traditional R&B acts don't hit any as well any more. Even Beyoncé has moved away from R&B music. Her last record was more dance and electronic music. Prior to that, she did a hip hop record with her husband Jay-Z, and her current album has swung her into country music. If Beyoncé doesn't see the point of doing R&B music any more, than that says something.

I will say that a trend that I appreciate has been African American artists appearing more and more in the country music space. Of course, there have always been Black people in that genre. Many have helped to define it decades ago, but there has been an uptick of recognition over the past couple of years. That uptick has been helped by young Black country artists who are up-and-coming. One such act is an artist named Shaboozey, born in northern Virginia to Nigerian parents. His current album, which is his third, was released this spring and made it to number-two on the U.S. country charts on Billboard.

Speaking of charts, Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department (2024) is the highest-selling album, having spent 10 consecutive weeks at number-one. However, what dominated music headlines was the Drake-Kendrick Lamar rap battle. Apparently, Drake and Kendrick Lamar have been in a rap battle for years, but things escalated back in March. As of now, each rapper has produced five songs each dissing the other to varying degrees. Of all the songs, only two of them hit number-one on the Billboard charts and both of them were from Lamar. His song "Like That" was number-one for three weeks in April. Later, his track "Not Like Us" was number-one for one week in May. It seems as if the listening audience has chosen its winner.

As usual, I tried to separate the various albums I've heard into five categories, based on the major genres. I came up with a list of 27 albums that are my favorite so far:

Best Country / Folk

COWBOY CARTER by Beyoncé
STAMPEDE: VOL. 1 [EP] by Orville Peck
KEEP ME ON YOUR MIND/SEE YOU FREE by Bonny Light Horseman
MOOD SWINGS by Marcus King
WHERE I'VE BEEN, ISN'T WHERE I'M GOING by Shaboozey

Best Rock / Alternative

WHAT NOW by Brittany Howard
JPEG RAW by Gary Clark Jr
ALL BORN SCREAMING by St. Vincent
CAN WE PLEASE HAVE FUN by Kings of Leon
OHIO PLAYER by The Black Keys
BLUE ELECTRIC LIGHT by Lenny Kravitz
TOWNIE by X Ambassadors
UNHEARD [EP] by Hozier

Best Pop / Electronic

HIT ME HARD AND SOFT by Billie Eilish
GOD SAID NO by Omar Apollo
ROMANTICISM by Hana Vu
CHAOS ANGEL by Maya Hawke
ROOM UNDER THE STAIRS by Zayn
THIS IS ME... NOW by Jennifer Lopez
THE GLORIFICATION OF SADNESS by Paloma Faith

Best R&B / Soul

TEN FOLD by Yaya Bey
VISIONS by Norah Jones
INTO THE BLUE by Aaron Frazer
COMING HOME by Usher

Best Rap / Hip Hop

DARK TIMES by Vince Staples
WHY LAWD? by NxWorries
BLACK SHEEP by Cakes da Killa

Best Single from Non-Listed Album

"Sweet" by Bnny
"Tears that Don't Matter" by Iron & Wine
"Lully Lullay" by Myriam Gendron
"3:AM" by Rapsody f/ Erykah Badu
"X & Cud" by Kid Cudi f/ XXXTentacion
"Hands on Me" by Jason Derulo f/ Meghan Trainor
"Boys" by Amen Dunes
"Count the Days" by Swamp Dogg f/ Jenny Lewis
"Azalea" by Blackberry Smoke
"Ruined" by Adrianne Lenker
"The Dark Dresses Lightly" by Aurora