As 2024 comes to a close and Grammy judges begin to cast their votes, let us take a moment to reflect on what we listened to this year. 

“Chromokopia,” by Tyler, the Creator and “Short n’ Sweet” by Sabrina Carpenter were tied for best album in a Minnesota Daily poll, followed by “GNX” by Kendrick Lamar, and “The Tortured Poets Department” by Taylor Swift. 

“Too Sweet” by Hozier won best song, followed by “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar and “Please Please Please” by Sabrina Carpenter. 

“Sometimes you just need to celebrate the bittersweet things in life, and Hozier’s voice is unmatched,” said an anonymous poll responder.

Taylor Swift sold more albums than anyone else for a third consecutive year, continuing her run as the biggest recording artist in the world.  

Likely spurred by Swift’s influence, country and folk music made a serious comeback this year as artists like Post Malone and Beyoncé fully pivoted to making backroad bangers. Both Malone and Queen Bey scored number-one albums with their country releases this year.

The best-selling single of the year was the country-rap crossover hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey. An interpolation of J-Kwon’s 2004 classic “Tipsy,” the tune spent 19 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

“‘Tipsy’ is one of those songs that just grabs hard on your gut with that nostalgic feeling,” said an anonymous poll responder. “I can’t help but feel warm, and sad.” 

Pop music made a comeback as a serious art form as relative newcomers Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan went from obscurity to conquering the heart and ears of America this year. 

Carpenter, a former Disney star, spent most of September atop the charts after the release of her sixth album “Short n’ Sweet.” The album was eventually dethroned by a re-release of Travis Scott’s 2014 mixtape “Days Before Rodeo.”  

Perhaps more surprisingly, pop sensation Chappell Roan’s 2023 debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” was a huge hit, setting her up for a meteoric rise to superstardom in 2024. Her Lollapalooza performance in August drew one of the biggest turnouts in the event’s history. 

British dance-pop icon Charli XCX turned her tongue-in-cheek club bangers into a full-on cultural movement during the three-month epoch following her sixth release, commonly known as Brat summer. Despite an endorsement from Kamala Harris, the album failed to hit the top of the charts this year. 

Rap legends Drake and Kendrick Lamar stole the world’s attention when Lamar sneak dissed the Canadian rapper on “Like That,” a collaboration with rapper Future and producer Metro Boomin. Drake responded in April with two diss tracks aimed at the rapper, bringing their long-running beef to the mainstream. 

North Carolina rapper J. Cole was also briefly involved in the beef but publicly apologized to Lamar and pulled his diss track “7 Minute Drill” from streaming services after only a week. 

Lamar subsequently released two hugely successful diss tracks, “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us,” accusing Drake of sex abuse. “Not Like Us” became a huge hit, and Lamar will go on to perform at the halftime of Super Bowl LIX in February. 

“GNX,” Kendrick Lamar’s sixth studio album, was met with widespread praise on its late November release. 

Fellow Californian Tyler, the Creator was responsible for another Grammy-season hit with his eighth album, “Chromakopia.” The fifty-minute album is a stylistic ode to the uncanny and off-putting cinema of directors like David Lynch and David Cronenberg. 

International artists were able to make waves stateside too. South Korean boyband Ateez’s autumnal album “Golden Hour: Part.2” topped the charts in between the releases of “Chromakopia” and “GNX.” 

South African singer Tyla’s song “Water” has been atop Billboard’s afrobeat charts for a record-breaking 53 weeks and counting. 

2024 was a big year for music in Minneapolis too. The Twin Cities hosted countless shows by both internationally famous and local musicians. 

Several local acts released new music as well, like indie-rock mainstays Hippo Campus, who released their fourth album, “Flood,” in September. You can read more of our extensive local music coverage here.