In 2024, several rhythms had their place on the list of main musical releases. Rap, country and pop centralized power in the global industry and lined up productions from big names, such as Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, respectively.
The last two, in fact, continue to dictate the rules of world music with “Cowboy Carter” and “Tortured Poets”, but have gained the company of names that rose to stardom, such as Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX. The year was also marked by the strong return of albums designed to be listened to as an entire project, with concepts, transitions, Easter eggs, following the trend set by the biggest names in the industry.
There was also Billie Eilish delving inside herself and bringing revelations about her life and sexuality in “Hit Me Hard And Soft”.
See below a list of five international albums — including a bonus disc — that marked 2024:
“Cowboy Carter” — Beyoncé
The album, which continues the trilogy proposed by the singer, follows “Renaissance”, released in 2022, and features a .
With 27 songs, it features several highlights, including “ll Most Wanted”, a partnership with and “Levii’s Jeans”, with Post Malone. On the album, the singer also used a sample in the track “Spaghetti”, written by Brazilian DJ O Mandrake.
“The joy of creating music is that there are no rules,” Beyoncé said in a statement sent to the press. “The more I see the world evolving, the more I feel a deeper connection to purity. With artificial intelligence, digital filters and programming, I wanted to return to real instruments, and I used some very old ones”, he guaranteed.
The album had the best performance among all country albums released in the year and is Album of the Year, an award that.
“The Tortured Poets Department” — Taylor Swift
In April, Taylor Swift surprised fans with her new album, revealing that it was a double album with songs about heartbreak and a period described as “the saddest story” of the singer’s life.
Their 16-track 11th studio album was officially released at midnight, but two hours later, .
“I’ve written so much excruciating poetry over the last 2 years and I wanted to share it all with you,” the singer wrote on Instagram.
A description of “Poets” in a separate Instagram post said it was “an anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and feelings of a fleeting and fatalistic moment, a moment that was at once sensational and sad in equal measure.” ”.
The blonde’s album was the most commercially successful this year, being . It also passed the Billboard 200, and became the third album in history to spend the longest time at the top of the ranking.
Above him are two music classics:
- “21”, by Adele, with 24 weeks;
- “The Bodyguard” (soundtrack to the film “The Bodyguard”), by Whitney Houston, 20 weeks old.
“The Tortured Poets Department” is also up for Album of the Year.
“Short N’ Sweet” — Sabrina Carpenter
After bursting onto the music charts with the song “Espresso”the singer Sabrina Carpenter25, released his new studio album, the “Short n’ Sweet”. The pop artist had also already released “Please Please Please”second single from the new album.
In total, “Short n’ Sweet” includes 12 songs. Among them, “Taste”, responsible for opening the new project; “Dumb & Poetic”; “Don’t Smile” (responsible for closing the album); and “Slim Pickins.”
The album is filled with personal stories associated with Sabrina Carpenter’s relationships with Shawn Mendes and Barry Keoghan and is also up for Album of the Year.
“Brat” — Charli XCX
More than an album, Charli XCX launched a cultural movement. His influence went beyond the world of music and became an issue in the United States presidential elections and refreshed the section of pop fans who prefer to enjoy music on the dance floor.
The release of the album was the culmination of a publicity campaign led by the singer’s Brazilian fans, who filled social networks such as X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram.
The cover of the new album is simple, marked by a color that became known as “Brat green” and filled people’s timelines with memes and Instagram notes with squares in the color of the album.
In addition to promoting “Brat” using small trucks covered with LED in cities like London and Paris, the singer also changed all the covers of her other albums on music streaming platforms for the visual identity of the new album, keeping only the symbolic color of each of them.
Also for Album of the Year, “Brat” was the best album of the year.
“Hit Me Hard And Soft” — Billie Eilish
Two years after his last album, Billie Eilish released his third studio album. Entitled “Hit Me Hard And Soft”, the project promises to be a return to your past self. She announced the new album in April this year, an action that followed a marketing venture.
Em , Billie Eilish said that she needed to get in touch with her darker side for the new production, and that it reminded her of the period she lived with the 2019 album.
“It was the best time of my life. This whole process felt like I was getting back to the girl I was. I have been mourning her. I have been looking for her in everything and it is almost as if she has been drowned by the world and the media”, he commented.
The album brought one of the songs, “Birds Of A Feather”, as well as hits such as “Skinny”, “Lunch” and “Chihiro”, which showed new perspectives on Billie’s sexuality and life. A gym favorite and owner of nine Grammy Awards, she is in the Album of the Year category in the 2025 edition.
Bonus: “GNX” — Kendrick Lamar
Only released in December, “GNX” did not have time to be nominated at the Grammy Awards, but it left its mark on the list of releases of the year. Raising commercial and critical success, the rapper’s sixth studio album came after he spent the entire year exchanging accusations with Drake and brought songs that are already hits, such as “luther” (with SZA), “tv off” (with lefty gunplay ) and “squabble up”.
*With information from Ana Beatriz Dias and Carol Ferreira, from CNN; and Reuters
