The "Best of 2024" Music Lists Are In: Charli XCX, Cindy Lee Come Tops; Lofi is King, Showcasing A Shift Happening in Music
Lo-fi is hi; guitar music, electronic music, seems to be the driving trend - and there are even "best of cassette" lists.
Examining the “Best of 2024” lists that come in this time of year with music publications, the trend is interesting. Rate Your Music is a great website to look at, especially as the ratings are curated from a lively community. Then there’s Pitchfork’s Best of 2024. Slate’s roundtable on the best of 2024 (podcast, but the transcript is available) also has some interesting insights.
I don’t tend to bother much with Billboard as it’s boring and their website often just looks like a collection of press releases or coverage on gossip, which honestly I couldn’t care about.
Charli XCX tops the lists
It seems that the big winner is Charli XCX with Brat, who appears to feature on most lists. Having come from experimental pop and considered “indie” in her 15 year career, her new album is club-dancey vibes but still retains some of that lo-fi indie sound, with more sheen. It’s a little too pop for me, but I get it. I don’t think it’s in the legendary album status, but it does point towards the trend I’m going to highlight here.
Then Cindy Lee seems to appear most frequently
The next one I’ve noticed appearing all over the place is Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee, a 2-hour, 35 track lo-fi indie effort that can’t be found on mainstream streaming services, except Youtube as one long upload. Outside of that, your next bet to listen is at Bandcamp. That in itself I find interesting.
This album is a lo-fi dream, complete with guitars and drums going off timing, vocal mistakes left in, and just enough reverb. The whole thing basically sounds like an AM radio playing music from 60s b-side bands that no one remembers and no one will miss. It’s not my thing personally in terms of its Americana style, but what it shows is that the pushback against the top production pop vibes of the last twenty years may now be hitting the main. Compare this with Coldplay’s Moon Music—a shiny, Max Martin-at-the-helm, synth-guitar-pop borefest. The songs are instantly catchy, make your ears happy, stir the feels, but are pretty vapid in the lyrics department and are, quite honestly, instantly forgettable.
Note: I don’t see Coldplay in these lists either.
Honorable mention: Magdalena Day
Magdalena Day’s Imaginal Disk, a synthpop “indietronica” effort from the duo (and couple) Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin is worth a mention. The album makes use of lo-fi crunch and weirdness mixed with pop melodies and dreamy vocals. It’s quite fun to listen to on headphones as you hear some of the lo-fi buzzes and deliberately bad quality sounds mix with the sheen. It’s a tight effort, in my opinion showcasing how you can make indie low-production aesthetics poppish. I recommend a listen.
Another honorable mention: Mk.gee
I first saw Mk.gee (Michael Gordon) actually on SNL a few months ago, and was instantly surprised. His guitar style incorporating plenty of chorus and reverb and catchy, quick licks mixed with empty, open production (he records it all at home) complete with a mysterious, aloof persona is probably just the ticket for what seems to be rising right now. His music has instant nostalgia vibes to it, sounding sometimes like a bit of Phil Collins, a bit of Prince, a bit of John Mayer—essentially an R&B effort mixed with a bit of art rock. Again, he comes from the indie, lo-fi world, now adding a bit more shine to his latest release, Two Star and the Dream Police. (See Rolling Stone’s review.) This is the trend, I think.
Hip-hop, K-Pop
For starters, there were some hip-hop recommendations in the lists I’ve been seeing, but I think much far less than in previous years. This coincides with a trend that Billboard wrote about in 2023. Hip-hop of course won’t die, but it’s definitely losing its appeal and popularity, and it looks like the scene has peaked and now dropped as far as its dominance goes.
Also, it seems to me that K-Pop has not invaded (America and the U.K., at least) as much as people expected. While I still see K-Pop sold in stores like Barnes & Noble (a clear sign of a market demand, or at least a very aggressive distribution?), I’m not really seeing it being as much of a massive influence at music websites and such.
Indie is the main thing?
“Indie” is a style that has come to mean many things. It used to just mean being on an independent record label, but because that also usually meant a fair amount of low quality production, “indie” became synonymous with lo-fi sounds, crunchy synths, badly recorded guitars, cheap drum machines or badly recorded drums, and a touch of psychedelia.
Most of all, the key thing about lo-fi is it’s about capturing a type of nostalgia for something you may never have even experienced. It’s got a feel to it that reflects the next door neighbor’s band playing in the garage, or 60s music playing on the radio, or 80s synth-driven New Wave emo, or a Manchester club full of post punks in the early 90s. It’s not that it really IS these things, it just captures the aesthetic by borrowing from them.
That’s why, I think, it seems to be on the up as many Gen Z writers are saying their generation is nostalgic for a past they didn’t even experience. As
writes:Gen Z is in love with a past we can hardly remember. Grappling with contradictions, we yearn for the simplicity of the past as we barrel into a chaotic future. This paradox defines our consumption, our connections, and even our politics.
Also, interestingly, guitar sales are up 60% since 2019. That’s a massive increase. Why is it happening? Maybe some people want to start bands again :).
It’s also why, when you look at photos of someone like Charli XCX, notice the lo-fi aesthetic—an attempt to make the photos look… ordinary.
Coupled with this, "cassette culture” is definitely becoming a thing. No idea how long it will last, but we do know that vinyl sales just keep increasing, and cassettes make sense with that trend. For many, it seems to me, analogue really is the feeling of getting back to normality—and normality is what people are looking for.
Thank you for the mention!
Just to add from someone who has lo-fi streaming the entire day over four outputs at home, including the garage. My romance with Lo-fi is purely the music, it's not invasive, it's just there, who the artists are is honestly not important to me, its the music, the companionship, the mellow takes and not to forget - the tunes.
Where it comes from, who does it is no longer important, consuming it is!