By Grace Howard
For the music industry, last 25 years of music have been nothing but interesting, with the top of the Billboard Charts and the Grammy Song of the Year winner only being the same once. The Collegiate compiled the top songs of each year, along with Grammy winners and the top of the Billboard charts. Read on for our quarter century review.
2000-05: In the last 25 years, 2000-2005 had the widest range of popular genres with six different stand-outs including country pop, jazz and pop. The top two genres were Rock/Alternative and R&B/Soul. Some honorable songs through these years were “Breathe” by Faith Hill, which was nominated for Grammy Song of the Year but got beaten out by “Smooth” by Rob Thomas and Santana. The song “How You Remind Me” by Nickelback was the most-played song on U.S. radios in 2002. Songs that have stood the test of time are “In da Club” by 50 Cent and “Yeah!” by Usher featuring Lil John & Ludacris which are still played.
2006-10: These five years were a big shift in music, some of the biggest artists got their start and would go on to have billions of listens. “Tik Tok” by Kesha was the Billboard song of the year in 2010, which is still played consistently 14 years later. In these five years, none of the Billboard top songs were even nominated for Grammy Song of the Year. In 2010 Taylor Swift got her first Grammy “Song of the Year” nomination with “You Belong With Me” but got beaten out by “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” by Beyoncè. Coldplay Won their first “Song of the Year” in 2009 with “Viva la Vida” while “Boom Boom Pow” by The Black Eyed Peas was the top song for Billboard.
2011-15: From 2011-2015 the music industry had some of their biggest hits. Adele is the only artist in these 25 years to win both the Grammy and Billboard No. 1 song with her breakout hit “Rolling in the Deep” which to this day has over 1.5 billion streams. In 2012 “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye featuring Kimbra had its one-hit wonder that lasted on the Billboard charts for 59 weeks, which was one of Billboard’s longest charting songs ever. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis released their chart-topping album “The Heist” which had hit songs like “Thrift Store” featuring Wanz and “Can’t Hold Us” featuring Ray Dalton, remaining on the Billboard charts for over a year. Lorde won her first Grammy with her hit song “Royals” beating out nominees Bruno Mars and Imagine Dragons at just 17 years old.
2016-20: Some of the biggest songs of the century came out of this period. In 2019 “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus became one of the songs of the generation, breaking a record by spending 19 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard charts. Adele is the first artist in this generation to win the Grammy Song of the Year twice when she won in 2016 with her comeback song “Hello”. Billie Eilish won her first Grammy in 2020 winning Song of the Year and Record of the Year with “Bad Guy,” Best New Artist and Album of the Year with “WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?.” In 2020 what could be debated as the biggest song of our generation, “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd was released, shooting to the top of the charts and staying on the Billboard charts for 90 weeks.
2021-24: The end of this era has heavily influenced Gen Z. TikTok blowing up made “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals a record-breaking song, staying on the charts for 91 weeks, beating out “Blinding Lights.” Morgan Wallen topped the charts with “Last Night” from his album “One Thing At A Time.” In 2024 Billie Eilish won her second Song of the Year title with “What Was I Made For?” beating out top artists like Taylor Swift, SZA, Miley Cyrus and Olivia Rodrigo. Billboard’s number one song of 2024 is “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey after it tied the record of 19 weeks at No. 1.
Through all these years, the most popular genre was Pop having an average of 48% on the charts and Grammy winnings. Rap was the No. 2 genre on the Billboard charts but never showed up with any Grammy winners. After 25 years of record-breaking numbers, songs that will last lifetimes and amazing new artists, these years made the music industry what it is today.
