2011 in Review

2011 was the year that indie pop actually became pop music. Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” broke through the previous year, but a lot of the hype almost one-hit wonders like Gotye, Grouplove, Capital Cities, Of Monsters and Men, Passion Pit, and M83 in 2011 stretched into 2012, leading to Fun, Imagine Dragons (they were considered indie once, trust me) and The Lumineers. The trend also caught on with some bigger pop-rock bands like Coldplay, who fully embraced “pop” and synths. 

Pop’s other development, for better or (mostly) for worse, was artists embracing dubstep-influenced  song structures and builds, with pounding electronic beats building up before a beat drops for a chorus sung by a high-pitched, female vocalist. LMFAO, David Guetta, Afrojack, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, led to Calvin Harris, Zedd, Swedish House Mafia, and even established artists like Chris Brown, Rihanna, Flo Rida, Pitbull and Taylor Swift cashing in on the trend. It was great while drunk in a club or at a giant pool party, and terrible in essentially every other setting. And boy, did the movement last way too long (The Chainsmokers were still doing it in 2017).

The artist of the year, though, was Adele. With a lot of loud things on the radio, her personal ballads were inescapable. 

For hip-hop, underground, internet rappers started getting more play. B.O.B got big in 2010, paving the way for Wiz Khalifa, Big Sean, Wale and J. Cole in 2011. More notable though, were releases by up and coming collectives, led by A$AP Rocky (A$AP Mob), Kendrick Lamar (Black Hippy) – who both put out breakthrough mixtapes – and Tyler, The Creator, whose horror-core influenced Goblin was both intoxicating and controversial. 

For albums, it was a bit of a lackluster year, but there were notable releases. Drake put out Take Care, which will go down as his classic. If anyone was fighting Adele for the 2011 crown, it was Drake. 

The Foo Fighters put out their last good record, and The Strokes returned to form after a brief hiatus. Kanye West and Jay-Z teamed up on Watch the Throne, pushing Kanye West even closer to the top of the hip-hop totem pole and further cementing Jay’s legacy. 

Songs of the year

Rock

Hip-Hop

Pop