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Kendrick Lamar - Grammys 2018

Kendrick Lamar performs at the GRAMMYs in 2018

Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty Images

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10 Moments That Changed Music In The 2010s social-media-streaming-10-moments-changed-landscape-music-2010s

From Social Media To Streaming: 10 Moments That Changed The Landscape Of Music In The 2010s

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From the rise of streaming services to the globalization of pop, the 2010s were a revolutionary decade that disrupted the music industry and forever changed the game
John Ochoa
GRAMMYs
Dec 27, 2019 - 9:32 am

With the final days of 2019 comes the finale to a revolutionary decade that disrupted the music industry.

A bit of cultural context: The decade kicked off in January 2010 with a rising Lady Gaga dominating the global charts with her breakout track, "Bad Romance," Taylor Swift taking home the GRAMMY for Album Of The Year for Fearless and a (very) young Justin Bieber breaking into the mainstream with early single, "Baby." Later in the year, Apple would release its first-ever iPad and Instagram would debut in the world. Other major developments would follow later in the decade: Spotify launches in the U.S. in 2011; and Apple Music and YouTube Music hit the scene, while Jay-Z acquires and rebrands Tidal, the latter three milestones all happening in 2015.

As music and technology evolved in parallel at lightning speed, the music industry paradigm of yesteryear began to shift. Social media, which would soon allow a direct line of communication between artist and fan, broke down walls. Music fans, once fed a top-down stream of culture and content, became the tastemakers. And the music industry as a whole largely pivoted from a sales-based business model to a streaming-heavy consumption model.

As the decade comes to a close and enters a new era, The Recording Academy reflects on 10 moments and developments that forever changed the music landscape for the listener, the artist and the biz itself in the 2010s.

The Rise Of Streaming Services

Spotify on tablet

Nowadays, music fans are accustomed to having complete on-demand access to millions of songs at the convenient touch of a button. That's all thanks to major streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Tidal and Amazon Music, which have collectively helped shift the consumption of music from ownership-focused to access-based via subscription models.

Read: Who Ruled Music Streaming In 2019?

Today, streaming accounts for approximately 80 percent of the music industry's revenue. Culturally, playlists are now a primary source for new-music discovery, becoming powerful launch pads for artists and labels and largely replacing traditional tastemakers and gatekeepers like radio and music blogs. As well, major streaming services have helped discover and proliferate niche genres and global sounds. Chances are you'll still discover your next favorite artist, album and song on a streaming service 10 years from now.

Hip-Hop Reigns Supreme

The 2010s saw hip-hop reach a new level. Trap, a rap subgenre popularized in the early 2000s and rooted in the American South, reached mainstream crossover success when artists like Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry integrated the sound into their pop-centric music. The genre also birthed today's leading rap stars and producers, including Future, Migos, Gucci Mane, Sonny Digital, Metro Boomin and Mike WiLL Made-It.

Most recently, the so-called "SoundCloud rap" explosion has launched the careers of bona fide stars like Post Malone, Lil Pump, Trippie Redd, Lil Tecca and Rico Nasty. By 2018, the scene achieved its first chart-topping album via the late South Florida rapper XXXTentacion, who's second artist album, ?, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in the U.S. last March. Chicago SoundCloud rapper Juice WRLD, who died earlier this month, continued the streak when his second album, Death Race For Love, topped the Billboard 200 chart this past March.

Read: Find Out Who's Nominated For Best Rap Album | 2020 GRAMMY Awards

Bolstered by the rise of streaming—Chance The Rapper's 2016 mixtape, Coloring Book, became the first streaming-only album to reach the Billboard 200 charts and win a GRAMMY—hip-hop and R&B surpassed rock as the most popular genre in the U.S. for the first time ever in 2017. What lies ahead for the genre is both a mystery and a wide-open opportunity.

The Latin Music Explosion

Where the 2000s popularized regional and niche sounds like bachata and banda, the 2010s saw Latin music skew toward urban and contemporary styles, setting the stage for urbano, the umbrella term encompassing genres like reggaeton, Latin trap, dembow and more, to reach critical mass.

The decade's Latin music victor is the undeniably catchy, omnipresent international breakout hit "Despacito" from Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee. Released in January 2017, the track, which claims the top spot for the most-streamed music video of all time, set off the so-called "Despacito effect," a music industry phenomenon that consequently ushered in an avalanche of Spanish-language hits and mainstream pop crossovers. The international success of the Spanish-language track ultimately helped break down cultural and language barriers across the global pop spectrum.

Read: Los Angeles' First Permanent Latin Music Gallery Launches At GRAMMY Museum

With Latin music ranking as the fifth-most popular genre in America, in terms of album consumption, the future burns bright for the sound.

K-pop, Afrobeats And The Globalization Of Pop

One of the most notable changes in the pop landscape this decade comes in a rainbow array of languages and cultures: the globalization of pop, led by the international sounds of K-pop from Korea and Afrobeats from West Africa and the wider diaspora.

While modern K-pop dates back to the '90s, the genre reached true international scale in 2012 with the arrival of Psy's breakthrough viral hit, "Gangnam Style." The track's official music video would eventually become the first video ever to reach 1 billion views on YouTube, once standing as the most-viewed clip on the video-sharing platform.

Psy and "Gangnam Style" set the stage for the K-Pop explosion in the U.S. and across the globe: BLACKPINK became the first K-pop girl group to perform at Coachella in 2019 and BTS became the first K-pop act to top the Billboard 200 chart via their 2018 album, Love Yourself: Tear.

Read: Why is K-pop's popularity exploding in the United States?

Currently, Afrobeats is the next international sound sweeping pop music. Major stars like Kanye West and Rick Ross have all collaborated with Afrobeats acts. Drake's 2016 international hit "One Dance," once the most-streamed song on Spotify, featured Nigerian Afrobeats artist Wizkid, who would go on to sign with RCA Records in what became the biggest record deal ever for an African artist. This past July, Beyoncé released The Lion King: The Gift, the soundtrack album to the 2019 Lion King remake, which featured African and Afrobeats artists like Wizkid, Burna Boy, Mr Eazi and many others. With major labels like Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group betting on Afrobeats, all eyes are now on Africa.

Social Media Makes Impact

With nine out of 10 regular social media users partaking in music- or artist-related activities on social apps and 63 percent of users employing social media technology to discover new artists, social media's massive impact on the music industry is virtually immeasurable.

Most notably, social media has broken down the walls once separating artists from listeners. Musicians can now use multiple social media avenues to directly communicate with fans, and vice versa, creating a "bond" between the two parties like never before. On a business front, social media has changed the A&R and music discovery game forever: Shawn Mendes blew up on Vine, Tori Kelly built her career off YouTube videos and Cardi B was an Instagram star before she was a chart-topping rapper.

Read: Lil Nas X's No. 1 Run Began With TikTok, Now The Music Industry Is Taking Notice

Social media marketing, led by memes, social media challenges, viral songs and dance challenges, is the next wave for the music industry. Today, the video-sharing social network TikTok, which introduced Lil Nas X and his viral hit, "Old Town Road," to the world is being touted as the future of the biz. 

Beyoncé And The "Surprise Album" Formula

Nine Inch Nails' immersive marketing campaign for Year Zero and Radiohead's pay-what-you-want model for In Rainbows may have shocked the music industry, but Beyoncé completely subverted the system when she surprise-dropped her self-titled album in December 2013. The 23-time GRAMMY champ dropped Beyoncé, marketed as a "visual album" comprising 17 videos to coincide with the project's 14 tracks, with zero advance notice, skipping the months-long marketing and promotional campaigns that have become the industry standard for artists of pop-star stature.

Read: J Balvin & Bad Bunny Drop Surprise Album 'Oasis,' Release Sensual Single "Que Pretendes

The unconventional formula worked: Beyoncé debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in the U.S. and once stood as the fastest-selling album ever on the iTunes Store. The success behind the album's surprise-drop approach sparked an industry trend, and newfound marketing tactic, that saw everyone from J Balvin and Bad Bunny to little sister Solange following in Beyoncé's gold-dusted footsteps.

Music Festival Inc.

Music festivals have been a part of American music history since the days of Woodstock and Monterey Pop Festival in the late '60s. Over the past decade, however, the culture and business of music festivals have developed from a DIY approach to a fully fledged industry. In 2017, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which celebrated its 20-year anniversary this past April, became the first reoccurring festival franchise to gross more than $100 million, with a total gross of $114.6 million that year. Goldenvoice, the organizers behind Coachella, also holds the overall record for all-time top festival gross for its 2016 event Desert Trip, which brought in a record-breaking $160 million in 2016.

In addition to big payouts for festival producers and headlining artists alike, festivals have also become a creative playground for ambitious acts. Coachella alone has been the home to many milestone moments and industry-wide trends and developments over the past decade, including multiple band reunions (OutKast, Guns N' Roses, N.W.A); the genesis of the booming hologram concert industry; and Beyoncé's game-changing Homecoming headlining performance in 2018. Today, festivals worldwide serve as a breeding ground for artistic ambition and a launch pad for the new, now and next in music technology.

"Hamilton" And The Mainstreaming of Jukebox Musicals

On paper, "Hamilton" reads like an unlikely premise: a hip-hop Broadway musical based on the life of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. What unfolded was an even unlikelier run: 11 Tony Awards, a Broadway box office record and a Pulitzer Prize(!). Since its original off-Broadway debut in New York City in 2015, "Hamilton" has been unstoppable. The show's multiplatinum-certified original Broadway cast recording, released by Atlantic Records in September 2015, went on to peak at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart and topped the Top Rap Albums chart. It also took home a GRAMMY for Best Musical Theater Album for 2015, while the show's creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, received the President's Merit Award from the Latin Recording Academy in 2017. Elsewhere, The Hamilton Mixtape, a 2016 follow-up mixtape album featuring original and deleted songs from the musical, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Read: How Hip-Hop & "Hamilton" Are Transforming An 8th Grade History Class

The breakout success of "Hamilton" has since launched Broadway culture and musicals into the global mainstream unlike any other production before it, shining a new light on the art form and introducing a younger generation to the medium. Its lasting legacy has also initiated a wave of jukebox musicals, pop-music-inspired shows and productions, with everyone from The Temptations ("Ain't Too Proud") to Tina Turner ("Tina: The Musical") receiving the Broadway treatment.

EDM Conquers The Global Dance Floor

In the 2010s, EDM went mainstream. Beloved pop icons crossed onto the dance floor via full-on dance-pop collaborations: Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris, Jack Ü (Diplo x Skrillex) with Justin Bieber, Steve Aoki and One Direction's Louis Tomlinson. Even Britney Spears dabbled in dubstep on her 2011 No. 1 pop hit "Hold It Against Me."

This decade also saw EDM fully infiltrating the GRAMMYs. In the same year dubstep wunderkind Skrillex swept the dance/electronic category in 2012, Canadian electronic artist/producer deadmau5 and French dance legend David Guetta joined Chris Brown, Lil Wayne and Foo Fighters onstage for a televised cross-genre performance. Two years later, in 2014, French electronic icons Daft Punk would win big at the GRAMMYs for their 2013 album Random Access Memories, which took home major awards, including Album Of The Year and Record Of The Year for lead single "Get Lucky."

Watch: Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams win Album Of The Year

Today, EDM artists are among the highest-paid musicians across the board—Calvin Harris ($38.5 million), Marshmello ($40 million) and The Chainsmokers ($46 million) raked in big bucks in 2019 alone—and continue to headline international festivals like Coachella, Lollapalooza and Glastonbury. What was once an underground subculture is now the soundtrack to the future.

The Convergence Of Gaming And Music

Counting more than 2 billion gamers around the world and with the potential to become a $300 billion industry by 2025, today's video game market is thriving. It's no surprise, then, that the music industry wants in on the action. While video games and music have gone hand in hand since the days of "Super Mario Bros." in the mid-'80s, the convergence of the two worlds hit its peak in the 2010s. These days, the music biz is leaning heavily into the gaming industry to unlock new revenue streams, reach new listeners and bolster marketing campaigns.

Video games have always provided a healthy income for major artists via licensing deals: Famously, Aerosmith made more money from their 2008 video game, "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith," than from any of their albums. Still, the current wave of video game and music crossovers takes the approach to the next level via virtual concerts. This past February, superstar producer/DJ Marshmello performed an exclusive in-game "concert" in "Fortnite," a massively popular online video game, that attracted more than 10.7 million people. A clip of the performance has since garnered +45 million views on YouTube. Following the concert, Marshmello released Marshmello Fortnite Extended Set, a DJ mix album based on the virtual performance, which topped Billboard's Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart in the U.S. With video games and music now at the forefront of pop culture, the two industries will continue to push into the future together.

2020 GRAMMY Awards: Complete Nominees List

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TikTok

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What Music Goes Viral On TikTok? what-music-goes-viral-tiktok

What Music Goes Viral On TikTok?

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Got bass? Here's how songs go viral on the wildly popular new app and how musicians can take full advantage of the craze
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Nov 6, 2019 - 9:31 am

By now, you've probably heard Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road Remix" a few times over. The song's viral moment—culminating on its record-breaking run on the Billboard Hot 100—was inescapable for the better part of 2019.

Yet before the young rapper rode his way into the spotlight, he uploaded a clip of the original song, along with a "challenge," to the popular social media video app, TikTok. Users, the bulk of whom are Gen Zers, can upload and view 15-second videos set to music, with the song title/artist displayed.

Consequentially, an ever-growing handful of catchy songs have gained fame within the app and, in the case of Lil Nas X, Lizzo (her #DNATest Challenge recently helped catapult her 2017 bop "Truth Hurts" to the charts) and a few others, in the greater popular culture and pop music landscapes. A recent story on Haulix's blog looks at last month's biggest hit songs on TikTok to unpack the trends behind the trends, to help more artists take a shot at getting their viral moment.

Haulix points to several key elements of songs that have gained traction on the app recently, highlighting the importance of "memorable lyrics," especially ones TikTokers can act out in their videos, as well as a danceable beat and a bass drop.

Watch: AJR On Their Dream Lil Nas X Collab, Their Favorite Thing About Festivals & More

Since the video clips can only be 15 seconds long, the app only plays a short segment of the featured song. The audio content of TikTok videos is the song itself and not the user singing, rapping or talking over it, meaning songs with clever or quotable lyrics tend to be the most popular.

While some tracks that make waves on the platform may be fun and catchy and continue to gain traction in its whole form on streaming platforms and the like, what is most important in successful TikTok hits are the catchy bars that hook people in and allow them to use their bodies and facial expressions—from dance moves, costume changes, creative makeup and more—to put themselves in the song.

Read: Lil Nas X's No. 1 Run Began With TikTok, Now The Music Industry Is Taking Notice

As Haulix pointed, "The greatest songwriters from previous generations made an impact on culture with songs and albums that told elaborate, sprawling stories of the human condition. Some of those tracks may find an audience on TikTok as well, but most users are seeking out 4-16 bars that make an immediate impression on listeners. Lyrics that may seem silly or outright ridiculous to average music consumers often take TikTok by storm."

They point to user @schmidtyqueen's video to Yung Gravy's song "Magic" about as an example of how she used his outlandish lyrics ("Heard my voice now she trying to have whoa. / Flexing ain't too complex, baby./ Ala-ka-f***ing-zam") to create a cute, engaging and simple clip.

The article also points to the popularity of rap, EDM and anything with heavy bass on the platform—anything with a catchy trap beat or a big bass drop is likely to get users attention, and find them inspired to try out their dance moves in hopes of gaining other users attention, likes and shares.

Haulix includes a 7-minute compilation video of some pretty fun TikTok clips set to bbno$ & y2k's viral hit "lalala," which features a simple trunk-rattling bassline and nonsensical lyrics with a humorous opening line ("Did I really just forget that melody?"). The video currently has over 39 million views on YouTube alone and found its way to the top of Spotify's Viral 50 chart in June.

Similar to bass drops, drastic beat changes or chord shifts (not unlike the journey of Travis Scott and Drake's GRAMMY-nominated 2018 No. 1 hit "SICKO MODE") can also inspire creative videos and viral moments on the platform. Haulix points to Kesh Kesh's "Vibin" as a popular example of this, where the beat itself (the only words in the clip are "One, two, three / let's switch this up.") leads, switching from banjo-led chords to a spacey G-funk beat.

In summary, if you're trying to give your music an extra push, make sure it's a trunk-slapper, one that could get the club going up or at least has funny, catchy lyrics, you can try your luck and viral fame and upload it to TikTok. It's always time for new challenges!

Harry Styles To Release Sophomore Album 'Fine Line' In December

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Billboard 200 To Count Video Plays In 2020 billboard-200-album-chart-count-video-plays-streaming-services-starting-2020

Billboard 200 Album Chart To Count Video Plays From Streaming Services Starting In 2020

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The implementation of video data will also impact other genre album consumption charts
John Ochoa
GRAMMYs
Dec 13, 2019 - 2:10 pm

In what may be an industry-shifting change, Billboard will soon begin counting video and audio plays and data from the leading video and streaming services into the Billboard 200 album chart for the first time ever, it was announced today (Dec. 13). Taking into effect with the charts dated Jan. 18, 2020, which track sales and streaming figures between Jan. 3-9, the forthcoming chart metrics will now reflect officially licensed video content plays from YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Tidal and Vevo. The change will also impact other genre album consumption charts, including country, R&B/hip-hop, Latin and others.

The implementation of video data into the Billboard 200 chart, which ranks the best-selling albums and EPs in the U.S. each week, follows a major change in 2014 when it pivoted from a strictly sales-based ranking to a multi-metric chart reflecting streaming figures and digital track sales—what's known as a "consumption model."

The Billboard 200, as well as the genre album charts, will only count "official licensed video content uploaded by or on behalf of rights holders," according to Billboard. Its counterpart, the Billboard Hot 100, the weekly chart ranking the top songs in the U.S., has counted YouTube streams and nonofficial user-generated videos since 2013.

Read: What Was YouTube's Most-Streamed Music Video Of The Decade?

"As the steward of the definitive charts that uphold the industry's measurement of music consumption, our goal is to continually respond and accurately reflect the changing landscape of the music," president of Billboard-The Hollywood Reporter Media Group, which oversees Billboard magazine, Deanna Brown said in a press release announcing the chart changes. "Our decision to add YouTube and other video streaming data to our album charts reflects the continuing evolution of the music consumption market and the ways in which consumers connect to album-related content."

Added Lyor Cohen, Global Head of Music at YouTube: “YouTube's inclusion in the Billboard 200 is a very important moment in making the chart a more accurate representation of what people are listening to. Genres like Latin, hip hop and electronic, which consistently dominate the YouTube charts, will now be properly recognized for their popularity. This is another great step in bringing YouTube and the industry together and we're so grateful to Billboard and the music business at large for making this addition.”

The Billboard 200 update is the latest development in a string of industry and chart changes throughout the years, which include the launch of the Social 50 and digital download charts as well as streaming chart changes.

Rooted in the 1950s and evolving throughout the decades, the Billboard 200 chart adopted its current name in 1992.

Find Out Who Just Made History With Their GRAMMY Nominations: 2020 GRAMMYs By The Numbers

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Who Ruled Music Streaming In 2019? who-ruled-music-streaming-2019

Who Ruled Music Streaming In 2019?

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With Spotify Wrapped, Pandora's Top Thumb Hundred, the new Apple Music Awards, as well as Shazam and YouTube's most popular songs of 2019, there's a lot of new streaming data to explore
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Dec 9, 2019 - 10:24 am

December is not only the perfect time for slowing down, sipping hot chocolate and spending time with loved ones, it's also a great opportunity to look back on which artists broke new records in streaming numbers. From Spotify to Pandora, Apple Music—and Shazam, which Apple owns—and YouTube, let's see who dominated the streaming game in 2019.

If you're active on Twitter or Instagram, you may have noticed various versions of Spotify Wrapped being shared over the past few days, after the streaming giant launched their annual microsite, which allows Spotify users to dive into their personal top artists and songs of the year. They also released the data for the platform as a whole, which named current 2020 GRAMMY nominee Post Malone as their most streamed artist globally, with over 6.5 billion streams this year.

The rest of Spotify's top artist list is made up of current GRAMMY nominees, with Billie Eilish taking the No. 2 spot with over six billion streams, followed by Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran and Bad Bunny, respectively. Eilish's GRAMMY-nominated debut album, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, is the platform's top-streamed album of 2019, making the 17-year-old the first female artist to have a No. 1 spot in that category. The highly anticipated project was also the top-streamed album on Apple Music this year.

Read: "WE ARE ALL WINNERS": 2020 GRAMMY Award Nominees React On Social Media

And that's not all for the L.A. pop giant: Eilish's GRAMMY-nominated hit "bad guy" ranks as the second-most-streamed song of the year on Spotify, surpassed only by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello's hit "Señorita," which saw more than one billion streams and is also up for a 2020 GRAMMY. Spotify's other top three global tracks of 2019 are also currently in the running for a GRAMMY: Malone and Swae Lee's "Sunflower," Grande's "7 rings" and Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus' "Old Town Road – Remix."  

Meanwhile, Apple Music broke out their top-streamed artists by genre instead of listing top overall, but with their new Apple Music Awards, they named Eilish their Artist of the Year. The other two awards were given to Lizzo, as the Breakthrough Artist of the Year and Lil Nas X, for Apple Music's Song of the Year with "Old Town Road." The ubiquitous Cyrus-assisted remix of the song took the No. 1 spot on Apple's global most-streamed song list, followed by "Sunflower," Grande's "thank u, next," "7 rings" and Eilish's "bad guy." Spotify named Lizzo, Lil Nas X and Puerto Rican reggaetonero Lunay as their Top Breakout Artists.

Poll: Who Will Win Best Pop Vocal Album At The 2020 GRAMMYs?

As for the top tracks on Pandora—which is measured by the numbers of "thumbs up" it gets from listeners—"Old Town Road" and "7 rings" also won over Pandora listeners, earning the No. 1 and No. 3 spots, respectively. J. Cole's Best Rap Performance GRAMMY-nominated "Middle Child" took the No. 2 spot, Malone's "WOW" snagged No. 4 and Cardi B's and Bruno Mars' "Please Me" earned the fifth highest number of likes. Pandora named Malone and Cardi as the most popular artist on their platform this year, as both artists had five songs each on this top 100 list.

Finally, YouTube also shared its platform numbers last week, with Daddy Yankee and Snow's reggaetón hit "Con Calma" earning the title of most-streamed music video globally in 2019. Rosalía, J Balvin and El Guincho's Latin GRAMMY-winning bop "Con Altura" earning the second spot on the global list, with all top five spots going to Latin urban songs.

"Con Calma" also made the U.S. version of the list at No. 10., the only Spanish song on it. Lil Nas X made this U.S. list twice; in the No. 1 spot for the audio version of the Cyrus remix and the No. 5 spot for the cameo-filled visual.

According to Apple, Spanish-language bops were also popular with Shazam users across the globe this year. "Con Calma" was the sixth-most-Shazamed song, not to be confused with Pedro Capó's Latin GRAMMY-winning "Calma," whose Farruko-supported remix earned the No. 4 spot. Not surprisingly, Eilish's "bad guy" was the most-Shazamed track globally this year.

We hope you have fun revisiting your favorite songs, music videos and albums of 2019. Find out which ones will take home a golden gramophone at the 62nd GRAMMY Awards, airing live on Jan. 26, 2020 on CBS.

Find Out Who Just Made History With Their GRAMMY Nominations: 2020 GRAMMYs By The Numbers

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Tower Records 1999, Hong Kong

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Poll: Which 1999 Album Have You Had On Repeat? poll-which-1999-album-have-you-had-repeat-year

Poll: Which 1999 Album Have You Had On Repeat This Year?

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From Dr. Dre to Destiny's Child and Britney Spears to Moby, a lot artists released amazing albums back in 1999—we want to know which classic LP you're still jamming out to
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Sep 11, 2019 - 1:18 pm

If you miss the days of going to Tower Records, browsing through the new releases rack and leaving with a stack of shiny CDs to pop into your indestructible Discman, this is the poll for you! Even if you born too late to truly understand the extreme wave of 1999 music nostalgia currently taking place, 20 years later, perhaps you've attempted to relive the '90s through your own musical streaming journey.

Either way, we want to know which classic 1999 album you still can't get enough of, which you can tell us by taking our poll below. Make sure to read on to travel with us back to 1999, with an overview of the albums and a selection of their songs to listen to.

Polls

Which 1999 Album Have You Had On Repeat This Year?

 

Let's take a quick trip back to the turn of the 21st century, when crop tops and ringer tees were having a major moment and iMacs came in five fun candy colors. On Nov. 16, 1999, West Coast hip-hop king Dr. Dre released 2001, his long-anticipated follow-up to his 1992 debut album, The Chronic. His 68-minute opus brought us classic G-funk records like "Still D.R.E." and "Next Episode," both featuring Snoop Dogg and "Forgot About Dre" with Eminem, the Compton icon's then newly signed protégée. The latter song would earn the pair a GRAMMY win for Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group at the 43rd GRAMMY Awards.

Over on the East Coast side of hip-hop, in Philadelphia, The Roots released their breakout third album, Things Fall Apart earlier in the year, on Feb. 23. The dynamic LP earned the group widespread acclaim and their first two GRAMMY nominations, including for Best Rap Album. The memorable, ultra-smooth "You Got Me" featuring Erykah Badu and Eve, earned The Roots their second nomination and first-ever GRAMMY win, for Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group.

Elsewhere in Los Angeles, the Red Hot Chili Peppers returned with their seventh studio album, Californication. The Rick Rubin-produced 15-track LP included classics like "Otherside," "Californication" and "Scar Tissue." The last song, still an alt-rock radio staple, earned the group the second of two nods at the 42nd GRAMMY Awards, where they also received a nomination for Best Rock Album.

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In another, albeit less serious, moment from the radio-friendly SoCal rock glory days, Blink-182 gave us Enema Of The State, along with hits "What's My Age Again?" and "All The Small Things."

Making our way over from pop-rock to bubblegum pop, America's sweetheart Britney Spears started 1999 right with the release of her debut album, …Baby One More Time on Jan. 12. The choreography, fashion and lyrics of both the videos for the title track and "(You Drive Me) Crazy" will live on in our '90s time capsules. If you forgot to "E-Mail My Heart," don't worry, the AOL inbox is still up and running somehow.

Fellow pop icons Backstreet Boys were ready to take us boldly into Y2K with their all-white getups and fierce poses/dance moves, as immortalized in the iconic "I Want It That Way" video and on the Millennium cover art. "Larger Than Life" was an appropriate opening track for the their third LP, the best-selling album of 1999. The beloved boy band earned four GRAMMY nominations that year, including for Album Of The Year and Record Of The Year, for "I Want It That Way."

Over in Atlanta, three powerful women known as TLC were also channeling a big Y2K mood on their GRAMMY-winning third studio album, FanMail. It featured the eternally empowering anthems "No Scrubs" and "Unpretty," and earned the trio two GRAMMYs and six total nominations.

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A year and a half after releasing their self-titled debut, another powerful squad, Houston's Destiny's Child, followed up with the sophomore album, The Writing's on the Wall. With catchy-as-hell hooks on "Bills, Bills, Bills," "Jumpin', Jumpin'" and "Say My Name," the album is still one that can still turn the club up. The former track earned the group their first GRAMMY nod in 1999. The latter track, released as the album's third single, earned them two more nominations at the 43rd Annual GRAMMY Awards, along with their first win, for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal.

Over in the New York rave scene, DJ/producer/singer Moby moved from the underground to the global spotlight with his fifth studio album, Play. The eclectic GRAMMY-nominated LP became the best-selling electronica album with instant-classic moody house tracks like "Porcelain," "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" and "South Side."

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Puerto Rican heartthrob Ricky Martin led another major music moment in 1999 with his GRAMMY-nominated self-titled fifth studio album, his first LP sung primarily in English. The album offers both English and Spanish versions of "Livin' la Vida Loca," while two of the other singles, "María and "The Cup Of Life," are offered as singular Spanglish versions. "Livin' la Vida Loca" earned Martin his first No. 1 hit on the Hot 100, as well as nominations for Record Of The Year at both the 42nd GRAMMY Awards and the inaugural Latin GRAMMYs in 2000. Along with him came the first major boom of Spanish-language artists, like Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, into the U.S. pop landscape.

Don't forget to let us know which 1999 album you still love the most in the poll above, and to share it with your friends as well. As you finish watching the videos below we're only left to wonder, which 2019 bops will still slap in—gasp—2039?

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