What were some of the most notable trends on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart during 2024? Hit Songs Deconstructed, which provides compositional analytics for top 10 Hot 100 hits, has released its year-end 2024 State of the Hot 100 Top 10 report.
Here are three takeaways from Hit Songs Deconstructed’s latest in-depth research.
Hip-Hop Topped Pop, Country
Hip-hop/rap reigned as the most common primary genre in the Hot 100’s top 10 throughout 2024, contributing to 38% of all top 10 hits, and bounding from a 23% take in 2023.
Pop placed second with a 29% share in 2024, the same total as 2023, when it finished first.
“Hip-hop/rap was the only primary genre that increased in prominence when compared to 2023,” Hit Songs Deconstructed notes. “This is largely due to the success of artists who appeared on three or more of the year’s hip-hop/rap top 10s: Kendrick Lamar (eight), Future and Metro Boomin (five each) and Tyler, the Creator (three).”
Hip-hop/rap and pop have traded annual titles as the leading primary genre in the Hot 100’s top 10 since the former led in both 2017 and 2018:
- 2024: Hip-hop/rap, 38% — Pop, 29%
- 2023: Pop, 29% — Hip-hop/rap, 23%
- 2022: Hip-hop/rap, 38% — Pop, 35%
- 2021: Pop, 39% — Hip-hop/rap, 34%
- 2020: Hip-hop/rap, 41% — Pop, 40%
- 2019: Pop, 47% — Hip-hop/rap, 34%
- 2018: Hip-hop/rap, 59% — Pop, 24%
- 2017: Hip-hop/rap, 32% — Pop, 31%
Country has been the third-biggest primary genre the past two years, with a 15% share of Hot 100 top 10s in both 2023 and 2024. From 2017 to 2022, R&B/soul placed third each year, ranging from 8% to 17% takes of the top 10.
Women Vocals Vaulted
The gap nearly closed between male- and female-sung Hot 100 top 10s in 2024.
“Male-led songs continued to be most common in 2024, but have been in decline,” Hit Songs Deconstructed reports. “Conversely, female-led songs have been on the rise and reached their highest level in over a decade. This was largely thanks to Taylor Swift and her 10 top 10s, along with Sabrina Carpenter and Beyoncé, each scoring three.”
Billboard
Meanwhile, Hot 100 top 10s with a solo lead vocalist claimed their highest share in a decade: 70%, up from wins of 66% in 2023 and 62% in 2022. (In 2021, multiple lead vocalists edged out soloists, 51% to 49%, thanks to collaborations by the likes of Coldplay and BTS, Elton John and Dua Lipa, and The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber.)
Drumming Up New Interest
Looking at (or, listening to) instruments in Hot 100 top 10s, acoustic drums continued to surge in 2024.
“The use of primarily acoustic drums/percussion nearly quintupled since 2022, rising to 37% of songs in 2024, its highest level since 2014,” Hit Songs Deconstructed finds. “Representatives spanned an array of genres,” including country (Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help,” featuring Morgan Wallen), hip-hop/rap (Tyler, the Creator’s “Noid”), pop (Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please”) and rock (Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things”).
Billboard
Plus, electric bass rose to 32% of Hot 100 top 10s in 2024, up from 17% in 2020, and electric piano rose to 18%, tying its highest level in over a decade, mostly via hip-hop/rap- and R&B/soul-influenced hits.
Conversely, and while still central in Hot 100 top 10s, synth usage dropped to a 71% share in 2024, its lowest since 2014. Similarly, electronic drums/percussion declined to a 42% take – down from 45% in 2023 and 64% in 2022 and likewise their lowest since 2014.
