2023: A Year in Review For Music

Merry Christmas!

2023 was a bizarre year in my love of music, it felt transitory in many ways. I spent much of the first half of the year on hiatus from blogging due to personal reasons, which, ironically enough, reignited my love of music like few years before. I rediscovered several favorites from years before and discovered several new classics. Even after re-starting this blog, I have maintained this balance, writing a new piece usually only once a year. If I have been late replying to your comments, I'm so sorry! But make no mistake, I read them when they came out.

These breaks allowed me to attempt my most ambitious post series so far, my 100 greatest K-Pop Songs of All Time ranking. I am quite impressed with how the series came out, and if you haven't read it yet, I would highly recommend it. 

When it came to new releases in 2023, I comparatively gravitated to releases from the English-speaking world, particularly from America, Canada, and Great Britain (ABC). I also spent some time listening to classic Indian tracks, even though I was much less impressed by the current year's output from India. I also saw myself globally preferring indie releases, as very few A-List releases ended up doing much for me. I will now provide a brief region-by-region breakdown of what happened this year musically.

America, Britain, Canada

The biggest story this year would undoubtedly have been the mass return of Country music in America, and to a certain extent, Canada. This seems to, at least generally, be tied to a populist conservative movement through the less industrially developed regions of North America, but also seemed to tie in with a rise of nostalgia, such as with Luke Combs' remake of Tracy Chapman's Fast Car. Some of these songs seemed to be blatantly frustrated simply for commercial purposes, such as Jason Aldean's Try That In A Small Town, while others came out of nowhere for a success that united and divided, such as Oliver Anthony's Rich Men North of Richmond. Of course, It would be remiss to not mention Morgan Wallen scoring the massive hit that was Last Night.

Of course, it is hard to talk about this year's Western music landscape without mentioning Taylor Swift. Time's Person of the Year had an incredibly successful year. Her Eras tour smashed nearly all records, and even her concert film was extremely successful. Her sound has become one of the few unifying trends in an increasingly fragmented music landscape.

Speaking of which, the fragmentation of the music scene seemed more evident than ever. TikTok continued as a massive lead for nostalgic sounds, such as with PinkPantheress' drums & bass sound, but at the same time, a resurgence in old-school pop and country relied on the radio of all things. There were some fantastic indie releases, but they seemed to steer away from mainstream sounds There was much talk on the death of hip-hop, but I personally saw more of an evolution rather than a death.

South Korea

This blog started as a K-Pop site, and I still have a lot of affection for the nation's musical output. 2023 finally saw the Korean music scene stabilize after four transitory years. IVE, LE SSERAFIM, and especially NewJeans saw some record-breaking hits, restabilizing Korea's idol scene after many years. Lim Young Woong continued to sell millions in his records, though he saw a shift away from his balladry and towards EDM, which saw a resurgence this year.

The Korean idol scene, in particular, seemed to confirm a fragmentation this year. Male idols like Stray Kids and TXT had intense success overseas, especially in album sales, but had their singles underperform on Korean charts. On the other hand, IVE and LE SSERAFIM have limited international fandoms but topped the charts with massive hits in Korea. Only two acts seemed to maintain a balance this year, Seventeen and NewJeans, but a trend of girl group singles and boy band albums charting was a major throughline.

A smooth, PinkPantheress-esque drums & bass sound was quite omnipresent this year, along with hints of a revival of 2010s' EDM as well.

Japan

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Oh my.

2023 was... not it for the Japanese music industry. Not necessarily in a musical sense, but in a sense of "where is the industry going?" First, 2023 saw an obscenely high amount of high-profile musician deaths, including Junko Ohashi, Heath of X Japan, Ryuiji Sakamoto, Yukihiro Takahashi, and many more. It was tragic and left an industry known for acts' longevity lacking some of its most famed veteran acts.

Another omnipresent factor was the implosion of Johnny's Entertainment. A secret openly known since the '60s finally faced results, as Johnny Kitagawa's constant and horrific sexual abuse of minors finally imploded all over the agency, just four years after his death, a little too late. A vast portion of the agency's acts formed and joined the rival agency, TOBE. While I am satisfied consequences have happened, I am not sure if those who deserved the consequences faced it. I just hope the now Smile-Up Entertainment fully changes its ways.

On other factors, the Post-Vocaloid boom in Japan reached its natural conclusion, with YOASOBI scoring a massive international hit with Idol, Ado having another successful year and an upcoming world tour, Higedan scoring some major hits, and Fujii Kaze slowly entrenching himself in J-Pop scene. The industry had a tough year, but the chart to the future seems clear, a move away from idols and groups, and a move towards self-composing indie artists.

Kazakhstan

With the exception of Kalifarniya's breakthrough, there wasn't much to write home about this year for Kazakh music. Ninety One's hiatus dented an already hurting idol industry and no new acts seemed to take their place. A few new acts like T_OI debuted, but nothing of much note, unfortunately.

 Africa

It is a bit of an oversimplification to show the entirety of Africa together, but I am doing this as I am far from familiar with each scene, but I wanted to briefly mention the African music revival. Acts like Rema of Nigeria and Tyla from South Africa found great success with variations of Afro-Pop and Afro-House, and I expect this to continue.

Indian Subcontinent

I loved the subcontinent's 2022 releases, with Bollywood, the Northeastern Rock Scene, Tollywood, Kollywood, and the Pakistani scene all having fantastic releases. Unfortunately, 2023 was much closer to being average. Ali Sethi had a fantastic year, and the Pakistani indie scene had a decent year as a result. Unfortunately, Bollywood didn't rely on talented composers such as Amit Trivedi as much. Nonetheless, the growth of a new generation of composers was evident with Achint's success in Khalasi, even if legacy composers such as Pritam and A.R. Rahman had major hits, and for good reasons, What Jhumka and Aga Naga were hits for good reason.

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