SUMIT SHARMA
Revolution of
Music in 10s
Its 2020, not just a new year but the inception
of new decade, and every decade defines the
changes in different streams of human culture
like fashion, technology, politics, etc. Music
industry also witnessed a huge change in past
decade and here are some major events occurred
in last 10 years –
Digital Music Revolution – 2010s started with
launch of many Android Smartphones and
fast internet services like 4G. This new digital
revolution helped people to search, stream
and download music online easily through
their phones and computers, but it increased
the piracy and free music download sites like
4Shared.com, Songs.pk, YouTube-mp3.org and
many more.
This problem also helped music streaming
platforms like Spotify, iTunes, Gaana to get
support from music labels and artists. These
platforms became essential part of music
releases and changed the way we listen to music.
According to Spotify’s 2019 statistics, it has
217 million monthly active users including 100
million Premium subscribers with 40 million
tracks in library.
EDM – Electronic Dance Music started becoming
popular in 2000s and in last ten years it evolved
a lot. Good internet services not only helped
listeners but it also helped music producers and
composers to share the project files, tutorials,
VST Plugins and techniques. DAWs like FL
Studio, Ableton Live and Logic became popular
amongst producers and artists like Avicci,
Marshmello, Alan Walker, DJ Snake, The
Chainsmokers and KSHMR created the best EDM
tracks of decade. Indian music producers used
the samples and style inspired by these artists
and merged with commercial Indian music to
create “Hook” and “Drop”.
Cover Versions – In 2008, talent manger Scooter
Braun watched a 13 year old boy singing cover
songs on YouTube and after that RBMG records
singed that boy and seven songs from his debut
26
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
album were on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, that
boy is known us Justin Bieber. In 2011 Jonita
Gandhi started her professional music career
with YouTube cover songs and discovered by
A.R. Rahman through it. Cover songs became the
most popular and effective marketing strategy
used by artists in last ten years which helped
thousands of artists to get gigs, work and fame
around the globe.
Rap & Hip Hop - It’s one of the biggest revolution
Indian music industry has witnessed in past
decade. In 2011, Punjabi artist Yo Yo Honey Singh
launched his album International Villager which
not only became the highest grossing Punjabi
album but it made Hip Hop/Rap music popular
in India. From High Heels to Lungi Dance, Chull
to DJ Waley Babu and Swag Mera Desi to Sheikh
Chilli, Hip Hop/Rap music became one of the
most popular genres in India and changed lives
of rappers like Yo Yo Honey Singh, Badshah and
Raftaar. In 2019, Director Zoya Akhtar released
Gully Boy a movie inspired by the lives of street
rappers Divine and Naezy. There was a time
when Rap used to be an additional element of
Bollywood songs and in last ten years it has
changed its role and identity.
Indie Music ¬– The most satisfying change in
last few years was growth of Independent Music
and Artists in India, the number of events and
indie songs increased massively. Indie bands
and artists like The Local Train, Darshan
Raval, Emiway Bantai, Nucleya, Papon, Piyush
Mehroliyaa, Anushka Manchanda, Gajendra
Verma became popular and gave numerous
remarkable songs. After winning millions of
hearts, Prateek Kuhad reached the playlist of
Former American president Barack Obama
through his song ‘cold/mess’.
Apart from digital marketing and influence of
social media, apps and memes, these were some
major positive events from past decade which
changed the music industry in India and around
the globe.