Mainstream Music Rankings for the 2020s

2020: Awful
2021: Bad
2022: Bad
2023: Average
2024: Decent

2020 was absolutely awful. It would seriously have to be one of the worst years for music I've personally experienced in my lifetime. The pandemic had an enormous impact on the music industry and that unfortunately had a flow-on effect on the charts. 2020 was more or less defined by leftover pop hits from 2019, lingering mumble-rap, and two albums released by The Weeknd and Dua Lipa. If you look at the ARIA Top-100 Best-Selling Singles list for 2020, most of the songs within the Top-20 are actually chart hits from 2019, like "Circles", "Dance Monkey", "Don't Start Now", "Someone You Loved" etc. I feel like that really speaks volumes for how awful 2020 was as a year for music. 

I honestly have a hard time separating 2021 and 2022. Apart from Olivia Rodrigo's debut and Kate Bush's surprise comeback, I feel like there's very little that defines those years and they blend into each other. I actually feel as though they're comparable to the period of time between the end of '50s rock 'n roll and the start of the British Invasion. 

2023 was an average year for music as a whole, but it was a noticeable improvement over the previous years.

This year has actually been pretty decent for mainstream music, IMO. The charts have been the most diverse that they have been in years. You've got a mixture of pop-rock ("Beautiful Things", "Too Sweet", "Apt."), soul ("Lose Control"), indie-folk ("Stick Season"), country ("A Bar Song", "I Had Some Help", "Austin") and pop ("Espresso", "Fortnight") all doing well on the charts. I also feel as though mainstream music has benefited from new artists like Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Gracie Abrams etc. emerging into the spotlight.