It’s always fun to ponder what certain genres will sound like decades from now. As technology advances, musicians are tasked with reinventing their sound just to keep up. Musicians that fall behind often draw inspiration from those that have kept up with innovations. Even outside of musicians, there are casual listeners waiting on their favorite artists to reproduce the new sound they introduced and continue to expand it. After a little back and forth between the artist, competing artists, and casual listeners, a new genre is formed. This push for a new sound has changed pop and rap specifically in ways listeners didn’t think were possible. Artists like Laura Les and Dylan Brady, who are more known by the name of their duo 100 Gecs, blew up by taking certain aspects from nightcore and mixing them into a saturated electronic pop-style. They received all kinds of praise through chart placements on billboard records, widespread recognition on social media, and even features later on with artists such as Fall Out Boy and Charli XCX. Though they’ve received their fair share of criticism for pushing the boundaries of pop music, their boldness and experimental practices are what has separated them from the crowd of aspiring musicians and attracted the large audience they have today.

The listeners are also in search of a new sound just as much as the artists. Every once in a while, there is a musician or group of musicians that push the boundaries of a genre and end up at the forefront of it with their new sound. Pierre Bourne and Playboi Carti are two great examples of this. Their work on Die Lit helped them become the well-established musicians they are today. This was only possible because of their ability to take inspiration from other genres. The album Die Lit has punk and grunge influence that can be seen in the album cover but it can also be heard in songs like R.I.P.. The autotune and ethereal synths on Long Time use electronic melodies to accomplish a sound that changed this sub-genre of rap into the mainstream form of rap. Not only were more people discovering both Pierre and Carti as artists, but they also followed a wave along with many individuals trying to replicate their iconic sound.

Rap, pop, and electronic music are all starting to merge together in order to create different forms of once-familiar sounds. Rap artists are using more melodic vocals that would’ve been primarily featured in pop music and even go out of their way to incorporate energetic percussion capable of recreating the mosh effect most commonly used in hard rock environments.

I think it’s at the point where the casual and devout listeners are both becoming desensitized to the music that used to be deemed experimental or unconventional. Genres are starting to merge in all sorts of ways but I think pretty soon we will start to see a switch in how music creators go about creating sounds outside of their genre. If pop and rap end up eventually merging into one genre then I could easily see electronic music joining this fusion as technology progresses. It’s difficult to know where rock is going to be in the grand scheme of things but if the other genres continue to take inspiration then rock will be dragged into this conglomerate not long after. Pop, Rap, electronic, and rock may one day combine together into one super genre. This super genre concept could open the doors for a lot of producers while giving the listeners an abundance of new sounds to have available. Music might become completely unpredictable, leading to a huge boost in creativity among musicians and endless enjoyment for listeners.