People at all stages of life seek ways to enrich their brains in meaningful ways. A favorite among youth throughout history is music. In the 60’s it was rock and roll, the 80’s was pop, and at the start of the millennium, it was a mix of hip-hop and modern pop elements. So what is the popular genre now? 

As the years pass, music becomes an increasingly hard thing to define. So many genres are spliced with each other to create new sounds. To define a song by any one genre is slanderous in nature. The question is no longer an objective assessment of charts, instead the question of what genre is definitive is a much more subjective question. Award shows like the VMAs are incredibly arbitrary, because, while people are voting, they are voting only from a predetermined selection of radio hits deemed reasonable by record executives and old men at a round table. The best way to get a better understanding of music and what people are listening to is by asking them.

 Daniel Barnett (12), when asked who he was listening to, responded with, “Trippie Redd, Jack Harlow, and Pooh Shiesty,” all of which are massive rap-stars. Daniel also described the current and previous year’s music as a mixture of hip hop and R&B, which suits his tastes. People such as Ethan Garbe agreed, citing Kanye West as a massive player in the game. Others, like Prisha Kittu and Andrew Stephenson answered pop. The most popular answer, as Daniel had said, was either hip hop and R&B or rap. This does not diminish the other answer, though, as gigantic pop-stars are always seen in the top 100, like Justin Bieber or Olivia Rodrigo.

Carterville’s taste is as diverse as ever, and no one person ever has the same thing to say. From Lil Nas X to Olivia Rodrigo, everyone is listening to everything. What can define the current generation in one word? The only reasonable answer is: diverse.