You and I are gonna live forever: why 2024’s pop was all about sharing the moment

Pop may be full of solo artists and individually tailored streams, but the Eras tour, Brat summer and Oasis reunion showed we still long to be part of a crowd

The past year brought with it intriguing musical movements, not least a sudden pivot towards country by a succession of mainstream pop stars. Heralded by Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album and amplified by the release of Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion, the trend also brought huge hits for the hitherto-unknown Shaboozey and Dasha, while Zayn Malik called on the services of a Nashville producer and Lana Del Rey announced a country-influenced album.

2024 also brought with it new stars, most obviously Chappell Roan, who had spent the best part of a decade plugging away in obscurity, being signed then dropped by a major label, before releasing a debut album that slow-burned its way to the top of the charts: The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess initially came out in 2023 to little response (one of its biggest hits, Pink Pony Club, was first released four years ago). As with Sabrina Carpenter – whose 2024 breakthrough Short N’ Sweet was her sixth album – Roan had clearly had the space to work out exactly what she wanted to do and how she wanted to present herself, with appealingly idiosyncratic and uncontrived results.