World Quest-Music & Globalization

Taylor swift:

Since the World Bank announced the possibility of a global recession in its 2022 report, fears that the world will experience an extended period of economic contraction has plagued many countries. In January, the World Bank predicted the global economy would slow down for the third consecutive year in 2024. According to some economists, this makes a recession likely in the near future.

The impact of a global recession may vary from one country to another. But with disrupted supply chains and cash flow, the common symptoms and effects are hikes in unemployment and poverty rates, rising prices, reduced profit, and default for businesses.

American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift may have an answer to address these challenges. Beyond micro and macroeconomics, business students should be studying Swiftonomics – especially the economic impact of Swift's current global tour.

The record-breaking Eras tour

Eras is Swift's sixth concert tour. It began in March 2023 and is scheduled to conclude in December 2024. Consisting of 152 shows performed across five continents, critics have given it highly positive reviews for its grand aesthetic design and immersive ambience.

The tour is already the highest-grossing music tour ever and the first to reach US$1 billion in total ticket gross sales globally. More impressively, that total did not yet include the sales of the Eras Tour film, which reportedly made US$250 million, plus another US$200 million in merchandise sold during the tour.

Music and the multiplier effect

What does this tour have to do with the global recession? First-year economics students would tell you that the impacts of Swift's tour were not limited to the fantastic figures outlined above. In fact, her tour could result in a multiplier effect that could benefit an economy.Simply defined, the multiplier effects measure how a change in economic activity, like investment or spending, will have a spill-over amplified impact on the various sectors and the total output of a country.

This phenomenon is not new. The concerts by other big names in music, such as those of UK-based band Coldplay and South Korea's boy-group BTS, have also resulted in such effect. However, the scale of Swift's tour has been considerably stronger compared to others.

A Swift visit to Singapore

Let's look at the multiplier effects of her March concerts in Singapore. While raising controversy for signing a deal to be the only stop on Swift's Southeast Asia Eras tour, Singapore enjoyed a significant boost from hosting six concerts in the country. This is even after accounting for the reportedly US$18 million payments for exclusively hosting the concerts in South-East Asia.Here are some interesting statistics. Swift's concerts, from March 1 to 9 2024, increased the overall tourism-related bookings for the country by an astonishing 275% compared to the same period two weeks later. Meanwhile, Singapore's inbound flights and accommodation bookings rose by 186% and 462% respectively during the week of the concert.

What did that mean for the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth? Economists told Bloomberg they estimated Singapore's Swift concerts would add around SG$300–$400 million (US$222–$296 million) to the country's first-quarter GDP. The additional boost was on top of the reported year-on-year growth of Singapore of 2.7% in the first quarter of 2024. That latest growth spurt topped the 2.2% expansion of GDP in the last quarter of 2023 – thanks to the multiplier effect in Singapore's tourism sector ignited by the American pop star.

This staggering impact of the the six-day concert for Singapore follows the success of the tour in the US last year. One research company estimated the US economy may have enjoyed a multiplier boost of US$5 billion from the 52 shows in the country last year, thanks to concertgoers spending an average of $1,300 each. Swift even earned a mention in a US Federal Reserve report, which noted "despite the slowing recovery in tourism in the region overall, May was the strongest month for hotel revenue in Philadelphia since the onset of the pandemic, in large part due to an influx of guests for the Taylor Swift concerts in the city."What can other countries learn?

Singapore's strategic move to secure exclusive concerts was a "creative" expansionary fiscal policy. Traditional expansionary fiscal policies commonly involve a reduction in taxes and/or an increase in government spending. Keynesian economists, who believe in the need for government intervention to stimulate and amplify economic activity during a recession, see these fiscal weapons as necessary.

Critics, however, argue that the multiplier effects of these policies could suffer from time lags. Consequently, fiscal policy may only affect the economy several months or, sometimes, several years after it is initiated.

But Singapore's experience from Swift's tour told a different story. Sure, on the one hand, the economy went through a short period of demand-pull inflation, with prices of some goods and services rising substantially. But while the six sold out concerts were on, various sectors of Singapore's economy – including hotels, airlines and restaurants – benefited from a much-needed post-Covid-19 boost.

What Singapore did with Swift provides a universal lesson that all countries could learn. When strategically planned, a targeted spending policy involving big names in the entertainment industry can create a substantial multiplier effect. Such an effect can help an economy in a downturn bounce back.

The Globalization of music:

According to UNCTAD (2018), “the size of the global market expanded substantially, more that doubling in size from 208 billion US dollars in 2002 to 509 billion US dollars in 2015.” The trend continues and “[i]n 2019 at the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, 2021 was declared the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development” (UNCTAD, n.d.-b).

Notably, Indonesia, one of the ASEAN countries, was the main sponsor of the proposed declaration. This corroborates the increasing importance of creative economy in the ASEAN region. As the UNCTAD programme notes, a creative economy increases the volume of trade and development and leads to improvements in people’s quality of life and the realisation of sustainable development, which includes an understanding of and respect for the value of cultural diversity. In other words, creative economy “can foster income generation, job creation and export earnings while promoting social inclusion, cultural diversity and human development” (UNCTAD, 2010, emphasis added).

This article will introduce the interaction between the Indonesian and Japanese worlds of popular music and show how it could lead to economic development and cultural dialogue and understanding among various societies.

Indonesian Singer Rainych Ran and Japanese Music: A Cross-border Encounter

Rainych Ran, a singer and a YouTuber from a small town in the Province of Riau, Indonesia, became an online celebrity when one of her YouTube videos suddenly went viral. According to The Japan Times:

Singer Rainych Ran began uploading her covers of J-pop and anime songs to YouTube about five years ago, and while she received some attention over the years, nothing has prepared her for the frenzy she experienced in 2020 after she tackled American singer Doja Cat’s chart-topping “Say So” in Japanese. Ran’s take became a viral hit, racking up millions of views on her YouTube channel and getting Doja Cat herself to geek out over the rendition on Instagram. (St. Michel, 2021).

The Japanese music industry quickly noticed the success. On 2 October 2020, “Say So-Japanese version-tofu beats Remix” was released by Sony Music of Japan, with Tofu beats—one of Japan’s leading track makers—as the producer and remixer, and Hina Kagei—a popular Japanese TikToker—as the performer in its music video (Sony Music, 2020a).

Rainych’s interest in Japanese popular culture goes back to her early childhood. While she is from a small town, she “had one place that would lend out manga” (St. Michel, 2021). She particularly enjoyed such manga works as Detective Conan and anime works of Studio Ghibli (Konishi, 2020). Then she serendipitously found a community of utaite—which literally means “singer” but often refers to singers who cover and sing songs from J-pop, anime and Vocaloid works, and share their renditions on various social media platforms—and began singing covers and uploading videos on YouTube (Michel, 2021). As she works together and collaborates with other more experienced utaite, her videos began to be noticed and f inally led to the surge in popularity with her “Say So” cover.

Rainych’s covers of the so-called “city pop” music reflect her global musical influences. City pop is a genre of Japanese popular music that was popular in the late 1970s and the 1980s. It combines Western and Japanese rock and folk music elements and has urban city vibes. The genre has seen a revival in popularity in the past decade, in part strengthened by video- sharing sites, such as YouTube, where people can upload their old favorite songs. This makes it discoverable by a wide range of audiences from different generations. In October 2020, Rainych covered and released “Mayonaka no Door: Stay with Me,” originally sung by Miki Matsubara in 1979 (Sony Music, 2020b). Although the resurgent popularity of the song is not solely the result of Rainych’s cover, it certainly cast a spotlight on the song and, more generally, on the genre of city pop.

I focus on the case of Rainych from Indonesia, but similar interactions between ASEAN and Japan seem to be increasing. For example, in March 2021, the Warner Music Vietnam announced that “2 phút hơn (Kaiz Remix)” became the most played Vietnamese music in Spotify (Nishizaki, 2021). The music’s popularity came after it was used to score a user-created video mixing characters from Japanese anime and Chinese game contents (Nishizaki, 2021). Partly due to the rise of social media, cultural interactions between ASEAN and other East Asian societies including Japan and China seem to be strengthening.

Emerging Trends in Music Production and Consumption and their Potential Socio-Cultural Benefits

Several points can be highlighted from the case of Rainych Ran. First, the rapid rise in popularity of Rainych was made possible by the emergence of new Internet-based media technologies and the prevalence of the use of social media by the younger generation throughout the world. Rainych, who confessed she had never learned to sing professionally and lives in a small town in Indonesia, was able to connect to the world through the platform of YouTube. The sudden rise in popularity was also made possible by the cross- platform interaction between YouTube and Instagram, which drew the attention of the original singer, Doja Cat.

Second, the rise of new technologies has blurred the boundaries between professional producers of music and other popular cultural products, on the one hand, and the consumers/ audiences of the products, on the other. Scholars call the blurring of the distinction between artistic producers and consumers “prosumption,” a portmanteau word of production and consumption (Nakajima, 2012). Many creative works are coming out from “prosumers.” The production of cover songs on YouTube is a case in point. Like Rainych, many do-it-yourself users of the new media technologies are crossing into the sphere of production by uploading their own creative works.

Third, the globalisation of creative goods seems to be changing course in the age of the Internet and social media. In the past, globalisation was mainly unidirectional—for example, Japanese anime flows from Japan to other parts of the world like Indonesia. However, the case of Rainych defies this global flow of creative industrial products. The initial impetus for Rainych’s interest in Japanese popular culture may have come from the unidirectional f low of manga and anime works from Japan to Indonesia, but the song that made her viral was a cover of an American song sung in Japanese. The Instagram live broadcast by the American singer Doja Cat pushed up Rainych’s popularity. In other words, the mediation of American popular culture adds another global dimension to the interaction between Japanese and Indonesian creative sectors. Rainych singing Japanese city pop songs out of Indonesia has made this genre even more popular in Indonesia, Japan, and other parts of the world. In sum, the model of globalisation that has manifested in the case of Rainych is much more interactional and multidirectional— a network form of globalisation.

Fourth, when we examine international relations through the lens of culture, the concept of “soft power”—which Nye (2004) defines as “the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments”—often comes to the fore. Notwithstanding the utility of the concept in some cases, the case of Rainych seems to suggest the value and power of culture different from those manifested as soft power. In the case of Rainych, the cultural products were not designed to enhance the soft power of Japan or Indonesia or the United States, but seem to lead to the recognition of cultural diversity. For example, many Japanese people who watched Rainych’s videos came to be interested in knowing more about the culture she is from, including the relatively lesser-known (to the Japanese) Riau Province and Sumatra Island and the religion of Islam as Rainych wears a hijab when singing songs on YouTube. In sum, the case of Rainych points to the creative economy’s potential contribution to cultural interaction and understanding.

Fifth, it is important to remember that Rainych’s popularity surge happened in March 2020, amid the global COVID-19 crisis. In 2020, Rainych signed a deal with Sony Music and released several songs that became popular hits in Japan and beyond. The case of Rainych points to the increasing resilience of creative industries such as the music industry in the face of global crises like pandemics in part due to digital technologies. When people cannot go out and need to stay home, they tend to turn to cultural activities and products, including listening to music and watching videos and movies at home. The resilience of a society may depend on the existence of music and other creative products for enjoyment, and hence strengthening the creative economy is one of the crucial elements as we move toward sustainable development.

It is crucial, however, to note that not all types of creative economy and creative industries are conducive to digitalization and hence resilient to public health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, even in the case of the music industry, live performances have been disrupted and many of the theatres and music halls—especially the ones operated as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or under individual operation— have been negatively affected by the COVID-19 crisis. We need to be aware of the potential “digital divide” in creative economy and creative industries.

To conclude, a creative economy brings economic potential, as the commercial success of Rainych illustrates, and at the same time, provides sociocultural benefits, that is, recognition and understanding of various cultures in the world.

Regional Mexican music:

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Surely you've heard by now Beyonce's gone country.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TEXAS HOLD 'EM")

BEYONCE: (Singing) This ain't Texas. Ain't no hold 'em. So lay your cards down, down, down down.

SIMON: With "TEXAS HOLD 'EM," Beyonce became the latest pop star to turn to country. NPR's Eyder Peralta says this kind of genre jumping is also a cross-border phenomenon, with musicians far and wide actually turning to Mexico's regional music for inspiration.

EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: For around two decades, Mexican country music was out in the wilderness. The dembow reggaeton had taken over the world. And it had essentially made Mexico - its guitars, its accordions and violins irrelevant.

(SOUNDBITE OF BANDA MS AND SNOOP DOGG SONG, "QUE MALDICION")

PERALTA: But a few years ago, some of the biggest hip-hop acts started experimenting with Mexican sounds.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "QUE MALDICION")

BANDA MS: (Singing in Spanish).

PERALTA: Snoop Dogg teamed up with Banda MS, the biggest big band of Mexico, for a lovelorn ballad punctuated by his signature rhymes.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "QUE MALDICION")

SNOOP DOGG: (Vocalizing) Ven aqui, ay, mami. Holla at me.

PERALTA: More recently, and for the first time ever, Regional Mexican reached the top of the pop charts in the U.S. And Bad Bunny, the man who is arguably the biggest pop star in the world, traded in his baseball cap for a cowboy hat. And in her latest release, the Colombian artist Karol G included an unapologetic Texas cumbia in her reggaeton album.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MI EX TENIA RAZON")

KAROL G: (Singing in Spanish).

PERALTA: All of this feels surprising, but it's not really.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MI EX TENIA RAZON")

KAROL G: (Singing in Spanish).

PERALTA: Mexican culture has always been central to the Americas. Anyone who speaks Spanish grew up watching Mexican soap operas, and every birthday, we sang "Las Mananitas." Every funeral we played "Amor Eterno." Even country music - especially the one that comes from the American Southwest - has always been influenced by Mexican corridos.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SEASHORES OF OLD MEXICO")

MERLE HAGGARD: (Singing) I left out of Tucson with no destination in mind.

PERALTA: There's a whole genre of country music about escaping to Mexico. Everyone from Tim McGraw to Carrie Underwood to Merle Haggard have a song about Mexico. Oftentimes, it's about running from the law, but it almost always involves finding love across the border. Merle Haggard used to talk about how Mexican music was in his veins, and you can hear it in the swing of his country music, in the wail of the violins.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SEASHORES OF OLD MEXICO")

HAGGARD: (Singing) But she loved a gringo, my red hair and lingo. That's all I needed to know.

PERALTA: For a long time, and a lot like American country music, Mexican regional strayed from its roots. The bands grew larger, the sound slicker. But over the past few years, a younger generation has suddenly embraced the basics.

(SOUNDBITE OF PESO PLUMA SONG, "POR LAS NOCHES")

PERALTA: They've rediscovered the requinto, the deft fingerpicking that old Mexican musicians used to turn into raw melancholy.

(SOUNDBITE OF PESO PLUMA SONG, "POR LAS NOCHES")

PERALTA: And the world felt it. The music of Peso Pluma was suddenly streamed as much as the music of Taylor Swift.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "POR LAS NOCHES")

PESO PLUMA: (Singing in Spanish).

PERALTA: The writer Octavio Paz argued that no one does sadness better than the Mexicans. A whole country orphaned by the state, perhaps even the cosmos, he argues, finds solace in booze, death and music. Sure, it's a simplistic argument, but I can't help think that Octavio Paz is explaining this very moment.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FRAGIL")

YAHRITZA Y SU ESENCIA: (Singing in Spanish).

PERALTA: This world we're living in is a mess - war, famine, climate change and few easy answers. At the same time, Mexican music is in the middle of a renaissance.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FRAGIL")

YAHRITZA Y SU ESENCIA: (Singing in Spanish).

PERALTA: It's a genre coming to terms with the cartel violence ripping Mexico apart. It's a genre looking inward, seeking answers, dealing with the loss of love, or the impotence of being sensitive in a cruel world.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FRAGIL")

YAHRITZA Y SU ESENCIA: (Singing in Spanish).

PERALTA: "I wish I was like you without feelings," Yahritza y Su Esencia sing, that my soul wouldn't ache when you lied to me. In her song, Beyonce heads to that country dive bar, trying to find some sincerity. In those old country songs, the gringos came to Mexico to find refuge. I think the same is happening today. The world is trying to understand its pain, and nothing can explain that better than Mexican music. Eyder Peralta, NPR News, Mexico City.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FRAGIL")

YAHRITZA Y SU ESENCIA: (Singing in Spanish).

Pump up the volume:

Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the US Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, aimed at strengthening peace, democracy and the promotion of US values through music programs. At the Washington DC launch, Blinken sang and played guitar to Muddy Waters’ “Hoochie Coochie Man”.

Blinken’s (known on Spotify as Ablinken) love of music has been noticed by other world leaders. Some have given him locally made guitars during state visits, and Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi even shared a karaoke session with Blinken on the sidelines of this year’s G7 meeting.

A music diplomacy program fits well with the broader branding of the Albanese government.

Australian politicians also dabble. Former prime minister Scott Morrison plays ukelele, and Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garratt was a senior Labor minister. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has traded records with former NZ prime minister Jacinda Ardern, gone crate digging with Indigenous singer-songwriter Budjerah, finished 2022 with a speech at Woodford Folk Festival, and enjoys djing. But, unlike Blinken, these politicians’ love for music has not translated into music diplomacy.

A music diplomacy program fits well with the broader branding of the Albanese government. More importantly, it will help strengthen people-to-people and business links in the Indo-Pacific and support a struggling Australian music industry.

Music diplomacy

The US Global Music Diplomacy Initiative seeks to “elevate music as a diplomatic tool to promote peace and democracy and support the United States’ broader foreign policy goals”. To do this, it is establishing mentoring and scholarship programs, international exchanges and arts envoys (including to China) and hosting international musicians and sponsoring US bands to perform internationally.

Music diplomacy (like many forms of public diplomacy) peaked during the Cold War. America sent jazz ambassadors worldwide to “deflect attention from the spiralling civil rights abuses and present a uniquely American art form that the Russians couldn’t compete with”. The United States targeted Europe, Africa and Asia to garner public support and spread US cultural values.

Eurovision is without a doubt the most famous example of music diplomacy, seeing Europe through turbulent times and camp musical numbers since 1956.

Recently, K-pop has become the most prominent music diplomacy success story, strengthening the image of South Korea globally and facilitating a rise in US college students learning Korean. Having seen the success of K-pop, the South Korean government has deployed it in their international relations, inviting K-pop stars to perform at the first South Korea–North Korea Summit in Pyongyang in 2018 and act as UN Special Presidential Envoys.

The Australian music industry

This year, the Australian music industry has grappled with its domestic and international reputation. Conversations were sparked by US rapper Azealia Banks’ critique of the Australian music scene as “culturally stale” and “insignificant”. There is some truth to Banks’ words – Australian charts are dominated by UK and US artists. But her comments undermine Australian artists managing to cut through to global audiences. Tame Impala, Amyl and the Sniffers, and Kid Laroi have all achieved international success. However, the Australian music industry is struggling to bounce back from the pandemic and cope with the rising cost of touring, alongside competing with global artists on streaming platforms and social media.

In recognition of this, the Albanese government announced a new National Cultural Policy, which included the creation of Music Australia, a new organisation dedicated to investing in and supporting Australian music. But more is needed to strengthen Australian music globally.

Implementing Australian music diplomacy

The success of Australian music internationally is a whole-of-nation effort. As Australia’s soft power policymaker, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has a role to play in ensuring Australia’s global music success.

The 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper noted that Australia needs a “stronger national brand”. To achieve this, Australia must market “our commercial, educational and cultural credentials”. Music is a key way to do this.

As the United States amplifies its music diplomacy, there is space for Australia to turn up the volume on its own efforts.

Australia’s version of music diplomacy is primarily done through Sounds Australia and the Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grants Program. The goal of Sounds Australia is to support Australian music globally – this includes at international music forums (such as the US South by Southwest), and by assisting Australian music exporting, global networking and Australian musicians performing overseas.

The Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grants Program has most recently supported the Sounds Australia Aussie BBQ at Summer Stage 2022. Australian artists Baker Boy, Electric Fields, G Flip, Haiku Hands, Peking Duk and You Am I all performed in Central Park, New York City. Other highlights of Australia’s music diplomacy include The Kimberly Indonesia Project, Indigenous Australian record label Gaba Musik working with Papua New Guinean company Makoda, and the China Music Now Australian music showcase.

But music diplomacy isn’t just about strengthening people-to-people connections. It’s also about business links in an industry where revenue is expected to double to US$131 billion by 2030. While the Australian music industry is struggling, post-lockdown excitement has emboldened audiences to support live music. Taylor Swift’s Australian Eras Tour is expected to inject up to $320 million into the Australian economy.

As the United States amplifies its music diplomacy, there is space for Australia to turn up the volume on its own efforts, including by extending its Australian Music Industry South American Trade Mission into the Indo-Pacific, particularly in countries such as South Korea, Japan and Indonesia.

A stronger music diplomacy program can work alongside the government’s broader Indo-Pacific strategy to strengthen people-to-people and business links. The Albanese government is uniquely positioned to capitalise on this, as music has become part of the PM’s personal branding.

So, a DJ Albo set to launch Australia’s music diplomacy program?

Afrobeats is here to stay:

Earlier this month, the Nigerian superstar Burna Boy made history as the first Afrobeats act to perform during the prime time, televised ceremony of the Grammy Awards. The singer graced the stage accompanied by R&B legend Brandy and rapper 21 Savage to perform his song "Sittin' on Top of The World." It was a fitting choice to usher in Afrobeats to music's biggest night, considering the new heights the genre is reaching in America's music industry.

In a new report on how U.S. and global listeners consumed music in 2023 compiled by Luminate Data, the evidence was clear: Global music — with Afrobeats and K-pop leading the way — is the fastest growing genre among both U.S. and global listeners, with on-demand streaming up 26.2% in the last year. And stateside musical institutions have started taking notice. The Recording Academy debuted a brand new category specifically to honor music from the continent: best African music performance.From Burna Boy to Sade, King Sunny Ade to Miriam Makeba, African-born artists have been nominated and won Grammy Awards before — often in the best global music album category — but the creation of an entire category dedicated to the continent marks the new level of impact.

The award is a signal to American audiences that music by Africa's new wave is not a niche, fad or trend — it's a culture that's here to stay. Though Afrobeats often gets used as an umbrella term to describe the musical phenomenon coming from the continent, the extent of the diversity of sounds underneath that catchall is what's ensuring its longevity and its success stateside.

"We've been doing this for such a long time and it's a long time coming," Ayra Starr beams. "It's a new game now."

The 21-year-old Afropop singer reps Benin and Nigeria, and was one of five inaugural nominees in the category, along with Davido feat. Musa Keys, Tyla, Burna Boy and Asake & Olamide. "I'm so glad I'm part of the generation that is showing the world what Africa is," the Sabi girl says via Zoom from her Lagos studio. Her nominated song, "Rush," which sits at 325 million Spotify streams and counting, signifies how African music is changing the American soundscape. The track blends elements of American pop culture she grew up on with the music of where she's from.

"There's some elements in here, in the beat, that are very '80s pop, American pop, too. And then there's some elements in here — from the kicks to the snares and everything — [that are] very Afrobeats. When you hear the chords, the chords are very almost R&B-ish," she says. "It translated so well internationally, but at the same time, I wasn't singing in English; it was a very African song." Heran Mamo, a hip-hop and R&B reporter at Billboard magazine, has been tracking the explosion over the past few years. As a child of Ethiopian immigrants, African music has been part of her life since she was born.

Mamo says even though Afrobeats artists have popped up on U.S. Billboard charts in recent years, it has mostly happened by collaborating with an established Western act. For example, Drake's 2016 hit single "One Dance," which featured the Nigerian star Wizkid, scored the Canadian rapper his first U.S No. 1 as a lead artist.

But chart appearances like that were few and far between. According to Mamo, that changed during the 2020 pandemic — when the world felt smaller and more connected by way of our phones — and then in 2021 — when we finally got back outside. She noticed African artists were impacting the U.S. in ways they never had before."It wasn't until the song 'Essence' [by] WizKid and Tems," notes Mamo. "You couldn't escape that summer without listening to that song." The discovery of the track internationally was slow and steady, but once it hit, it became an anthem for the long-awaited return to the turn up. The single was commended as a cultural bridge for African music in the states. Rolling Stone awarded "Essence" the No. 1 song of the year in 2021, noting its staying power more than a year after its initial release.

After this, African acts were breaking through without crossing over: No need for changing languages or relying on a feature from an established American star. Now, African artists are regulars on the Billboard charts and festival lineups. In 2022, Billboard established a new chart to track Afrobeats hits in the U.S. Burna Boy, one of the emergent superstars, made history as the first African artist to sell out a U.S. stadium in 2023."He's someone that I feel like his music translates so well because there are familiar elements to it that can draw you in, but then the unfamiliar elements can excite you at the same time," Mamo says, describing the hip-hop influences that Burna blends with his Afrobeats sounds.

She points out that newcomer Tyla, who took home the first-ever African music performance Grammy this year for her viral hit "Water," fuses genres of her homeland in a similar fashion. The production of Tyla's songs blend amapiano, a piano- and percussion-heavy form of house that originated in South Africa, with elements of pop stars like Rihanna: "That's very R&B, pop centric. But obviously with the log drums, the production is more amapiano-based."

This mixing of traditional African drum patterns with contemporary styles is one reason the music keeps growing. To Ayra Starr, this chemistry is a nod to the fact that Africa's new generation grew up being exposed to both.

"The only time I would see a teenage pop star was ... I had to watch Disney," Starr says. "And it was not even Black pop star, there was no Black [pop stars] like me. And I remember, I was, like, 'I want to show African girls that we can do this, too. And I'm doing that. And it's such a big deal for me and also for the people I'm inspiring."

This renaissance is also changing the image of Africa along the way.

"For so long, people have, you know, negative images associated with Africa," Mamo explains. "They think about poverty. They think about government corruption. And so what really made me happy about this explosion of African music, especially Afrobeats, is it was bringing a more positive image to the continent."

But the new spotlight shines on a fraction of what Africa has to offer. This year's Grammy nominations in the new African music performance category included artists from only three of the continent's 54 countries.

"Harvey Mason Jr., who is the CEO of the Recording Academy, he says it takes time for them to really study the music and make sure, 'OK, there is enough interest so that we can support to have a whole new additional category'," Mamo explains. "The continent is too vast to be limited to one category."

Africa currently has the youngest global population, and even with comparatively limited industry resources, youth culture — music included — has bloomed in all corners of the continent; "It's not just Afrobeats, but Afropop, Afrofusion, alté, amapiano, kizomba, Ethio-jazz, Ghanaian drill," Mamo says.

Mamo is encouraged by the progress, but wants even more. She's dreaming of one day covering "something like the African Grammys" in a similar fashion to the Latin Grammys. But Ayra Starr is using her Grammy nom as the battery in her back to think of even more limitless possibilities.

"I feel like the more we collaborate and the more we work together, we're going to bring up different sounds," she says. "I feel like that's where Afrobeats is going — just collaborating with other African artists and making the genre bigger than any other genre in the world."

Despacito changed Latin music forever:

Movements aren’t built on single actions. And yet, many of the recent achievements of Latin music are still labeled pre- and post-“Despacito.”

It’s been five years (May 27) since this juggernaut of a song — performed by Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and, later, in a bilingual version with Justin Bieber — soared to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, and stayed there for a then-record 16 weeks, tying the time spent by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men’s “One Sweet Day” at No. 1 in 1995-96.

“Despacito” would eventually break all sorts of records, including most weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart and most-viewed music video on YouTube (although recently, the video was toppled by “Baby Shark”).

But half a decade later, the starkest legacy left by “Despacito” is how it changed the world’s perception of Latin music, and how it changed the way the industry itself regarded and marketed music in Spanish.

Here are five ways “Despacito” changed Latin music forever.

1. It opened the floodgates for a wave of Spanish language and Latin-themed tracks on the Billboard charts

This is no exaggeration: There is a clear pre and post “Despacito” effect on the Hot 100. Pre-“Despacito,” in 2016, four predominantly Spanish-language tracks got into the chart. In 2015, there were two and in 2014, four. In 2017, the year of “Despacito,” 19 mostly Spanish tracks made the chart, including J Balvin’s “Mi Gente.” In 2018, the number rose to 21, in 2019 to 22, and in 2020, with the help of Bad Bunny, to 41. Last year, 26 tracks made the cut, a number that is poised to increase this year thanks again to Bad Bunny.

2. It made collaborating with Latin artists cool

Pre-“Despacito,” collaborations between Latin acts and mainstream acts were few and far in between. As one top executive once told me, “Our phone would never ring. It was always us [who] begged the Anglo labels to do something with our artists.” Now, it’s the other way round. Right on the heels of Bieber’s “Despacito” collab came Beyoncé joing Willy William and J Balvin for “Mi Gente.” Then, it became an avalanche, with major Hot 100 hits including “I Like It” (Cardi B, Bad Bunny, J Balvin), “Hawái” (Maluma and The Weeknd), “Con Calma” (Katy Perry, Daddy Yankee and Snow) and “Taki Taki” (Ozuna, Cardi B, DJ Snake and Selena Gomez).

3. It awakened pop artists’ Latin side

Twenty years ago, Christina Aguilera released Mi Reflejo, an album where she explored her Latin roots by singing Spanish language versions of her English tracks. Mi Reflejo was a major success, debuting at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart, but it was also seen as a risky move by labels who were leery of seeing their top talent bomb amid accusations of cultural appropriation. Now, reveling in your Latin heritage is cool, with artists like Selena Gomez, Camila Cabello and (again) Christina Aguilera releasing all-Spanish fare.

4. It finally opened mainstream radio’s eyes to the power of Latin music

With just a handful of exceptions (i.e. “Macarena”), music in Spanish was verboten in most mainstream radio stations, save for cities like Miami and Los Angeles. With “Despacito,” programmers realized their listeners were not as closed minded as they were. “This was an opportunity for us to change the landscape of Top 40 radio,” said Mike Chester, who at the time was head of promotions for SB Projects (he is now EVP of promotion and commerce for Warner Records).

When Chester first took the Bieber version of “Despacito” to radio, programmers immediately flagged it as “too Spanish for pop radio,” and asked for a version with more English. “Scooter got intense with me. He said, ‘f’ that; we’re not changing a damn thing. This is an opportunity for us to thrust a Spanish record on U.S. pop radio.” Today, predominantly Spanish records still mostly don’t dominate pop airplay, but they are certainly an important part of the ecosystem.

5. It made Latin music global

Thanks to the globalization of streaming, “Despacito” was the tipping point for Latin music around the world, highlighting the universal potential of the language and the beats. Today, consumption of music in Spanish is second only to music in English. And while it didn’t just start with “Despacito,” the song was the catalyst for major change. “When I look back, what really hits me is the fact that it opened a huge door for the non Latin world to vibrate to Latin music,” Fonsi told Billboard three years ago. “It spearheaded a global Latin movement. I don’t mean to take credit and to say it was all me or the song; it was the sum of many songs and many artists. But this song definitely kicked the door open.”

How K-Pop conquered the West:

On a humid summer afternoon in New Jersey, several thousand people are screaming their hearts out in a language they don’t speak. American devotees of Korean pop music have taken over Newark’s Prudential Center for the weekend; in the parking lot, the crowd sings along to a series of Korean-pop hooks by groups like Exo, Red Velvet and BTS, whose arena-rock stomper “Fake Love” gets the loudest shouts. Close by, a teenage dance group teaches signature moves from K-pop music videos; other stages in the complex host songwriter meet-and-greets, beauty tutorials and panels like “Meeting Idols in Korea: Reality vs. Expectation.” (“Manners in Korea are taken very seriously,” advises the moderator, a K-pop blogger named Whitneybae. “Rookie groups are respectful, shaking your hand and bowing 90 degrees. But more veteran idols will give you a ‘what’s up?’ — trying to greet you in a friendlier, more ‘American’ way.”)

When the event, Kcon, was first held in the U.S. in 2012, it drew a few hundred fans and curious locals. That number has since swelled to more than 125,000, divided between conventions on both coasts. “The chanting was so loud last time that mainstream music industry people told me they’d never heard the roof blown off like that before,” says organizer Angela Killoren. The event’s popularity coincides with the worldwide explosion of K-pop, which has swelled in the past five years from a niche genre to a $5 billion global industry. K-pop’s takeover of the West will be cemented on October 6th, when the seven-member Seoul crew BTS becomes the first Korean group to play a U.S. stadium, at New York’s Citi Field. The show, which sold out in minutes, follows the success of the group’s hit “Fake Love,” which debuted at Number 10 on Billboard’s U.S. Hot 100 in June and racked up more than 35 million YouTube views in its first 24 hours, surpassing Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do.” BTS’ LP Love Yourself: Tear, released in May, debuted at Number One on the Billboard 200, moving 135,000 copies in its first week.

BTS aren’t alone. In June, the quartet Blackpink scored the highest-charting U.S. single debut for a Korean girl group when their “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du” entered the charts at No. 55. Super Junior, a 12-member Korean group, currently have a Latin hit with “Lo Siento,” which is sung in both Korean and Spanish – and has more than 37 million YouTube views. “Somebody always has to be the one to walk down that path and cut through the jungle and make some noise, and I think that group [was] BTS,” says Phil Becker, vice president for content at Alpha Media, which owns 68 U.S. radio stations. “I think six months from now we’re going to be talking about some of the biggest mainstream U.S. artists in the world infusing themselves into K-pop records.”

Korean pop music first cracked the U.S. in 2012, when Psy’s “Gangnam Style” — a supercharged beat paired with outrageously stylized visuals — became the first video to top a billion streams on YouTube. But most K-pop fanatics today see that song as a one-off gimmick. “‘Gangnam Style’ was an anomaly,” says Killoren. “The dynamics were Internet-meme-driven, like ‘oh, look at this.’” Other label efforts to expand the genre worldwide fizzled; the nine-member Girls Generation launched a marketing campaign for their Interscope Records debut in 2011, but it “just didn’t work out,” says one industry vet. Before that, Wonder Girls went on tour opening for the Jonas Brothers, but failed to score a hit. Claude Kelly, who has written for Bruno Mars and One Direction as well as for Girls Generation, wondered why K-pop wasn’t breaking through: “The pop over there [in Korea] has always been so Michael Jackson-esque in its size. They don’t hold back on production and money and rehearsal and stuff, so I’ve always been like, why isn’t all this big-budget show business shit really making a dent in American culture the way it should?”

The answer may be that those groups tried too hard and too soon to appeal to a global audience. Both Wonder Girls and Girls Generation recorded English-language versions of their hits, which failed to take off. BTS, meanwhile, have continued singing in Korean while embracing Western pop in other ways. “The music of ‘Fake Love’ was so good that you can listen to it and like it and not even care about the lyrics,” says Leslie Whittle, radio program director at Houston’s KRBE. BTS’ first Top 10 album, last year’s Love Yourself: Her, featured songs written with the Chainsmokers. The group has since released collaborations with Steve Aoki, Zedd and Ali Tamposi (who co-wrote Camila Cabello’s “Havana” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger”).

And by mashing together genres and cultures, K-pop songs kick the familiar rhythms of American pop music up a notch. “Everything in the Top 40 is mid-to-low-tempo. The feeling K-pop leaves you with is upbeat and positive,” says Whittle. “Korean pop music likes differentiation and changes,” says songwriter Rodnae “Chikk” Bell. “The average American song is four melodies, maybe five. The average K-pop song is eight to 10. They are also very heavy in the harmonies.” That’s good news for American R&B hitmakers, some of whom have been frustrated to see the U.S. turn away from their genre and toward loops and minimalist melodies to keep pace with hip-hop. Teddy Riley (Blackstreet, Keith Sweat) and Harvey Mason Jr. (Mario, Toni Braxton) have found new careers overseas conjuring Nineties-era R&B. “We’re having this thing now where we are literally being reintroduced to our own stuff,” says Kelly. K-pop acts, he continues, are like, “Hey, this is the shit that you did that was dope, and we still love it.”

Aoki points out that the K-pop revolution likely wouldn’t have happened without the streaming revolution: “With streaming, fans now have such a large voice, and that’s how BTS really became a phenomenon — because the fans made it a phenomenon, like with the underground culture of punk and hardcore,” the DJ says. “These guys just crush it. And I think because the fans are making such a big deal, it’s not going anywhere.”

On Soompi, one of the biggest online K-pop communities, active since 1998, the vast majority of fans are not Korean (the same goes for Kcon’s attendees.) But its users — 22 million and growing fast — spend hours translating lyrics and analyzing K-pop’s notoriously intricate music videos, which are crammed full of plots including but not limited to murder, familial betrayal, dream sequences, heartbreak and time travel. “A lot of it is very visual,” says Kristine Ortiz, a community manager at the company that owns Soompi. “They’re able to create a sensory experience through clothes and music videos with elaborate story lines. That’s not seen a lot in Western music.” The fans who do understand the language decode interviews with artists. Language isn’t so much a barrier as it is a point of entry: “In Korea, it’s already a part of the culture, and they speak the same language,” says Ortiz. “In the U.S., it’s a process of self-discovery and that makes it really exciting for fans. Users find one song and they start digging on their own. There’s a level of motivation and socializing you don’t see with American artists.” Some fans, she says, even wind up learning Korean as a result.

Soompi’s users skew young and female. When BTS arrived in Los Angeles last year to make K-pop’s first performance at the American Music Awards, the group was greeted by a riotous British Invasion-like crowd. “Boy bands and girl bands are as old as the Beatles, and this is part of the history of music in general,” Killoren says, adding that K-pop is tapping into a “continual hunger.”

Despite the record-shattering success of BTS, radio remains largely hesitant about putting K-pop into rotation. Alpha Media’s Becker says his radio company is hard at work researching where — and how — to change that. “People often dismiss things because they’re not primarily in English,” he says. “The challenge I present back is, if last year’s most-played song was ‘Despacito,’ why can’t we play more songs not in English?” (Earlier this year, “Despacito,” became the first Latin-pop song to be certified diamond and earn more than a billion streams on Spotify.) Still, the U.S. is not the genre’s only target, as the K-pop/Latin crossover success of Super Junior proved. “Listeners are beginning to really expect us to look globally,” says Whittle. “We, as programmers, are becoming more aware of the fact that the world is a much smaller place than it used to be.”