Thoughts on New Music 2012

There are many music genres that people listen to and create.  Every year, the lines between the different types get a little more blurred with all the fusion that is taking place and all the crossover artists performing.  That is why it gets so interesting year after year to see the new music that is going to be created in the coming year.

Country music was once thought to be appreciated by only a small portion of the population.  Now, however, it has taken on a more mainstream appeal.  And many country artists are also part of the more mainstream music.  Such artists as Taylor Swift, Faith Hill, and Tim McGraw have managed to perform songs that can be heard on both country music stations and the top forty stations.

What creates popular music is more about the way the music speaks to others and appeals to the listener more than by its classification.  That’s why new music in 2012 could be an interesting year.  There are so many songs that combine a rapper and a singer performing together to make something special and new.  Think about songs like Eminem’s ‘I Love the Way You Lie’ where he teamed up with Rihanna.  There are entire groups that combine that interesting mix, like The Black Eyed Peas with Will.I.Am and Fergie.  They have had a number of hit songs because they appeal to a wide variety of listeners.

A lot of the new music that we appreciate year after year comes from movie soundtracks.  Movies like Titanic made Celine Dion a star.  In recent years, some singers have actually performed in movies and then recorded the theme song.  Think of Tim McGraw in Flicker.  He then sang the theme song, ‘My Little Girl.’  And even more recently, Miley Cyrus was the lead actress in Nicholas Spark’s The Last Song.  She sang the theme song and rode up the charts.

So there will be great music coming in 2012.  There should be a lot of great sounds coming from a fusion of a variety of genres, like Hip Hop and R&B or Country and Rock.  There will be more great movies with their theme songs that climb the charts.  And there will be new artists emerging, hoping to gain our interest and our business.  New music in 2012 promises to be exciting and engaging and definitely memorable for those of us who are paying attention.