Sabrina Carpenter, APT, snack ads, and anime openings - what songs were googled in 2024?
Google has released a list of the songs that users searched for most often on the Internet in 2024.
Unlike charts, which are divided by country or major cultural regions, the list of top searches on Google shows what people were interested in around the world. This year, this is particularly noticeable as two of the top five songs were created in Asia, either entirely or partially, and represent Asian culture.
Not Like Us - Kendrick Lamar
The conflict between Drake and Kendrick Lamar has captured the attention of even those who were previously indifferent to beefs (conflicts) in hip-hop.
Unlike the usual clash between two egos, in the case of Drake and Kendrick, we are dealing with serious allegations that could radically change the music industry.
For several weeks, Kendrick Lamar has been releasing disses on Drake, revealing unpleasant details of his life and career.
There were accusations of paedophilia, of Drake abandoning his child, and of human trafficking. And what made these allegations special was that with each new CD track, Kendrick posted photos of things that belonged to Drake and were photographed and passed on by someone in his inner circle.
In turn, Drake accused Kendrick of domestic violence and child neglect.
After a series of gloomy and long (6 minutes on average) tracks that sounded like court testimony, Kendrick released the light and danceable hit Not Like Us to finish off his opponent's reputation. Not Like Us now has just under 1 billion streams.
And in the video for Not Like Us, Kendrick cleverly responded to Drake's accusations. Lamar's wife, Whitney Alford, poses and dances in a white T-shirt, which is called a wife beater in English slang.
In the comments, viewers let it be known that they understood the message of the video correctly: the only wife beater in Kendrick's family is Whitney's shirt.
At a concert in Los Angeles, the rapper performed the hit 5 times in a row at the request of the audience. He was supported on stage by more than 30 musicians, including Dr Dre, Ty Dolla $ign, Steve Lacy, Tyler, the Creator, and others.
Also, the global hip-hop community is now waiting for Kendrick Lamar's performance at the Super Bowl next year.
Rap bloggers assume that Lamar will perform Not Like Us, although it is more likely that he will perform something from his new album GNX.
Apt. - Rosé & Bruno Mars
Despite spending a record amount of time on the charts, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars' joint song Die with a Smile didn't make it to the top of Google searches.
But Bruno Mars was not absent from the mix.
His joint hit with Rosé, a member of the K-pop band Blackpink, also quickly conquered the charts, and Rosé became the first solo K-pop artist to enter the UK music rankings and took second place.
And to do so, she didn't even have to switch to English completely in the song - the catchiest refrain is sung in Korean.
Critics see this as a big step for Korean culture towards a global world context. Some have even compared Apt. to Hangover, a collaboration between Psy and Snoop Dogg released in 2014.
Like Hangover, Apt. West and East find common ground on the topic of drinking and parties. The song's title itself refers to a Korean drinking game for parties, the name of which literally translates to ‘apartment’.
In fact, this word is repeated in the chorus in Korean. For Bruno Mars, this was a challenge, as he had never produced a pop-punk song before.
Rose has also released an album and is currently ranked 25th on Spotify's list of the most popular artists.
Bling-Bang-Bang-Born - Creepy Nuts
This year was not without anime openings. The theme song of the second season of the anime series Mashle: Magic and Muscles’ has over 300 million plays on Spotify.
Bling-Bang-Bang-Born is a track in the Jersey club hip-hop subgenre.
The genre is very popular on TikTok, and Jersey Club remixes of famous songs gain millions of views. It is characterised by fast beats and a large number of repetitive samples.
The track almost broke the record of the Japanese Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, lasting 19 weeks. The rap group Creepy Nuts needed three more weeks to overtake the Idol song by Yoasobi.
Creepy Nuts is a group consisting of rapper R-Shitei and DJ Matsunaga. It is difficult to find information about the band even in English, but they are extremely popular in Japan and in February 2025, they are going to perform at Tokyo Dome, one of the largest stadiums in Japan.
By the way, this is not the first time Creepy Nuts have worked on an anime soundtrack.
For the series ‘Call of the Night’, the band not only recorded the ending theme, but also made a cameo in one of the episodes. However, it wasn't just the anime that brought this year's hit to the top of the charts and numerous search queries. The song gained international popularity through the TikTok dance trend BBBB Dance.
Thick Of It - KSI
The track by the British streamer and rapper KSI has received over 60 million streams on Spotify and about 150 thousand videos with sound on TikTok. However, most of the videos with this track are rather memes and mockery of KSI's performance style and lyrics.
People online call the song ‘gym music’ and ‘the worst song of 2024’. Some commentators have called KSI the ‘Ed Sheeran of rap’.
Sheeran was also once subjected to hate and ridicule because his music sounded ‘neutral’ or ‘bland’ and was often added to the playlists of mass-market boutiques or coffee shops.
Drake also added fuel to the fire, commenting that he liked the single. And this year, a recommendation from Drake is an instant ranking destroyer.
Even the rapper Trippie Redd, in collaboration with whom the track was written, said on social media that he was ‘held hostage while working on the song’. However, the comments about the artificiality and contrivance of the composition are hardly unfounded.
The music video for the track features an advert for Lunchly, a snack manufacturer with whom KSI has entered into an advertising partnership. In particular, the video shows a bottle of Prime energy drink, which is included in every box of Lunchly snacks. One Lunchly package is a plastic container with biscuits, sauce, cheese and meat in different flavours. Along with KSI, the manufacturer is also promoted by blogger Logan Paul, who recently fought an unequal battle with Mike Tyson and Mr Beast (who has also been criticised in recent years).
In addition to the Thick of It single, KSI and his fellow bloggers often become meme heroes because of Lunchly's adverts during their broadcasts. Their reputation was particularly damaged by the recent scandal over the poor quality of Lunchly products. In particular, mould was found on cheese in the boxes of snacks.
Espresso - Sabrina Carpenter
The rollout of Sabrina Carpenter's album Short n' Sweet began with the announcement of her performance at Coachella, where she performed Espresso for the first time. Moreover, this song can be considered the starting point of the image of Sabrina, in which she conquered the world charts throughout the year.
The slogan for Sabrina's performance at Coachella read: ‘She'll make you come to Coachella this year!’ And so it was.
The festival was not memorable, unlike Sabrina Carpenter's performance. During her performance, she shed the labels of a former Disney actress and singer, opening for Taylor Swift.
The single Espresso set the vector for the sound of the entire Short n' Sweet album - a light, romantic and nostalgic sound, complemented by clever and catchy lyrics.
Music reviewers note the influences of Italian disco, synth-pop and funk. In July 2024, two songs from the album Short n' Sweet - Espresso and Please Please Please - swapped places at the top of the UK Singles chart.
In Espresso, Sabrina finally finds her own signature sense of humour, which she carries into the rest of the album.
The phrase from the chorus ‘It's that me espresso’ became a meme and made even English speakers scratch their heads. Several experts debated whether Sabrina had made a mistake in the lyrics or simply used an unobvious phrase.
By the way, Sabrina recently demonstrated her recognisable sense of humour in the Netflix Christmas film A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter. The film's many references to old hits, jokes about the film's ‘children's’ rating and sarcastic attitude to her pop star status show us the musician's approach to the holiday film genre.
Among the invited celebrity guests were Shania Twain, Kali Uchis, Chappelle Rowan and Cara Delevingne.
- Winston Vaughn - suspilne.media
Top 10 most Googled songs of 2024:
Not Like Us - Kendrick Lamar
APT. - Rosé and Bruno Mars
Bling-Bang-Bang-Born - Creepy Nuts
Thick Of It - KSI
Espresso - Sabrina Carpenter
Hai Yorokonde - Kocchi no Kento
yes, and? - Ariana Grande
WILDFLOWER - Billie Eilish
Fortnight - Taylor Swift
Katchi Sera - Sai Abhyankkar
