The trends, the stars, the music | Arts & Entertainment

A quarter century has passed in the new millennium. Here’s a look at some of the biggest stories, trends and music from the last 25 years. 

From CDs to streaming

Music sounds a lot more like it did in 2000 than the music from 2000 sounded like in 1975 — think KC and the Sunshine Band’s “Boogie Shoes” meets The Backstreet Boys’ “I Want it that Way.” The way the music is delivered is the biggest story in music in the last quarter-century.

Spotify and other streaming services have completely upended the music business. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, CD album sales in the United States have dropped by 95% since peaking in 2000.

Close to 700 million people use Spotify, 276 million of whom are subscribers. While streaming has been a blessing for music lovers who can access the largest collection of music ever assembled in the history of the world in a click of a button, artists have lost their largest source of revenue — the sale of their recorded music.

For an artist to make $1 on Spotify, their song has to be streamed roughly 200 to 330 times; to make $1 million, a song needs to be streamed 150 million times.

Artists now depend on merchandise sales, TV, film and commercial placements and touring to make their living.

The beneficiary of the move to digital streaming has been the sale of vinyl records. Because of nostalgia and the tangibility of a record — you can hold it, open it, place it on the turntable — sales of vinyl records have skyrocketed. According to the RIAA, In 2024, vinyl posted its 18th straight year of growth, with 44 million records sold and revenues of  $1.4 billion, the highest since 1984. 

Swift leads a pack of women superstars

First, there was Elvis, then there was the Beatles. But it would take almost 40 years for another artist to emerge with the global appeal, the gravitational pull, the army of fans (Swifties), the concert draw (the Eras tour made $2 billion) and the cultural significance of Swift. 

She oscillated from genre to genre, built her empire by herself, dealt with Kanye West taking her Grammy away from her and somehow avoided a single major controversy while being the biggest artist in the world.

With Swift leading the way, women dominated in pop music over the last 25 years. Beyonce, Adele, Lady Gaga, Arianna Grande, Katy Perry, Madonna (her 2008 tour set records at the time) and Miley Cyrus achieved levels of stardom that far surpassed their male counterparts. Only Bruno Mars approached the popularity of the top women in music, with Harry Stiles and Justin Timberlake also moving the pop-star meter in a major way.

The poet rapper

In the 1980s, NWA used threats against the police and celebrated violence as their form of social protest. This approach continued through the end of the century by other rappers.

Raised in the same neighborhood of Compton as members of NWA, Kendrick Lamar emerged in 2003 with a mixtape he made at the age of 16 and over the last 22 years he has addressed systemic racism by blending poetic, conscious lyricism with social commentary. Rooted in West Coast hip hop, he also has addressed religion, faith, race, art and culture in the context of Black culture in a groundbreaking way.

Along the way, Lamar has won 22 Grammy awards, a slew of other trophies and was recognized by Time magazine as one of the most influential people in world in 2016. He became the first rapper to win the Pulitzer for music in 2018 for his record “Damn.” He is generally regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time.

Exploding genres

Four genres that made seismic strides in the first 25 years of this century were EDM, reggaeton, jamgrass and what Spotify is calling gothic country.

From two turntables and a microphone to a laptop

Electronic Dance Music, known as EDM, grew exponentially in the ’90s but it exploded in the last 25 years. Beginning in the 2010s, rave culture became widespread in the United States and EDM music festivals were omnipresent, drawing over 5 million attendees annually and grossing more than $5 billion.

EDM is an umbrella term that encompasses house, techno and trance, as well as their respective subgenres. According to EDM Tunes, based on a survey of their peers in DJ Magazine, Armin van Buuren, Martin Garrix andDavidGuetta were the most influential DJs of the 21st century to date. The electronic music industry has reached a valuation of $12.9 billion in 2025, according to IMS Business Report 2025.

From Puerto Rico with love

Reggaeton is generally credited as being invented in Puerto Rico in the mid-1990s. By 2000, the fledgling genre was popular mostly in Puerto Rico and Latin America. Artists like Daddy Yankee and Shakira grew the genre’s popularity and it went richer in 2017 with the song “Despecito” by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee. The video reached 1 billion views in less than three months before going on to be the most viewed YouTube video of all-time over a two-year period.

Bad Bunny emerged in 2016 and over the last decade he has become one of the biggest music stars in the world. He has won three Grammy awards and was named Artist of the Year by Billboard in 2022. He was the most streamed artist on Spotify from 2020 to 2022 and 2025; he was second in 2023 and third in 2024. Next month, he will be the first Latin artist to perform at the halftime of the Super Bowl.

Would you like some jam in your grass?

Going into 2000, the biggest bands in the jamgrass genre were Leftover Salmon, String Cheese Incident, Railroad Earth and Yonder Mountain String Band. The genre expanded rapidly with the emergence of Greensky Bluegrass (2004), Infamous Stringdusters (2006),  the Kitchen Dwellers (2010) and Billy Strings (2012). 

Greensky Bluegrass pushed the boundaries of ticket sales in 2016 when they played three shows at Red Rocks. But it was Billy Strings who would completely shatter the glass ceiling of bluegrass. Beginning in January 2024 with three shows at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Strings began playing arenas, something unthinkable in 2000. Strings is a legend in his prime. 

A new kind of country

Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton, Tyler Childers, Jason Isbel, Zach Bryan, Ryan Bingham, Colter Wall and Jamey Johnson are a new breed of country artists that sing less about Friday nights, pretty girls, trucks and beer, and bring a more literary sensibility to country music. 

There hasn’t been a specific name for this genre of music. Some have used the term “new outlaw country,” drawing comparisons to Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings. Spotify has begun calling it “Gothic Country.” 

Whatever you call it, the music of these artists is the best thing to happen to country music since the days of the Highwaymen.

Biggest losses in music

When David Bowie died in 2016 it felt like a harbinger of things to come with the inevitable loss of 20th century legacy artists. Prince died just months later at the age of 57 leaving a huge hole in pop, soul and funk. 

Tom Petty’s death in 2017 at the age of 66 was a tough blow to music because out of all the legacy artists still alive Petty was the only one making consistently great records. His output in the 21st century was truly impressive: “The Last DJ” (2002), “Mudcrutch” (2008), “Mojo” (2010), “Hypnotic Eye” (2014), “Mudcrutch 2” (2016). “Hypnotic Eye” was Petty’s first No. 1 record on the Billboard charts.

Perhaps the biggest loss in music in the last 25 years was the death of Mac Miller in 2018 of an overdose at the age of 26. Despite his youth, Miller made nine albums during his life. His 2010 album “Kids” came out when he was just 18 and includes the song “The Spins,” arguably one of the most iconic songs for Gen Z.

Leftover Salmon banjo player Andy Thorn does a Mac Miller tribute set. “Mac’s album ‘Swimming’ is totally a classic,” Thorn said. “It sits in that perfect place between hip-hop, jazz and pop. And the lyrics have a depth often not found in hip-hop in or pop music.”

To rub salt in the wound, Miller’s 2020 record “Circles,” released posthumously, hints at a generational talent cut down in his prime. Miller was a true genius — writer, composer, lyricist, producer and singer. He did it all at the highest level. His death left a seismic hole in popular music.