Rueben's Ramblings

I’ve shared for many years now how much music has played a key part in my life. As far back as I can remember, music was always playing in my childhood home. It all started when I was a little girl, listening to music while sitting in the middle of my big brothers’ shared bedroom on their old 1970’s turntable then listening to my big boom box and later the Walkman I had in the 1980’s all the way through to my iPod in the 2000’s to now with my Pandora and Spotify accounts.

I wake up to music every morning rather than a buzzing alarm; and then I go to bed with music. Music may not mean to everyone what it means to me, but it does play a crucial part in television, Broadway, theatre and the box office.

The following are just some of the top performers for 2024:

Most Moving Video (Prior to the Election) – “What Happens When a Woman Takes Power”

This song became the anthem for women all across the country during the Harris-Walz campaign with lots of different female groups recording their versions of the song. Admittedly, it was very disappointing for half of the population that we didn’t get the election result we were hoping for, but this song at least made a difference to a lot of us when we needed it most.

Best New Male Artist – Benson Boone

Benson auditioned for season 19 of American Idol in 2021 and made it into the Top 24, but he actually dropped out to consider his career. He obviously made the right decision because his first single “Beautiful Things,” which came out in January of this year, became the biggest song of the year, accurring 1.434 billion on-demand audio streams worldwide. The single topped various singles-focused charts including U.S. top digital song consumption and U.S. top song: on-demand streaming for both audio and audio plus video.

Best Song of the Year – Lady Gaga and Brun Mars, “Die With a Smile”

This soulful song was released in August of this year, featuring the singers in a duet that became an instant smash and a classic tune all at the same time. Their 70’s Nashville style video also helped launch the song into the stratosphere. It’s a tune that you simply can’t get out of your head once you’ve heard it, and the best kind of earworm.

Best New Female Artist – Chappell Roan

Chappell Roan is on a massive hot streak this year with her freshman album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” which hit number 2 on the charts just behind Taylor Swift. While the album came out in 2023, it became a sleeper hit earlier this year, showcasing Roan’s “campy” style that is heavily influenced by drag queens, 1980s synth-pop and 2000s pop songs.

Earworm Hit – Sabrina Carpenter, “Feather”

This actress-singer has been working professionally for the past 13 years between television series and movies, but it was her 6th studio album “Short n’ Sweet” – which was released this summer – that had her hitting number one on the charts and making it the summer of Sabrina Carpenter.

A Most Welcome Return – Linkin Park

This rock band has been together since 1996, and has had a successful run in the music industry that is until the sad and untimely death by suicide of its lead singer Chester Bennington in 2017, causing the band to enter an indefinite hiatus. This year the band came back with a brand new studio album and a new lead singer in the form of female rocker Emily Armstrong.

Best New Duo – Royel Otis

While this Australian duo, comprised of Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic, has been together since 2019, and they’ve released three EPs, it was their first studio alum Pratts & Pain, which was released in February of this year that put them on the map. But it’s been their covers of “Murder on the Dancefloor” and “Linger” that have placed them on the top of the charts. The former single, original done in 2001 by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, has attained nearly 50 million streams on Spotify and first went big on TikTok with over 13 million views.

TV Star Turned Music Artist – Djo, “End of Beginning”

TV viewers will recognize Djo as Joe Keery from Netflix’s Stranger Things and the box office movie Free Guy, but acting isn’t his only hustle. In 2019, Djo released his debut album and in 2022 his second album was released. From that sophomore effort, albeit two years after its release, the single “End of Beginning” hit the airwaves, gaining popularity and becoming viral on social media.

Big Musical Announcement of the Year – Oasis Reunion

After 15 years of brotherly war, Oasis members Liam and Noel Gallagher announced a reunion tour. The announcement was made two days before the 30th anniversary of their debut album. The tour will get underway on July 4, 2025 and will end on November 23, 2025. Their single “Wonderwall” was released on October 30, 1995 and while it never actually made it to number one, it is their most popular single, and you can be assured that when the brothers perform this single, and all their other songs, at the reunion tour, fans are going to go crazy.

Best Way to End 2024 – Wicked

The box office version of the immensely popular Broadway musical Wicked opened in theatres on November 22, starring Cynthia Erivo and Arianna Grande in the lead roles of Elphaba and Glinda, the earlier versions of the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the North. The video clips above are just small snippets of the first part of this blockbuster that will have people humming these songs (and more) from the movie far beyond the holidays.

What singer or band has been your “go-to” music during the past year? Which singles were the stand-outs for you this year? What song did you get sick of hearing on the radio? What was the top album in your opinion? Please share your thoughts on the music of 2024 below.

TOMORROW: Hits (and Misses) at the Box Office