Tracks & Fields Spotlights What Musically Marked This Year

Image credit: Mick Haupt via Pexels

As we are wrapping up 2023 we would love to share our favourite albums and EP's releases of 2023 and talk about what musically marked this year.

According to the charts this year major female pop stars returned such as Shakira and Taylor Swift and we also had the debut and/or breakthrough of big talents such as Tyla, Mette and Tate McRae. 

When it comes to genres we noticed a global music space and an even bigger increase of Afrobeats by 550% with artists such as Burna Boy and Rema, as well as a rise of Amapiano while Reggeaton continues to be big.

Moreover, we also saw a resurgence of drum & bass and UK Garage. The first one is noticeable in artists such as Nia Archives, Kelela, piri & tommy and PinkPantheress just to name a few, while we can hear a clear influence of UK Garage in Little Things by Jorja Smith. 

Brazil also continues to influence music around the world, either with MPB, Bossa Nova or with Brazilian Funk. In May KAYTRANADA sampled a Brazilian classic by Lo Borges in Rebuke. Laufey, who became viral this year with From The Start, blends Bossa Nova with jazz and pop in the single and Brazilian Funk inspired Blanco in Brilliant Mind and Travis Scott, The Weeknd and Bad Bunny in their song K-POP.

Last but not least, layering productions with voice memos/answering machines is still very much present in music in 2023, something that Fred Again does well, interpolating samples from real life conversations, encounters and inspirations. To a certain extent this has actually been done since the '90s, with voice messages being heavily used in the hip-hop world. In this year's releases we can hear it in Mette's MAMA'S EYES, Joy Anonymous' Beezley's Poem and in the spectacular The Art of Forgetting by Caroline Rose in which she uses heartwarming voice notes and conversations with her grandmother in several tracks.