2016 was a groundbreaking year for pop and electronic music, emphasized by the long list of upbeat, synth-pop songs that were constantly played. Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Drake were no strangers to the music scene a decade ago, with hits such as “Sorry” by Bieber, “Work” by Rihanna and “One Dance” by Drake charting at the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 list. Albums such as Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” and Frank Ocean’s “Blonde” combined both R&B elements with hip-hop components, establishing creativity and impressive records.
Beyond revolutionary music that sounds daily in headphones, 2016 was the year of pop artist drama. Beloved boy band One Direction had been loosening ties since March of 2015 when Zayn Malik decided to leave the band. Malik had too much of the spotlight and wanted to take a step down to live a semi-normal life as a 22-year-old. In December of 2015, Malik spoke with The Fader and explained he also wanted more creative freedom with making music. One Direction being labeled as a pop band severely limited all of the members’ potential, and Malik had reached his limit, wanting to experiment more with different music genres.
Following his departure, the rest of the boys had planned to stay together and continued their musical journey without Malik. “Drag Me Down,” released in July 2015, was the lead single for One Direction’s upcoming album “Made in the A.M.” In August 2015, everything changed when a hiatus was announced to take place in 2016. Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan put on one last performance on Dec. 31, 2015, before going their separate ways and starting their own solo careers. What was supposed to be an 18-month hiatus turned into a permanent split, with fans devastated that the award-winning band was breaking up.
In the same pop realm, 2016 marked the time Taylor Swift disappeared from the media for the entire year. Hiding herself and not putting any music out, Swift blocked out the hate she was receiving from Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, following Kanye’s release of the song “Famous.” Beginning in 2009, Kanye interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech at the VMAs, saying that BeyoncéBeyonce should have won the award instead. The two had reconciled soon after the incident and were friendly until Kanye took back his apology in 2010, telling The New York Times he did not have regrets and was instead pressured by fans into apologizing instead of actually meaning the apology. Up until 2015, Kanye and Swift had remained cordial and even took pictures with one another at events.
In February 2016, Kanye had released the song “Famous” and included lyrics cursing Swiftout and belittling her career to only sprouting from his, implying he made her famous from the 2009 VMAs. Shortly after, Swift spoke out and explained how she had not approved that lyric and was very hurt by the message of it. A few months later, in June, Kim Kardashian, Kanye’s then-wife, had released a voice recording of Swift seemingly approving the lyric over the phone. Swift was then labeled a liar by all of the media, calling her a snake.
This image of Swift being a snake led to the inspiration of her future album “Reputation,” which was released later in 2017. The phone call was later found to be manufactured and purposely curated to make Swift look bad around 2020, but the hatred towards Swift was never undone.
Throughout 2016, music was an ultimately fun outlet of experimentation, with many of today’s trending artists having made their mark ten years ago. Whether it was a scandal fueled by years of drama or an emotional band breakup, 2016 was nothing short of an eventful time for the music world.
“OneDirection” by Hinde Ben is licensed under (CC BY 2.0)
