Music is a standard way that people choose to express themselves, and it even can shape and define a person’s mood. With the release of new music, comes the possibility of developing society and potentially setting new trends. This year has been no exception to that, and new music seems always to be coming out. From pop to rap/hip-hop, both of these popular genres seem to be producing and releasing many new albums this year.

The rap/hip-hop genre is probably the genre with the most releases in this year and is continuing to put out albums monthly. During the first month of 2018, Migos released their album “Culture II.” With mixed reviews on the album and its quality, the hip-hop genre didn’t start the new year off as well as people had hoped. However, as March came around, things for the genre seemed to be looking up. With new albums from Logic, XXXtentacion, and Lil Yachty everything was finally going well for the rap world and has continued to flourish through the recent months. While most albums have done well, even some of the most iconic names in the hip-hop world seemed to miss the mark of what was expected now and then, including J. Cole, Kanye, and Drake. However, this year isn’t over yet, and with most recent releases from Nikki Minaj, Trippie Red, Travis Scott, and Young Thug the hip-hop genre seems to be headed down the right path for putting out popular as well as good albums the rest of the year.

With the rap/hip-hop industries producing a lot of new albums recently, it doesn’t seem that the pop genre has been able to keep up. A few albums have been produced recently like, “Man of the Woods” by Justin Timberlake, and “Voicenotes” by Charlie Puth, and while both artists are popular, neither album has been a massive hit. However, one album has been talked about a lot in the pop genre, and that was the release of “Camila” by Camila Cabello, which was met with positive reviews and was even debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. While the beginning of the year the year did not hold a lot of new music for this genre, within the past few months that has changed. At the end of May “Girls Like You” was released by Maroon 5 and Carbi B, and was an instant chart-topper. The following month came with the release of “Youngblood” by 5 Seconds of Summer which currently holds the number three spot on iTunes pop charts. Most recently, was the release of “Sweetener” by Ariana Grande which is continuously climbing the charts.

Overall, music is a powerful tool which can let one express themselves. With the surrounding influences of these two favorite genres and others, society slowing starts to change with what is currently in trend. Depending on how well and how much a genre is producing, can also be an essential factor in the shaping of the current society. While these are two genres are presently very popular along with their songs the same cannot be known for the near future and what it holds. The world is continually changing, and so is the music that is a part of it.