Pop and electronic music 2024
The year of upheaval

Last year’s trend continued: 2024 was the year underground club music officially entered pop mainstream. But while musical and subcultural boundaries have blurred, the economic gap has grown wider than ever. Major brands are thriving, but smaller and mid-sized festivals and clubs are struggling to survive. What does this mean for the future of cultural diversity in Germany?

By Kristoffer Cornils

While the Anglophone pop world enjoyed a brat summer thanks to Charli XCX or sipped Espresso with Sabrina Carpenter, the Germans worked on abs, legs and glutes with Bauch Beine Po. Throughout August and September, Shirin David’s single dominated the country’s music scene. GfK Entertainment, the market research company responsible for publishing the German music charts, crowned it the summer hit of 2024. Although Bauch Beine Po might not have been the longest-reigning summer anthem – that title goes to Wunder by Ayliva x Apache 207 – few songs proved to be quite so polarising.

Bauch Beine Po was remarkable for another reason. Former YouTuber David fused familiar elements of sing-song rap and catchy hooklines, but she also introduced a third genre: a bouncy beat with a punchy bassline, clearly inspired by 1990s Eurodance. A similar mix was presented by Finch, Katja Krasavice and Luca-Dante Spadafora with Niklas Dee in One Night Stand, while Ayliva and Apache 207 danced to reggaetón rhythms and Bennett combined a piano-accompanied children’s canon with hard kick drums on Vois sur ton chemin (Techno Mix).

All of these tracks reached the top of the charts, underscoring the resurgence of electronic dance music in the mainstream. For many years, rap dominated the discourse, but now its supremacy appears to be waning – or rather, the boundaries between styles and subcultures are beginning to blur, as evidenced by the success of Bauch Beine Po. This isn’t just mainstream music co-opting underground sounds. On the contrary, a growing number of techno and house producers are actively pushing into the pop arena. Take DJ Marlon Hoffstadt, for instance – a key figure in the Eurodance revival – who recently signed with Sony’s Columbia label.

Many underground icons are now partnering with major labels – an act that, just a few years ago, would have triggered accusations of “selling out” in the club scene, where integrity and credibility were once paramount. Today, such moves barely raise an eyebrow. This shift perhaps reflects a complex, ideological landscape. Tracks like Bauch Beine Po and One Night Stand, for example, embrace – or at least playfully nod to – a performance and consumer-driven society, or even celebrate the unrestrained hedonism that defined the 1990’s rave culture.

Escapism for some, social commitment for others?

Nostalgia for the sounds and aesthetics of the previous decade, already in evidence last year, continued to resonate in 2024. This was accompanied by – at times, ironically exaggerated – references to landmarks of pop culture. With their third album Kult, Roy Bianco & Die Abbrunzati Boys transported listeners back to an idealised version of Italy once again, appealing to both hip audiences and ZDF’s typically schlager-dominated Fernsehgarten. Parallel to this spearhead of the Italo-pop craze in the German-speaking world, the club scene also celebrated la dolce vita. The long-running Italo-disco revival reached its peak with the release of Kapote presents Italomania Vol. 2 on the Berlin label Toy Tonics.

So, is this all about escapism? Not exactly, or at least not everywhere. With the re-launch of Zeit, dass sich was dreht, a song originally released for the 2006 World Cup, Herbert Grönemeyer and $oho Bani sent out a powerful intergenerational message, calling for greater social engagement. Prior to that, young singer Soffie delivered the soundtrack for protests with Für immer Frühling, a song that mobilized millions onto the streets in response to reports of potential mass deportations by right-wing populist and extremist forces. Once again in 2024, pop music has proven to be not just a reflection but also a catalyst and driving force in political discourse. As musical styles in the pop world became more blended, a sharp dualism emerged in terms of content. On the one hand, we saw a celebration of self-optimisation and individualism, on the other, calls for civil courage and greater solidarity. Few artists embodied this paradox as strikingly as Shirin David. Although the singer identifies as a feminist, her song Bauch Beine Po drew intense criticism for its allegedly anti-feminist lyrics. Among the critics was politician Caren Lay (Die LINKE), who responded with her own “empowerment” version of the track.

Is the era of club closures upon us?

The club scene has long been a space where tensions between hedonism and activism are played out. While party-goers flocked to clubs at weekends to escape the grind of everyday life, numerous heated debates raged around them. One divisive issue is the stance on the war in the Middle East, which threatens to undermine connections that have been so carefully nurtured over the years. Now, more than ever, what’s needed in the scene is unity given the ongoing economic crisis. Rising prices and dwindling revenues have left festivals and clubs for electronic music caught up in a vicious cycle. Even the recent recognition of Berlin’s club culture as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage offers little comfort.

For outsiders, it may seem surprising that dance music is dominating the charts, while festivals and clubs are struggling to survive. But if we take a closer look, we see that the crisis is hitting small and mid-sized players the hardest, while the big institutions are thriving. International giants in the festival and live events industry, such as Live Nation or Germany’s CTS Eventim, report record sales, and prestigious clubs like Berlin’s Berghain see ever-growing queues outside their doors. Just around the corner, though, the reality is quite different.

It’s just a 20-minute walk from Berghain to the Oberbaumbrücke, where Watergate has been a cornerstone of the club scene since 2002. However, at the end of the year, the club has to vacate its iconic riverside location due to ongoing economic challenges that have made continued operation unsustainable. A similar fate awaits Leipzig’s Institut für Zukunft, which will also close its doors by year’s end. Meanwhile, other institutions, such as Hamburg’s Hafenklang and Leipzig’s Conne Island, have managed to stay afloat – but only thanks to crowdfunding campaigns. So, is the long-predicted collapse of the club scene finally becoming a reality?

Consolidation of the festival landscape

A survey conducted by the industry association LiveKomm painted a grim picture at the end of the year. Of the 121 venues surveyed, 43% expect their financial situation to worsen in the coming year, while 16% are considering closing down within the next 12 months. These sobering figures mirror similar trends in the festival industry. The Third Room techno festival in North Rhine-Westphalia was forced to cancel its debut event due to poor presales, and Nachtiville, a festival celebrating all genres of club music, will not be returning to Weissenhäuser Strand on the Baltic Coast next January for the same reason.

These are not isolated cases. Melt is a prime example of the precarious position faced by many festivals that mix pop and electronic music. Although organised by the agency GoodLive and, since its takeover by entertainment giant Live Nation, under the umbrella of the world’s most influential festival company, the 27th edition in Ferropolis, Saxony-Anhalt, was its last. Since the pandemic, there have been repeated warnings about a “market consolidation” in the festival industry, and this now appears to be unfolding before our eyes. While new gigs like Whole United Queer Festival, also at Ferropolis, and Görlitz’s good2u have managed to carve out a place on the festival landscape in recent years, the outlook for the electronic music festival scene is as bleak as that of the club scene. The loss of even more clubs and festivals could have far-reaching consequences for the broader music industry. These venues are not only vital social hubs but also critical pillars of the economic ecosystem for many musicians.

What does the crisis mean for musical diversity?

Producers of club music like Skee Mask and Daniela La Luz, duo HJirok, who blend traditional Sufi music with dub basslines, and artists who push the boundaries between electronic music and pop, such as Golden Diskó Ship and Mary Ocher – all of these artists released standout albums this past year. Yet, despite their critical success, they are probably still struggling to make ends meet. For many, live concerts, club sets and festival appearances are their primary source of income and essential to sustaining their art. So, what happens to the diversity of the German music landscape if these opportunities begin to disappear?

Given the severity of the ongoing economic crisis and its potential impact on the cultural sector, calls for political intervention are growing louder. The five-million-euro festival support fund introduced in the spring by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media has done little to address the broader challenges, and further funding appears unlikely given the government’s strained budget. Additionally, amendments to building use regulations and noise control guidelines, which are supposed to benefit clubs in urban areas, have yet to be finalised.

The festival business, live entertainment industry and club scene have all endured challenging times. 2024 is likely to go down in music history as a year of upheaval. While pop and electronic music converge further and ideological barriers between mainstream and underground continue to break down, the economic divide between the two has never been greater. This widening gap is sure to leave a lasting mark on the music landscape. What exactly that will look like, however, remains to be seen in the year ahead.