Record deals and access to commercial studios are no longer required to make a pop hit that charts. In 2024, there are more pathways for artists to chart than ever before, but disruptions haven’t made the competition any less intense!
Producers and self-recording artists have a sea of tools at their service, and that’s where Sweetwater comes in. Producers, engineers, artists, and collaborators can find fresh inspiration to keep the momentum going as summer 2024 fades into fall. Our cracking staff scanned the hits of summer 2024 and came away with tips, tricks, and insights into what’s fueling the earworms of the Billboard Hot 100 and other leading charts.
We heard unforeseen collaborations from duos such as Post Malone and T. Swift, gawked at an incredible rush of beefy activity from Kendrick Lamar, and witnessed Sabrina Carpenter’s explosive rise. Meanwhile, the rise of homegrown artists such as Zach Bryan, Chappell Roan, and Noah Kahan reveals new lanes to breakout success.
Above all else, 2024 has been a shock-and-awe year for country hits as many examples strike different chords than the same country formulas that have dominated radio for the previous two decades. Read on for useful tools and trendy moves that make pop tracks irresistible!
Instrumentation Trends
Funky Bass Guitar
Funky bass guitar continues to be one of modern pop’s mainstays. Here, the bass rarely competes with loud guitars, and bassists can explore grooves that show off their skill and personality while filling out the rhythm section’s low end.
The show-stopping bass line of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” doesn’t just support the song, it drives it! The player touches the highest highs and lowest lows of their instrument, its high register unleashing bubbly, funky warmth during verses and transitions before shifting to big, simple lows near the chorus that let Carpenter’s swirls of layered vocals leap into the spotlight. Production work from Jack Antonoff, a reigning king of pop, successfully highlights the impressive bass groove rather than treating it as an afterthought.
Contrast “Please Please Please” with Carpenter’s other hit “Espresso,” where Julian Bunetta’s production work tracks toward disco with a low, powerful bass line that floats like sweet, golden crema atop a caffeinated rush of infectious rhythms.
Tommy Richman’s “DEVIL IS A LIE” provides a counterpoint with an R&B bass groove that’s firmly repetitious. The bass very much lives in the pocket with only slight variations for funky slides and melodic breaks. The bassist’s restraint spotlights Richman’s falsetto singing while the notes played evoke a grinding, streetwise sensibility that complements Richman’s lyrics.
Tone and technique are two key ingredients of every memorable bass line. Pop bass typically goes for thick, mellow tones that de-emphasize high frequencies and note attack. Pay close attention to tone-knob settings and EQ. Aim for a big sound but watch out for too much growling presence, or the vocals may suffer.
Our technique tips? Focus on funky foundations by using octaves, fifths, and passing tones such as major or minor sevenths that quickly resolve to the root note. Great players often hone that funky feel by experimenting with playing the same note at different fretboard positions. If you usually fret a D at the 5th fret on the A string, then try moving the D and related shapes to the low E string’s 10th fret. Quite a difference in tone, no?
The Fender Precision Bass is the evergreen pro pick for funk and disco. This bass guitar’s split pickup was made to capture high and low strings at different points, which is a big part of what’s made it an essential piece of music history. Roll back the P Bass’s tone control, and the funk shall be with you.
Some bassists turn to newer models for greater control over tone. Warwick and Spector are two well-respected bass-guitar brands that fit this bill. Both deliver transparent character combined with active electronics for tone sculpting to suit any genre, whether it be heavy metal or pop.
Synth Bass
No bass-guitar chops? No problem! Anchoring pop tracks with a bass synth has been a go-to production move for decades.
Most of today’s hits use bass synths to add funky flair — think ’70s- and ’80s-tinged tones with smooth attack and fat presence. Some bass-synth parts will mimic a bass guitar more than others. Eminem’s comeback single “Houdini” uses a synth bass line that shows obvious old-school-funk influences, but the smooth and consistent attack of each note tells seasoned ears that this is a bass synth.
Pop tones can be achieved quickly with a monophonic bass synth, such as the Novation Bass Station II analog synthesizer. For portable power that’s also great for learning more about analog synthesis, check out Korg’s Volca Bass or Volca NuBass. You can use VSTs to tap into a world of top-notch virtual bass synths, such as the Moog Mariana and the Arturia Acid V.
Americana: Acoustic Guitars, Banjos, Mandolins, and Plug-ins
Suddenly everything’s “y’allified” or country fried, and the trend opens new space for pop challengers who favor rustic Americana styles over Nashville formulas. The year 2024 was highly significant for Black artists in country music — Beyonce and Shaboozey both achieved unprecedented success on the country charts. Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is a masterclass in turning infectious stomp-clap rhythms into a song with blue-collar appeal that’s fit for the pool hall in Anytown, USA.
Zach Bryan, one of this year’s ascendant stars, usually resists labeling his style, but one can feel the shared lineage of Americana between many of his songs and the steady acoustic-guitar chords of “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” Like Shaboozey’s track, Zach Bryan’s tunes embrace Americana instrumentation such as a light fiddle and low piano chords. Bryan hesitates to call his music country, and maybe he’s right. Train your ears on Bryan’s biggest hit, “Pink Skies,” and you’ll hear a delicate mix of mournful acoustic guitars, banjo, light percussion, and a soul-stirring harmonica line. Genres are complicated nuts to crack, but what we can say is that Bryan’s lightly dressed acoustic songs prove that, in 2024, Americana can find chart traction, even without heavy-handed production. Much like fellow freshman star Chappell Roan, Zach Bryan first rose to fame on TikTok by regularly promoting his music and performing cover songs of artists he admires.
Zach Bryan favors large-bodied jumbo acoustic guitars, especially his Guild F-55, sometimes a Gibson J-45, and it’s this taste in acoustic guitars that gives Zach’s sparse arrangements a more full-bodied presence. Let’s zoom in on that F-55 jumbo for a moment.
The jumbo acoustic-guitar body shape is larger than virtually every other acoustic shape. The jumbo body delivers stronger bass, longer sustain, and excellent clarity, even when your strums aren’t particularly forceful. I’ve played and gigged with jumbos myself for many years. Originally, I was drawn to the style, thinking that I needed a bigger, badder sound. However, I’ve since realized that the jumbo doesn’t so much offer a bigger sound but rather a fuller sound that takes up more space — that’s a useful advantage in Zach Bryan’s sparse arrangements and also why I favor my Epiphone J-200 acoustic-electric guitar for solo singer/songwriter gigs.
For all your Americana and country-adjacent needs, Sweetwater now offers more folk instruments in 2024 than any previous time in our 40-year history. We’ve expanded our selection of mandolins, banjos, resonator guitars, and other such gear. One affordable way to pad sparse Americana mixes is with a set of Hohner harmonicas — it’s a fun way to expand your horizons without a major learning curve. Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol and Maschine users can explore virtual options including banjo, pedal steel, mandolin, and tick-tack bass with the Big Fish Vintage Country virtual instrument collection. Shop select items and plug-ins below then saddle up for the next chapter of American music!
Retro Electric Guitar: Nostalgic Mishmash from ’60s Surf to ’80s Chorus and Beyond
Today’s pop tracks are frequently referencing older musical styles with their electric-guitar tones. Surf, post-punk, and grunge are just a few genres you can hear leaving an impact on today’s hits that feature guitar.
Seasoned players know you can use a chorus pedal in virtually any genre if you sculpt the effect intentionally, but the chorused guitar is most associated with ’80s pop rock, and that’s the leading throwback style of guitar that’s trending right now. Check out “I Had Some Help” from Morgan Wallen and Post Malone. The song kicks off with a picked, chorused guitar riff that feels in the ballpark of ’80s hits by the Police.
The Billie Eilish song “Birds of a Feather” shows a different sort of ’80s inspiration with churning post-punk bass guitar and bright, chorused guitar picking that enters at the climax of the chorus to doubly emphasize the song’s main synth progression.
From there, we proceed to a ’90s-tinged contemporary hit: “High Road” by Koe Wetzel and Jessie Murph. This countryish stadium rocker opens with a hazy, pitch-bent vibrato that was popular with grunge bands in the ’90s.
Last, give “Too Sweet” by Hozier a listen and note how the thick, punchy unison guitar and bass hook hearken back to dance-friendly indie-rock bands of the 2000s, such as the Strokes or Franz Ferdinand.
Mixing and General Production Trends
Embrace Headphone Modeling: A Modest Investment That Pays Dividends
When it comes to production playback hardware, one of the top investments a producer can make is a pair of VSX modeling headphones from Steven Slate Audio. What do these headphones offer that others don’t? Namely, two dozen detailed models of essential mix environments, ranging from famous studios and high-end cans to beefy club and automobile sound systems. These headphones let you test and refine mixes in these environments from the comfort of your own desk. We encourage our customers to dream big, and VSX modeling headphones are, without a doubt, one of the most affordable ways to do so.
Collaboration 101: The Basics of Boosting Reach and Revenue
In the age of streaming, collaborative music has become a major element of pop. Teaming up with other artists is a no-brainer, a surefire way to increase an artist’s reach. Major artists embrace the trend without hesitation, and so should you.
With that in mind, it’s smart to approach collaboration with a clear picture of the decisions that must be made and communicated between parties. Will artists need to swap ideas and build a song structure together? Or is the feature a simpler affair, as in the Taylor Swift hit “Fortnight (feat. Post Malone).” This track is a great example of low-lift collaboration. Post Malone lends spacey backing vocals to the song, but he never breaks out into his own featured verse; so it’s unlikely Post’s camp had to invest more than a few hours into his contribution (contracts and paperwork aside).
Of course, the most exciting artist features often go a bit deeper and involve complex considerations beyond the mere creative act. There’s also pre-production planning, file sharing, and post-production approval from each artist’s camp. The primary artist (or their team) is usually responsible for gathering the featured artist’s files and processing them. This means featured artists typically send over only a handful of files.
Featured artists can promote positive results by also including dry/unprocessed audio, which virtually eliminates any potential issues with DAW or plug-in compatibility between various camps. That said, bigger artists will likely have field-tested preferences for how they like their vocals processed, mixed, and effected. A good compromise would be for the featured artist to provide a roughly processed reference mix along with dry audio. This way, the lead engineer has a basic sense of what the other party expects.
Stomp Clap: The Return of the Repressed
One of this year’s unexpected hits is “Stick Season” by Noah Kahan. Kahan’s song claimed #1 status when it debuted in 2023, and the song is still charting as of summer 2024. “Stick Season” starts with a scratchy, fingerpicked acoustic guitar followed by Kahan’s earnest, raw tenor. “Stick Season” sounds more rustic and DIY than any other hit in recent memory. It starts sparse and progressively adds layers before reaching a modest crescendo of acoustic guitars, banjo, and doubled vocals all reinforced with a four-on-the-floor kick drum beat. The song’s success and instrumentation, especially the banjos and minimalist kick drum, have led fans and critics to speculate if “stomp clap” music is slated for a revival.
The “stomp clap” folk-pop subgenre — sometimes known as “stomp and holler” or “stomp, clap, hey!” — took indie folk to a commercial peak in the early 2010s with artists such as Mumford & Sons and the Lumineers leading the charge. Three tools for indie-pop success are as follows: a small-bodied acoustic guitar (preferably one that’s good for fingerpicking; any Martin 00 or Gibson L-00 would be perfect), a capo that raises pitch for a more wistful sound, and a recording interface with two or more inputs.
Whether it be guitar, banjo, mandolin, or anything else, pros like to record one track directly (via an acoustic-electric preamp) and simultaneously record a separate track miking the instrument. This way, there are more options to work with. You have two flavors of one performance that you can blend, pan, and process for a rich stereo field. This approach is well suited to giving sparse acoustic instrumentation a vivid dose of sonic color.
So, is stomp clap back? Yes! Wait. No! Or maybe? “Stick Season” certainly shares elements with stomp-clap hits from the past. However, the song’s straightforward lyrics highlight the present day and have little in common with the nostalgic, Roaring Twenties escapist romps favored by many stomp-clap heavyweights. Kahan’s success just proves that a folksy track with tight pop sensibilities can succeed — and may even do so without the major-label financing.
Vocal Trends
Heat Up Country Vocals Pre-compression for Greater Presence
Lyrical themes are a big part of what makes a country song tick, so it’s important to make the vocals a high priority in your mix. For country singers with pop aspirations, making sure that vocals are red-hot is a reliable way to demonstrate unique personality and connect with the audience. Pros often give vocals more perceived heft by pushing clip gain before adding compression. By heating up the vocal early, you can push hot clips into a compressor to reduce peaks while raising troughs. This tightens the vocal’s dynamic range while the perception of volume is increased. “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone is a glaring example of a vocal that’s hot yet extremely consistent throughout the song, even when the chorus is delivered with much more power and volume than the verses! Increasing gain right at the source is a guaranteed way to boost the clarity of almost any sound, but it’s easy to forget that when there are so many ways to manipulate tracks further down the signal chain. Lyrics are a big part of country music, so it’s important to give the vocals extra attention at every step of production.
Vocal Twang: Know When to Hold ’em and When to Fold Them
We just discussed one way to improve country vocals. Unique vocal quirks and regional dialect also play big roles in country music. Country lets everyone embrace their twangy side, but that doesn’t give producers a pass to accept sloppy enunciation whole hog.
Hit songs often know when to prioritize clear enunciation over bent syllables. Too much twang can feel artificial. Too little, and you’re just another singer/songwriter. I’ve wrestled with my own Southern accent on mic before. Because I naturally drop my Gs from words that end with the suffix “-ing,” I strive to be mindful of when this weakens the delivery of a line. “Running” would be pronounced as “runnin’” unless I overemphasize the suffix. The word “and” is another word that country singers tend to underenunciate and shorten until it comes out more like a grunt than a word. That’s totally fine in some cases, but grunting your “ands” will definitely stand out more in slower, downtempo numbers where the voice is more exposed. Finding a balance is something many singers and producers master over time. Producers may want to help coach performers on this front if both parties are comfortable receiving and implementing feedback during sessions.
Sometimes twang can be refined during post-production. Pitch- and time-correction software such as Celemony’s Melodyne is great at preserving accented vocals while tightening up loose enunciation. Melodyne lets you target and buff out problem areas note by note, which makes it a go-to choice for countless producers. You can iron plosives, sibilants, and harsh consonants into a smooth drawl using any high-quality vocal de-esser, including the Antares Vocal De-esser plug-in (featuring AI-guided assistance) and the Solid State Logic Vocalstrip 2 (which offers extensive tools beyond the de-esser).
Check out Shaboozey’s #1 hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” for a tasteful example of pitch correction in country music.
Ready to Pop Off?
We hope you’re motivated and eager to put newfound pep in the step of your pop-production routines! Due to changing trends, our tips engaged with country trends we saw a lot this year, but our 2023 pop roundup covered tons of conventional pop trends that still ring true this year — check out that list for more current happenings on the bubblegum front. Making decisions can be tough when the charts are so full of surprises. The good news is that every track we’ve mentioned uses proven tools to make pop music that’s fun, infectious, financially viable, and more diverse than ever before. Let us help you chart a course that works for you, whether that means discovering the perfect acoustic guitar for your studio or upgrading your selection of virtual instruments. Sweetwater proudly offers software and gear for whatever sound you’re chasing. Give our expert Sales Engineers a call today at (800) 222-4700!