Music is one of the most important things to a high school student. The songs on your playlists, your favorite artists, and most-listened-to albums define teenagers today.

Because of this, it is no surprise that African-American artists have a huge impact on the teenage generation. Lil Uzi Vert, Chloe x Halle, Megan Thee Stallion, and The Weekend are some of the most popular artists in the past year, releasing new songs and albums throughout 2020 and 2021 that have gained them popularity, credits, and awards. 

Lil Uzi Vert’s album Eternal Atake was released on Mar 6 of 2020 and the album drop was a huge event of the day. All over social media, teenagers were sharing which songs they were listening to, their favorites, and the most meaningful. Eternal Atake reached 247 thousand album sales and 349 million streams which made it number one on Billboard 200. The song “Baby Pluto” is the most popular song on the album and it made the Rolling Stones number one hit with almost 33 million streams. 

The Weekend came out with his album After Hours on Mar 20, 2020. After Hours was the number 1 hit on billboard’s top R&B albums. The artist’s mass popularity coupled with the popularity of his new album got him to the halftime stage at The Super Bowl, where he played songs from his new album. One of The Weekend’s most popular songs was “Save Your Tears,” which had a lot of his older type of music mixed in with his newer type of music. Another song from After Hours that blew up was the 80’s inspired, techno hit “Blinding Lights.” The song became extremely popular after Tik Tok users started posting a dance choreographed to the chorus of the song. 

Chloe x Halle Bailey’s 2020 album is number two on billboard’s top R&B albums. The Bailey sisters are talented in more than just music and tried to show it in their new album Ungodly Hour. Their most popular song, “Do It,” is all about going out and living life to the fullest. In an interview with Billboard, they said “we really wanted to show the imperfect side of us on this project.” It is very inspiring that artists wanted to try and show the side that most people hide and how they wanted to show off how imperfect they are. 

Megan Thee Stallion came out with her album Good News in 2020. The female rap artist made the album all about her life in 2020 and her story. The song “Body” supports female body positivity and shows that every woman is beautiful. She dives into all the current events that occurred in 2020. Similar to The Weekend, Stallion also has a single that gained popularity from Tik Tok: “Savage,” which also has a dance you could learn choreography to. Megan Thee Stallion also collaborated with very influential artists such as Cardi B, Niki Minaj, and Arina Grade, to produce very popular singles like the “34+35” remix. 

It is no secret that African-American artists have made a huge impact on the music industry, especially in the past year with the release of these four albums. Because teenagers find such a degree of identity in the music that they listen to, it is inspiring to see African-American musicians having such an effect on younger generations.