Lorem: A New Kind of Music Genre

Drake, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Harry Styles. These are currently some of the top artists on Spotify; names that undoubtedly everyone knows. While these artists frequently top the charts, new names are becoming popular among today’s teens. There is an important distinction between them and their predecessors.

Since the mid 2010’s, bedroom pop artists have been all over YouTube. They are largely  in their teens or early twenties and make DIY style music in their bedrooms (hence the name). This genre became popular during the world wide lockdown in 2020. Artists had a lot of free time on their hands to make music, and people listened. Long before officially signing with a company, the artists had gained a large fan base on their own. They were influential among teens, and Spotify wanted to find a way to capitalize on that. This resulted in something different in 2019: Lorem.

The new playlist quietly emerged among the multitudes of existing ones. Most Spotify mixes are organized by genre or mood with titles like Rock Classics, All Out 90s, and Songs to Sing in the Shower. This is Lorem’s first distinction; it doesn’t have a clear sense of organization. With a mix of indie tunes, psychedelic riffs, and 80s beats, Lorem is something that completely exceeds labels. 

Despite the publicity many other playlists were getting, Lorem managed to stay afloat, and eventually began to sail. While it is far from the little known playlist it started as (it currently has close to 1 million likes on Spotify), it still remains distinctive. Lorem is a little bit of everything that Gen Z wants. It’s a genre (or lack thereof) created by the youth, for the youth.