Spotify charts May 28-June 02 2023 (Brazil & Global): signs of a new world order in music?

It’s no news that “English is no longer the default language of American pop” and that local genres “have infiltrated the ‘traditional mainstream’” as I wrote in this SPARWK article.

Still, the week of May 28-June 02 in 2023 might have been one of the most symbolic ones thus far for this new order in music. It was one of those moments in time when a lot of things that could be taken as isolated facts happened all at once as if to leave no room to question the thesis they can prove. And the thesis in the case is: music hegemonies that lasted for decades might be dying.

I noticed this both on a global level as well as locally in Brazil, the country I live in. The stats come from Spotify only, simply because most relevant music consumption and charting platform of today.

Here are the stats I compiled and the questions I think they’ll help us answer.

Global stats: can we say Spanish-language music officially took over?

June 2nd marked a takeover for Spanish-language music and Latin genres. No English-sung songs figured in the Top 5 of Spotify’s Global Songs Chart. All 5 most-listened songs were in Spanish. Just as notably, all of them featured either Bad Bunny or Peso Pluma.

Bad Bunny has been the world’s most listened artist on Spotify since 2020. He’s not the only Spanish-language artist making waves on global charts, but since he’s been the most successful case after Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” disrupted charts in 2017, his wins are often taken as a win for the whole Latin community or for reggaetón and Spanish-language music.

Peso Pluma’s 2023 rise suggests that there’s room for another Latin/Spanish-language artist to share the spotlight with Bad Bunny, as well as it cements the boom of Mexican regional music (also stated through the success of Mexican artists such as Grupo Frontera, whose collab with Bad Bunny “un 100xto” was one of the songs in Spotify’s Top 5 Global Songs on May 28-June 02 in 2023).

Global stats: is K-pop an alternative to, or a part of English-language pop?

At another point on June 2nd though, Latin music shared the Top 5 with FIFTY FIFTY’s “Cupid (Twin Version)”. Fair to say, this song’s lyrics are in English, but this is a K-pop group.

This was not the first time a K-pop group got this far on this chart (in 2022, BLACKPINK even topped it with “Pink Venom” and “Shut Down”).

Nevertheless, FIFTY FIFTY’s presence alongside Latin artists among the 5 most-listened songs worldwide adds fuel to the conversation of K-pop as a part of the English-dominated mainstream. This is a conversation that started when BTS challenged the English-language hegemony in the U.S. music market both with Korean songs (with basically all of their albums released since 2018) and fully English languages (“Dynamite” in 2020, “Butter” in 2021).

Brazil: is this the end of the sertanejo kingdom?

Meanwhile, in Brazil, it might have been the first time (or at least the first in a long time) Spotify’s Top 50 chart featured no sertanejo song among its Top 5. Instead, Brazilian funk and trap took over.

While the popularity of these genres is not recent, they usually shared the first spots with sertanejo, the most commercially successful genre in Brazil for almost 20 years. The rise of trap is a particularly impressive one given that the scene is way newer than sertanejo or funk.

It might be too soon to read trap and funk’s charting stats as a sign of a sertanejo decay, but it might mean that it will no longer reign alone.

Brazil: is a reggaetón/Spanish-language collision finally on sight?

As I said, sertanejo might not have declined in Brazil. One big proof is the success of Ana Castela. In 2023, the young sertanejo singer became the most-listened singer in the country.

However, there is one more layer to her hits to be explored.

One of Castela’s songs to top Brazilian Spotify charts is “Nosso Quadro”, which sounds substantially similar to reggaetón — a genre that has not found the same success in the Portuguese-speaking country as it did in its Latin American counterparts… yet?

It’s hard to say “Nosso Quadro” is a hit because of its beats rather than Castela’s strong appeal to sertanejo culture. However, if we consider it a reggaetón song nevertheless, it might have been the first of the genre to ever top the Spotify charts in Brazil.

And it might be no coincidence that another Spotify Brazil hit, WIU’s “Coração de gelo”, also uses beats similar to reggaetón (it hit #22 on June 1st 2023 and peaked at #4 in February). Or that Castela’s music is slightly gaining Paraguay and Argentina as well. Maybe a moment of conciliation between Brazil and Spanish-language Latin America is finally coming.

What these Spotify charts say about the music industry

Maybe this post will leave you with more questions than answers, but that’s the point. Music charts can say a lot about the state of culture and where the world is heading, but it’s never as simple as seeing one hit as a sign of a new trend or cultural feature.

For example, you could take Ana Castela’s “reggaetón” hit as proof of Brazil resembling the features of other Latin countries’ music markets, when the truth is that Brazil has always been a unique case and quite a difficult one to reconcile with the rest of Latin America. “Nosso Quadro” is less evidence of any Brazilian mirroring of Hispanic Latin American music, than an indication of a possible change.

That’s why this week caught my attention. It confirmed a lot of newly stated facts about the music industry (such as the solidification of the Latin music market, the rise of Mexican regional music, the start of a different era for K-pop, and the very fact that English and the U.S. are no longer the main movers and shakers of global music) as well as it ignited and confirmed different perceptions as well.

I will keep paying attention.

If you’re interested in the cultural phenomenons shaping the music industry on a global level in the last 5 years or so, you may also want to check these blog posts I’ve written for companies I work for:

• The Biggest Artists You’ve Never Heard Of — Welcome to the New Mainstream (SPARWK Blog)
• 2022 Music Charts: 6 Facts (and Lessons) for Songwriters (SPARWK Blog)
• Is K-pop an Alternative to American Pop in Europe? (SPARWK Blog)
• O papel da música e Propriedade Intelectual na descentralização cultural // The Role of Music and Intellectual Property in cultural decentralization (3Três Blog)

I’m an independent music writer, critic, and cool hunter with articles and reviews published in PopMatters, Rolling Stone Korea, The Line of Best Fit, Remezcla, Sounds and Colours, Tenho Mais Discos que Amigos, Consequence of Sound, and more. I’m also a consultant for 3Três Creative & Consultancy, and the IP & Content Manager at SPARWK.

This blog is not monetized, though.

The reviews and articles posted in this blog are original and have not been published on any of the websites I write for.