Black History Month is an annual period of remembrance and celebration, and we at Luminate are looking forward to this year’s Black History Month theme: “African Americans and Labor.” With this focus in mind, Luminate seeks to celebrate the work, contributions and lived experiences of Black and African Americans in the arts and entertainment industry by highlighting various individuals, achievements and milestones from 2024.
In music, we can see a collective accomplishment of the work and effort by how R&B/Hip-Hop, a genre of predominately Black and African American artists, enjoyed the greatest share of volume for On-Demand Audio Streams in 2024, as reported in Luminate’s 2024 Year-End Music Report, with more than one in every four U.S. audio streams being from the genre.
Additionally, 2024 was also a great year for Black artists on the charts. Two artists specifically, Shaboozey and Kendrick Lamar, were able to carve a place in history for themselves as they finished the year No. 1 and No. 2 for U.S. On-Demand Audio streaming, respectively, while swapping positions for Total On-Demand (Audio + Video) rankings. Shaboozey also ended the year with his “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” as the No. 1 song for the U.S. Top Digital Song Consumption rankings, with 7.3 million sales and SES On-Demand Streams.
As we celebrate these milestones and achievements in Black and African American culture, it’s also important to understand the significance of why we are highlighting these individuals and moments. There is a desire from the Black and African American fan bases that uplift these artists and moments to connect further. Data provided by Luminate’s Artist & Genre Tracker and U.S. Music 360 showcases that Black and African Americans are 28% more likely than the general population to enjoy following an artist’s personal life, in addition to the fact that Black and African Americans are also 32% more likely to want to connect with a music artist on a more personal level.
Perhaps this is due to the fact that Black and African Americans are 48% more likely to see music being tied to their cultural identity and community than the general population. Nevertheless, as Black and African American artists continue to create and achieve, there will forever be moments of excellence that not only will make an impact on Black culture and history but also the entertainment industry at large.
To further illustrate, we are also including a select few notable achievements from 2024:
- H.E.R. performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” during the closing ceremony at the Paris Olympics
- Usher hosted the NFL’s Super Bowl LVIII halftime show and held a Las Vegas residency while celebrating his 30th anniversary in show business
- Beyoncé was selected as Billboard’s No. 1 Greatest Pop Star of the 21st Century
And as 2025 is underway, we at Luminate look forward to seeing and celebrating the ever-growing list of Black and African American excellence and achievements.
