Following one of the wettest winters on record and dominant folk and country hits, will this summer's dancefloors still be lighting up with club bangers? Summer is fast approaching in the UK, and while this time of year the airwaves are typically littered with sun-soaked dance hits, you wouldn’t quite know of the changing seasons at first glance of the UK’s music charts. Artists like Taylor Swift , Noah Kahan and Beyoncé have been experiencing unrivalled success in the charts, with tracks ‘Fortnight’, ‘Stick Season’ and ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ respectively topping the UK Top 40, reflecting a shift to folk and country listener tastes in the mainstream market, that normally favours uptempo bangers at this time of year. It’s a change that has left some big name artists largely in the dark.
Dua Lipa raced to new heights with her hugely successful mid-COVID ‘Future Nostalgia’ release, but the string of dance records leading up to her ‘Radical Optimism’ album have not commanded the type of chart success she is now used to, against a backdrop of country ballads and folk anthems. Even her claim that the new material was inspired by UK rave culture and acts like Massive Attack and Primal Scream fell flat. Beyoncé may have summarised this shift succinctly during the release of ‘Cowboy Carter’ which was initially lined up to drop before her dance-heavy ‘Renaissance’ album.
“There was too much heaviness in the world”, she said in a press release, expl.
