Top 10 Popular Music Artists of the 2010s Who Most Fell Off Most in the 2020s
These artists were powerhouses and scored a lot of hits in 2010s, but their popularity and/or the quality of their music declined at an alarming rate in the 2020s.
Ye (born Kanye Omari West; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer and fashion designer. He is regarded as one of the most influential, as well as controversial, artists of the 21st century... read more Ye was at his peak in the early 2010s. His decline actually started around 2018 when he began wearing MAGA hats in public and said slavery was a "choice."
He could have saved his legacy with good music, but his reputation truly collapsed in 2022 when he made a series of antisemitic and anti-BLM comments and praised Hitler. His music has also never been worse.
An irrelevant nutcase who suffers from delusions of grandeur.
Onika Tanya Maraj, known professionally as Nicki Minaj (born December 8, 1982) is a Trinidadian/American rapper / pop music artist. Minaj is most known for her songs such as "Anaconda", "Super Bass", "Starships" and her feature on "Bang Bang"... read more Nicki Minaj was the Queen of Hip-Hop during the 2010s, releasing one hit after another and collaborating with multiple artists.
Despite finally scoring a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2020, the following decade was more difficult for Minaj. She definitely ruined her career in early 2024 when she released Big Foot, a massively embarrassing diss track aimed at Megan Thee Stallion that is already considered one of the worst songs of all time.
Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. is an American rapper from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was discovered by Brian "Baby" "Birdman" Williams at a very young age, and was signed to Cash Money Records, where he would be one quarter of the rap group Hot Boys. In the years to follow, he would go on to find his own... read more
Daniel Hernandez (born May 8, 1996), known by his stage name 6ix9ine, also known as Tekashi69 or simply Tekashi, is an American rapper. He is mostly known for his legal issues, particularly his sexual crimes... read more During the late 2010s, 6ix9ine was popular not only for his music but also for his many legal issues.
After being incarcerated in 2019, he was released early during the COVID-19 pandemic and made a comeback with Gooba in 2020, which landed at #3 on the Hot 100. He followed it up with a #1 single, Trollz, but the following singles all flopped.
Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, professionally known by her stage name Katy Perry, was born on October 25, 1984 in Santa Barbara, California. She is a singer, songwriter, actress and an ambassador on one of the most popular companies of now, UNICEF... read more Starting in the late 2000s, Katy Perry was a pop powerhouse. She was at the peak of her popularity during the first half of the 2010s with a string of iconic hits and videos, but her popularity started to decline in the mid-2010s following her alleged feud with Taylor Swift and some public meltdowns.
In 2024, she attempted a comeback, but it was one of the most spectacular failures in recent memory, proving once and for all that she belongs to a bygone era.
Tramar Lacel Dillard, better known by his stage name Flo Rida is an American rapper and pop music artist from Carol City, Florida. He is known for songs such as "Low", "Right Round", "Sugar", "Club Can't Handel Me", "Good Feeling", "Whistle", "Wild Ones", "My House" and "GDFR." Starting with his 2008 hit Low, Flo Rida achieved a string of massive hits during the late 2000s and early 2010s.
Since 2015's My House, he hasn't scored another hit.
Maroon 5 is an American pop/pop rock band that originated in Los Angeles, California. Before the current group was established, the original four members, Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael Mickey Madden and Ryan Dusick, formed a band known as Kara's Flowers in 1994, while they were still in high school. Adam Levine and his crew were at the peak of their popularity in the 2010s, scoring one hit after another and benefiting from Adam Levine's role as a coach on The Voice.
However, by the early 2020s, people became more and more disinterested in Maroon 5, especially after their disastrous performance at the 2019 Super Bowl. The definitive blow to their popularity was Adam Levine's cringe-worthy DMs that he sent to random women on Instagram.
Armando Christian Pérez, better known by his stage name Pitbull, is a Grammy (and Latin Grammy) winning Cuban-American rapper, songwriter and record producer. During the first half of the 2010s, Pitbull was inescapable.
His popularity started to decline in the mid-2010s, and most of his songs have definitely not aged well.
He is now uncreative, constantly sampling well-known hits alongside Mr. Guetta and Mr. Khaled.
I really enjoyed some tracks off his 2011 album (I forgot the name) though.
Aubrey Drake Graham, known professionally as Drake, is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor, born on October 24, 1986 in Toronto, Canada. He started his career on Canadian reality show "Degrassi: The Next Generation". Drake was everywhere throughout the 2010s, scoring multiple hits and releasing platinum-certified albums.
His popularity started to decline in the early 2020s, but he still managed to pull off some hits. However, his 2024 beef with Kendrick Lamar abruptly ended his reign in music, especially when Kendrick released Not Like Us.
Sia Kate Isobelle Furler (born December 18, 1975), referred to mononymously as Sia, is an Australian singer and songwriter. She released her debut album in 1997 but mainly gained mainstream attention in the 2010s... read more After years of releasing music independently, writing songs for other artists, and being featured in multiple songs during the early 2010s, Sia's career finally took off in 2014 when she released Chandelier, the first of many successful solo hits in the second half of the decade.
However, her run came to a screeching halt in 2020 when Music, a film she directed and wrote songs for, was released. The film was panned by critics and heavily criticized by the autistic community. Sia later revealed that she has autism, but the damage was already done, and she may never fully recover from this incident.
The Newcomers
Robin Alan Thicke (born March 10, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. Thicke has worked with numerous artists. After years of making R&B music with little chart success and writing songs for other artists, Robin Thicke finally had a massive hit in 2013 with Blurred Lines. However, this song also destroyed his career due to lyrics that seemed to glorify rape and a plagiarism trial won by Marvin Gaye's estate.
The infamous music video, featuring models Emily Ratajkowski, Elle Evans, and Jessi M'Bengue, became even more controversial when Emily claimed in her memoirs that Robin groped her during filming.
In the midst of all this, Robin was unfaithful to his wife, Paula, who later filed for divorce. The following year, he released an album named after her in an attempt to win her back, but it didn't work. Since then, his chart success has plummeted, and now he is a judge on The Masked Singer.
will.i.am is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and actor known for being the lead vocalist in The Black Eyed Peas. He was born in Los Angeles, California. He has released several solo albums such as "Songs About Girls" and "Will Power" . He is a member of Black Eyed Peas, but along with Taboo, Fergie, and apl.de.ap, all four members flopped big time in the mid-2010s.
will.i.am's Boys & Girls did not chart very well, and his solo music since then never managed to make it to the Hot 100.
Fergie, on the other hand, literally no one talks about her anymore in the 2020s. She left BEP in 2017, and Double Dutchess marked the end of her career success. After the Star-Spangled Banner performance, that was the end of her career. Since 2018, I have never heard her name again.
Cameron Jibril Thomaz, better known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper, songwriter, and actor. He was born on September 8, 1987. The Pittsburgh rapper scored many rap hits and was featured in numerous songs during the first half of the 2010s.
However, after his highly successful 2015 crossover hit See You Again, he failed to make another true hit and became more known for his smoking habit than for his music.
Kesha Rose Sebert (formerly known as Ke$ha) was born on March 1st, 1987 in Los Angeles, United States. She is best known for her hits like Timber, Tik Tok, and We R Who We R... read more Between 2009 and 2014, Kesha scored a lot of hits.
However, her career suffered after she accused Dr. Luke of raping her. She was finally released from her contract in 2023.
Bastille are an English indie pop band formed in 2010. The group began as a solo project by singer Dan Smith, who later decided to form a band. Beside Smith, the four-piece consists of Chris Wood, Will Farquarson, and Kyle Simmons. Bastille was a massive pop band in the 2010s and could sit alongside Imagine Dragons.
However, they never managed to achieve the same level of success, and their last big hit dates back to 2018 with their Marshmello collab Happier.
Carly Rae Jepsen is a Canadian singer and songwriter from Mission, British Columbia, and later based in Vancouver. She is best known for her hit song "Call Me Maybe" which topped many charts in 2012. She is probably a one-hit wonder to some, but Carly Rae Jepsen is much more than that.
Although she never managed to replicate the success of Call Me Maybe, she garnered a strong cult following by the mid-2010s and became a pop star in her own right.
Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor (born 7 November 1996), better known by her stage name Lorde, is a singer-songwriter from New Zealand. She released her first EP "The Love Club" in 2012 and gained worldwide popularity with her song "Royals" at the age of 16... read more
Bobby Ray Simmons, Jr., better known by his stage name B.o.B, is an American recording artist and music producer from Decatur, Georgia. This rapper was scoring hit after hit in the early 2010s, but by the mid-2010s, he became a subject of ridicule when he stated his belief that the Earth is flat.
His career definitely crashed in 2016 when he released Flatline, a diss track aimed at Neil deGrasse Tyson, who challenged B.o.B's flat-Earth belief. This song also contained anti-Semitic lyrics and referred to science as a cult.
Jonathan Lyndale Kirk (born December 22, 1991), known professionally as DaBaby (formerly known as Baby Jesus), is an American rapper who rose to mainstream prominence in 2019 after releasing several mixtapes from years before. In the late 2010s, DaBaby was becoming a household name. However, a series of legal troubles and some homophobic comments at the 2021 Rolling Loud festival shattered his career.
Christopher Maurice "Chris" Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer and actor. Born in Tappahannock, Virginia, he was involved in his church choir and several local talent shows from a young age. He is most well known for his physical assault towards the singer Rihanna in... read more Despite assaulting his then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009, Breezy still managed to score hits in the 2010s.
By the 2020s, his popularity had pretty much waned, despite his 2019 song Under the Influence becoming a sleeper hit in 2022 after going viral on TikTok.
Gazzy Garcia (known professionally as Lil Pump, born August 17th, 2000) is an American rapper, producer and songwriter. Gazzy began his career in 2016 with a collaboration freestyle with Smokepurpp, which was eventually posted in Soundcloud to popular success. He broke out to mainstream the following... read more Lil Pump was one of the pioneers of SoundCloud rap during the 2010s.
His commercial breakthrough came in 2017 with Gucci Gang. He followed it up with I Love It, a Kanye West collab, in 2018, and the album Harverd Dropout in 2019, but he never managed to be as successful afterward.
The Chainsmokers are an American DJ and production duo consisting of Alex Pall and Andrew Taggart. The EDM-pop duo achieved a breakthrough with their 2014 song "#Selfie", which was a top twenty single in several countries. The Chainsmokers were the most popular EDM group during the second half of the 2010s, scoring one hit after another.
After their hiatus following the release of their 2019 album World War Joy, they haven't managed to score another hit, and the public grew tired of their "frat boy" personas.
Richard Lamar Hawk, better known by his stage name Silentó, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and convicted murderer. He was born on January 23, 1998, in Stone Mountain, Georgia. He is best known for his debut single "Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)," which reached number three... read more He is a one-hit wonder, but he has become infamous in recent years after being charged with murdering his cousin.
LMFAO was an American hip hop-electronic dance music duo consisting of uncle and nephew Redfoo and SkyBlu. The uncle-nephew duo scored a few big hits between 2011 and 2012, then split.
Redfoo tried to go solo, but his career sank when Literally I Can't by Play-N-Skillz, a song he was featured on, became controversial due to its misogynistic nature. Redfoo blamed female bloggers for starting the controversy.
Stefan Kendal Gordy, better known by his stage name Redfoo, is an American rapper, dancer, record producer, DJ and singer best known as part of the musical duo LMFAO.
Jonathan Smith, better known by his stage name Lil Jon, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, DJ and actor.
Liam James Payne (August 29, 1993 - October 16, 2024) was an English singer and songwriter. He made his debut as a singer when he auditioned as a solo artist for the British television series The X Factor in 2008 with "Fly Me to the Moon" by Frank Sinatra. His solo career never really took off despite two hits, and he died tragically in 2024.