Scenario: The Future of Popular Music

'''Special Note: Please note that this scenario is meant to be read as entertainment, not as an accurate prediction of the future. Also note that the viewpoints and opinions that may come across in this scenario are not necessarily the viewpoints and opinions of the author.'''

The Future of Popular Music
By 2019, revolutionary new technology totally changed the way people listened to music, creating new styles and genres, as well as redefining existing ones.

Rock
In 2019, the music known as "Rock" was totally different from what the previous generation would have known as Rock. What was until then known as "Heavy Metal" was considered tame in comparison to the Rock of 2019. Bands with names like "Aural F***ing Aneuyrism" and "Steel Dildo Pain Masters Experience" singing in a glottal, shrieking language known as "Rockese" tore apart genre conventions, and redefined the meaning of the term "shock value". Rockese was a manufactured language, based on Finnish, German and Norweigan, it was created by the experimental-thrash-hardcore-rythmic-metal band "Curbstomb Warcrime" for their album "Skullbusting", fans universally praised the glottal manufactured language and Curbstomp Warcrime only ever performed in Rockese after that. Many other Rock bands followed suit, using the Dictionary Of Rockese to write their songs. Rockese was a simple language to translate from English, and many post-2019 Rock Bands made Rockese covers of classic songs like Hells Bells by AC/DC. The lyrics of the first line of the song changing from "I'm the rolling thunder, pouring rain" to "Idak vach rullshtom, kadell zulach". In 2025, most serious Rock fans speak at least a little Rockese, with the most hardcore fans speaking it as a second language, and the language itself is one of the most widely spoken manufactured languages on Earth. The top 5 bestselling post-2019 rock bands are:

1: "Gommorah Ascendancy" (Gogharrak Nejellach).

2: "The Temple Of Rotting Flesh And Burning Blood" (Vach Krusbi Pra Murtz Purrak Kraa Guur Nafllem).

3: "And The World Burns" (Kraa Vach Bruellt Nafflech).

4: "Swimming In The Blood Of Angels" (Zchwiggach Bu Vach Guur Pra Granjjaks).

5: "The Knights Of Armaggedon" (Vach Rachztech Pra Bruellafoll).

Pop
While rock music is getting more raunchier and more explicit, and starting to merge with other genres as it is experiencing it's demise, pop music will continue to have a more youth oriented feel. The hip-hop influence of pop music will die out around 2013, along with the R&B influence around 2016, replacing it with more of a Euro-style dance influence and country. Dance and country music will hit the charts, and artists such as Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus will top the charts. Also, the influence of world beat music and international music, especially from Japan which was caused by anime.

Americana will still exist, but American pop music will have less hip-hop and R&B influence while switching to more Euro styled music, while white people in the United States continue to immigrate from Europe, especially from Norway, Finland, and France, along with Australia and New Zealand. The last chart topping R&B an hip-hop hit that makes number one will be Baby, Come Close to Me by Mariah Carey in the year 2016.

After this, most of the top hits will be dance/electronica, world beat, and country. Disney pop will continue to be the dominant genre, especially after the Better Entertainment Act of 2018 while people want to revert back to more family friendly pop music values than the overt sexuality in the 2000s and early 2010s.