2021
100 top tracks
steady
Nu jazz holds, as funk and soul emerge from its grooves
Nu jazz remained the year's north star at 7.5%, a slight decline from 2020's 9.9% but testament to its hold. What shifted: jazz funk catapulted to #6 (4.2%), lounge climbed to #10, and retro soul and soul entered the rotation for the first time. Mop Mop held their stranglehold with 4 tracks. The year was deepening within jazz's ecosystem—funk, soul, and lounge variants all flowering in parallel. Listening expanded: 100 tracks across 104 distinct genres.
▶︎ Open “Your Top Songs 2021” ↗︎
Top tracks100
your top songs 2021
Distinct genres104
across the list
Sound of the yearnu jazz
most-weighted genre
Most-played artistMop Mop
by track count
Top genres · what the year sounded like
nu jazz7.5%
Declined but dominant—still the gravitational center at 7.5%, though less consuming than 2020's peak.
trip hop5.7%
Ghost of the 2017–19 golden age, now a 5.7% echo lingering in the corners.
downtempo4.7%
The year's meditative backbone at 4.7%, patient counterweight to the funk surge.
lo-fi beats4.3%
Faint seed of 2022's coming shift—4.3% and subtly gathering power.
acid jazz4.2%
Funk's jazz cousin at parity with jazz funk, both rising as the year turned toward groove and warmth.
Most-played artists · by tracks in the list
Mop Mop4 tracks
Four tracks cemented their reign as the year's most constant voice in the jazz cosmos.
Kalabrese2 tracks
Two tracks of groove and precision, a fresh anchor in the rotation.
Khruangbin2 tracks
Their psychedelic-jazz fusion returned, offering spatial texture within jazz's frame.
Matthew Halsall2 tracks
The trumpeter's meditative presence anchored the year's spiritual inquiry.
All Good Funk Alliance1 track
What changed · vs 2020
Newjazz funkretro soulloungesoul
Climbinglounge 56→10jazz funk 44→6trip hop 8→2downtempo 9→3
Fadedtrip-hopjazz rapelectro swingafrobeat
Jazz funk surged (44th to 6th), lounge climbed (56th to 10th), soul entered anew, and nu jazz dipped to 7.5%—the year's turn toward warmth and groove.
The arc · 2014 → 2025
2014neoclassical·2015soundtrack·2016ambient·2017downtempo·2018trip hop·2019trip-hop·2020nu jazz·2021nu jazz·2022lo-fi beats·2023soundtrack·2024soundtrack·2025retro soul
2021 holds the second year of the nu-jazz era (2020–21), before lo-fi beats and soul variants reshape the sound across 2022–25.