With 2018 wrapping up, it’s the time of year streaming websites begin doing their Top 10 best albums, artists, or songs of the year. Apple Music recently published their Top 100 most streamed albums of 2018, and for that Triton Voice decided to cover the list. Some of the albums on Apple Music’s Top 10 of 2018 may come as a surprise to some, whereas others may be left out. Triton Voice is taking a deeper look into students and staffs opinions and reactions, especially as the Grammy Awards quickly approach.

“Here, I’m gonna go down the list” says junior Kiefer Callewaert, “Garbage, okay, garbage, not bad, garbage, pretty good, garbage, garbage, garbage.Where’s Till Death Call Me? YoungBoy had the album of the year.”

“Well, Kanye came out with something new recently,” Triton music teacher, Sue Densmore said, as she took a guess about which albums would make it on the list. ““I’m betting Drake was one, um, I wanna say Cardi B ‘s name has come up a lot.”

 “I don’t understand this song” she says laughing as she reads off the lyrics.

Top 10 Most Streamed Albums on iTunes

10. Goodbye & Good Riddance by Juice WRLD – With the smash hit ‘Lucid Dreams’ dominating the charts in the summer, and remaining in the Hot 100 Billboard Chart to this day, it’s not surprising this album is in the Top 100. Apple Music even dubbed Juice WRLD as Breakthrough Artist of the Year.

9. Harder than Ever by Lil Baby – ¨Wah wah wah, b*tch, I´m Lil Baby,¨ were the iconic lines that introduced us to Lil Baby. Having smash hits such as ´Drip Too Hard´ and ´Yes Indeed´ and having A-list features including Drake, Lil Uzi Vert, an Young Thug led Lil Baby to 9th place.

8.Black Panther (Soundtrack) by Kendrick Lamar & Various Artists – With the Black Panther movie being the highest-grossing film of 2018 and the third most grossing film of all time, it’s unsurprising that the album for the movie featuring some of the biggest hip-hop/R&B artists currently, it’s no wonder this album was a smash.

7.KOD by J Cole – The acronym “K.O.D.” has three meanings — “Kids On Drugs,” “Kill Our Demons” and “King O.D.” This album, while maintaining a cohesive theme of Cole’s frustrations  with drugs and the rap culture that promotes them.

6. ? by XXXTENTACION – With 20-year old Jahseh Onfroy’s (XXXTENTACION himself) untimely death on June 18, 2018, hit songs like SAD! have a new meaning now.

5. ASTROWORLD by Travis Scott – Astroworld is the third studio album by American rapper Travis Scott.  Astroworld has been noted as a hip hop album, incorporating elements of trap and psychedelic music. Some have even compared hit Sicko Mode to this generation’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

4.Culture II by Migos – Culture was the resilient Atlanta trio’s first step into the mainstream. They had made albums before, but none quite as big or chart-dominating. With Culture II they captured all that success and more, with huge songs such as MotorSport or Walk it Like I Talk it.

3.Invasion of Privacy by Cardi B – This year seemed to be Cardi’s. If it weren’t for the record-breaking smash hit Bodak Yellow, her on-off relationship with Migos member Offset, or her beef with Nicki Minaj, it’s been hard to not hear Cardi’s name.

2.beerbongs & bentleys by Post Malone – The fact that Post Malone’s first album, Stoney, which had come out in 2016 and is still in the Top 100 most-streamed albums of 2018 should make it seem unsurprising his album coming out this year made it to #2. rockstar was undeniably the song of 2017’s summer.

1. Scorpion by Drake – According to Billboard.com, Drake has been in the Top Ten most-streamed artists since 2015, and this is his second year as the most streamed artist of 2018. Scorpion was an album that was impossible to ignore, even having Apple Music name their Top 100 streamed albums “The 99 most-streamed albums this year that aren’t Scorpion, but also including Scorpion.

Some students were not surprised by the list, while others felt underwhelmed.

“That’s a pretty solid list. My favorite album off that is Astroworld because I love Travis Scott,” says Triton junior Sophia McLellan. “ My favorite song off of the album is Can’t Say because it slaps.”

“Normally I’d say Scorpion is overrated, because it’s a Drake album, but I actually kinda forgot about it,” explains Triton junior Andrew Valianti. I think Drake is probably a good dude but definitely not worthy of artist of the year. My question is where’s Tha Carter V?”

Andrew is not the only one to feel as though certain artists were left out before. “I guess I’m a little surprised to not hear names that have sort of been around for a long time,” Densmore also added. “You know, like Taylor Swift, and Katy Perry, and Lady Gaga. To be fair, the only genre I’d know is maybe the country genre because The Highway, the channel on SiriusXM 56 is what’s on in my car if I’m listening to the radio.”