Making the Cut: Variety’s 2020 Hitmakers and Hitbreakers Revealed

This was the year in which it took a village working from home to achieve a hit song. Notwithstanding all those hitmakers who were fortunate enough to get their songwriting and recording in under a wire that no one saw coming, 2020 saw legions of the biz’s finest hitbreakers zigging, zagging and, of course, Zooming to adopt to the new paradigms of record promotion and marketing. Unchanged from past years: Variety’s dedication, with our Hitmakers Impact Report, to recognizing the producers, songwriters, mixers, managers and key executives responsible for delivering the smashes. Imagine a pop landscape without their behind-the-scenes tirelessness: TikTok videos would’ve landed with a whimper not a spike; “viral” would have lost any of its lingering positive connotations; and Roddy Ricch may have never lived up to his last name.

Below: the 25 most consumed songs of the year and the Hitmakers and Hitbreakers recognized for their work on the records.