The Ed Sheeran decade: how the everyman megastar remade music in his own image

In 2014, Sheeran became the most-streamed musician in the world. The 10 years since have seen his dominance grow, helped by relatability, a pick-and-mix approach to genre and a way with an earworm melody. But in 2024 is his influence waning?

Ed Sheeran is popular because he is a generational talent. Ed Sheeran is popular because his output is generic and bland. Ed& Sheeran is popular because he reinvents himself in line with the& latest musical trends.& Ed& Sheeran is popular because he has a& distinctive style. Ed& Sheeran is popular thanks to his hardcore fanbase. Ed& Sheeran is popular because the public are forcibly subjected to his songs via relentless airplay and playlist domination. Ed Sheeran is an earnest, authentic troubadour who grafted on the open-mic circuit for years. Ed Sheeran is a cynical shapeshifting pop music machine who gamed the algorithm. Ed Sheeran is the perennial underdog of pop. Ed Sheeran is its king.

Middle England’s megastar bard is a mass of contradictions, but one thing is crystal clear: he is unbelievably popular. We are spoiled for stats to prove it, but here are two: Sheeran has the most Spotify followers of any artist on the planet (10 million more than Taylor Swift, his good friend and closest competitor); Sheeran has been the most played artist in the UK for six out of the last eight years. His debut, + (Plus), was the UK’s third best-selling album of 2012 – but he was largely viewed as trite teen girl fodder. Then there was a serious step up in 2014, the year the Suffolk-bred singer-songwriter scored his first UK No 1 single with Sing, a frisky, Pharrell Williams-produced account of drunken desire that saw Sheeran graft rap, funk and rowdy dance-pop on to the acoustic balladry that had become his calling card. That year he would also become Spotify’s most-streamed artist in the world. With his newfound sliver of edge and clever genre-blending, Sheeran had proven he was ready to step out of his troubadour-next-door box and into full pop star mode.