Repopulating pop
An unskippable album. This is the bold claim I make of Sabrina Carpenter’s latest release, Short n’ Sweet. And its release only rubber-stamps her domination of the last six months. Opening for Taylor Swift propelled her into the global sphere; her release of hits ‘Espresso’ and ‘Please Please Please’ (Morrissey, eat your heart out), along with her recent VMA win for ‘Song of the Year’ (for ‘Espresso’, of course), cemented this. But she hasn’t been saving pop on her own.
Pop has exploded this year: Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS, Taylor Swift’s double-billed Tortured Poet’s Department, Charli XCX’s BRAT, and Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess have all garnered mainstream attention. Because pop is, well, ‘pop’-ular music. It’s the default. It’s what everyone listens to. And because of this, over the last several years, it’s become dangerously bland. The 2010s are lauded as a bygone era of hit after hit, the recession-era anthems of our childhood tinged with nostalgia. But Carpenter’s recent rise to new levels of stardom signals the need for a re-examination of pop today. Has it, at last, transcended its predetermined fate as mere radio fodder destined to assault the ears of retail workers?
The last several years have been dominated by songwriters, not pop stars; Taylor Swift’s storytelling style has, by and large, reigned supreme. As such, Carpenter’s release has heralded a welcome return to lighter, sillier music. In a world facing increasing economic divides, political unrest, and general uncertainty, we want music to be an escape. We need catchy earworms and easy-to-learn, singalong lyrics; we need that “me espresso”. We don’t want pop to take itself too seriously. See here how Charli XCX’s BRAT revolves around not being too serious and, more importantly, not taking oneself (the artist) too seriously. And nobody can deny the appeal of the neon green.
“The last several years have been dominated by songwriters, not pop stars”
Fans are becoming more discerning, more policing — for better and for worse. This shift accompanies a growing desire from artists to remain just that: artists, adored for their work and nothing else. Chappell Roan’s infamous statement placing her personal privacy above her music career after family members were harassed at their workplaces by ‘devoted fans’ were met with controversy and support in equal measure. Many influencers invited to the final UK leg of Swift’s coveted Eras Tour, who admitted they were not lifelong fans, were lambasted online, receiving a barrage of hate. Evidently, there is a growing polarity between camps, as both sides find plenty to denounce.
However, many fans now want pop stars, not idols to worship. A growing atmosphere of cynicism is preventing many from latching onto celebrities in the parasocial manner that has become the norm. True popstars are starting to return: people who can do wrong, who can mess up. We no longer want the sanitised perfection of Taylor Swift; instead, we crave Sabrina Carpenter’s self-dubbed ‘ovulation album’, or the emotionally raw lyrics of Charli XCX’s ‘I think about it all the time’. We want revisions, the sense of something being “worked out on the remix”. For now, Pop appears to be turning over a new leaf, spelling out a tentative new beginning for itself.
Georgia Emanuel
Pop! goes pop music
If I were asked to define pop music, the first place I’d look would be the 2010s. Lady Gaga topped the charts with Born This Way, Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape of You’ played on the radio every school ride without fail, and by the middle of the decade, I finally figured out that Ariana Grande didn’t just look like the girl from Victorious, but actually was her. It was the heyday of pop culture, and for many of us, our formative years as listeners.
Yet as I scroll through Spotify’s numerous ‘popular music’ playlists, I recognise almost nobody. What’s more, I recognise none of the sounds. As a certified Music Journalist (thank you, Varsity), I consider myself to have my finger on the pulse of current music trends. But hitting shuffle on the current charts gives me whiplash, as I bounce between Gracie Abram’s’ soft guitar and the eerie electronics of Artemas’ ‘i like the way you kiss me’.
“Where Katy had simple, relatable lyrics, Chappell Roan tells vivid stories of her unique experience as a queer woman in the American Midwest”
‘Pop music’ is often taken to simply mean what is popular, but popularity comes in waves and with that comes sweeping trends in what is considered ‘pop’. Often, there is more cohesion in the genre than diversity. Since the turn of the century, pop charts have been filled with electronic synths at danceable tempos accompanying strong female vocals. While I hated his tone, my dad had a point when he said Demi Lovato’s ‘Cool for the Summer’ is Ariana Grande’s ‘Into You’ from an alternate universe. The same can’t be said for the country twang of Shaboozey’s ‘A Bar Song’ or the 80’s synth in ‘Good Luck Babe’, which both appear in the top five.
A prime example of this is Katy Perry. From ‘Teenage Dream’ to ‘Last Friday Night’, Katy has always had a keen ear for memorable choruses, easy-to-digest production, and universal themes. Her sound didn’t revolutionise music, but it got the job done. Until it didn’t. Her recent single, ‘Woman’s World’ rose to notoriety not as a hit, but a meme-worthy flop. The song had everything her previous hits had: an inoffensive beat, a catchy melody, and an accessible, generic theme (“go women!”). Yet the Internet hated it. This same year, she won the VMA for most iconic performance for 2013’s ‘Roar’, a generic-sounding celebration of self-confidence. The songs couldn’t be more similar — the shout-singing chorus, the impersonal lyricism — but their reception was wildly different.
The difference lies in the context. Pop music tastes are shifting, and the age of simple production and generic lyricism is over. Where Katy had bright, minimalist synths, Charli xcx’s BRAT has a heavy, textured sound. Where Katy had simple, relatable lyrics, Chappell Roan tells vivid stories of her unique experience as a queer woman in the American Midwest.
The fact of the matter is ‘Woman’s World’ cast its net too wide, but that’s how Katy’s generation of pop musicians were taught to fish. Can she truly be blamed for this? The game has since changed, and pop music as we once knew it is being washed downstream. We may have been able to group 2010s pop into a single genre, but there is little that connects ‘Hot To Go’ and ‘365’. Perhaps pop music in the 2020s really is just music that is popular.
Oliver Cooney
