Can we stop arguing that pop music is dead?
I see it a lot. The Odyssey. The LASA Liberator (which is sort of like a Loco Mag.) Forums like the Audio Science Review ones. Million-view videos on YouTube. Gene Simmons. Moby. It gets cried out, over and over. “Pop is dead.”
But here’s the thing – they’re wrong. Sorry. (not sorry)
There are a ton of arguments for why, but there are key areas of overlap between them. Like, here’s one: “All pop icons are flopping.” That’s a key part of every one of those arguments above. There’s this idea that because the 2000’s It Girls aren’t dominating radio, then the genre must be losing its footing. That ain’t it. I mean, first of all, it’s not true. Taylor Swift’s Lover did great numbers this year, and like her or not, she’s pretty much the #1 popstar out here today. It’s not the most creative or inventive album she’s put together, but it’s undeniable that it boomed.
This brings me to my next point: it’s often said that “pop music all sounds the same”, or “pop music is a cash grab now”. Pop music is a cash grab, but only so much as all music distributed by major labels are cash grabs. The former is more interesting to me. Pop music all sounds the same. Firstly, I feel like I’ve heard that for years on end.
But secondly, and more importantly, it seems to me that pop music all sounds the same in the same way that “metal all sounds the same.” If you only take music at its surface, then maybe that’s the apparent truth. But not the actual truth. The reality is that pop music is as diverse as it’s ever been, both musically and in terms of the actual artists. As far as the actual music goes, pop has become wider and wider. There are so many artists from different backgrounds now. Take Kim Petras – she first became newsworthy as a teenager in Germany when she became the youngest person to ever transition. A decade later she’s selling out American tours after releasing her first album. Even if there isn’t a current great like Madonna or Mariah, there are tons of young artists going crazy, finding insane success at. Lorde broke out as a teenager, Billie Eilish still is a teenager.
The other point that comes up constantly is the idea that pop music doesn’t deserve to be treated with critical seriousness. This idea is called “Poptism.” I sincerely do not think there’s an argument against that right now. Sure, albums like Lover are riskless and straightforward, but there’s a ton of music coming out right now that’s taking shots at experimentalism. Lana Del Rey’s 2017 Lust for Life had features from Stevie Nicks, Playboi Carti, Sean Lennon, and A$AP Rocky. Critically and commercially successful, Lana took on the idea that pop is a monolithic genre of “California Girls” surface-level bullshit, sonically and thematically. She showed that pop music has diversified by taking influence from trap, from folk, from 70s rock. (She also put out an album this year called Norman Fucking Rockwell! so we can probably dismiss the idea of hiding behind bubblegum pop themes.) Also, bubblegum pop is killing it out here. Previously defined by being marketed by teenagers and put together without substance, it’s been subverted using the 2010’s second coming of sexual awakening to gear it towards younger adults, and it has become this inspiring juxtaposition of serious, adult themes placed into a sound that suggests frivolity. It’s like the pop-subgenre answer to Semi-Charmed Life, that sunshiney Third Eye Blind song about smoking meth. Point is, not only is pop music addressing serious themes that deserves critical analysis, but it’s placing those themes into major keys and synths to create a blend that holds incredible depth. This makes it worthy of lyrical study, or musical study, and the spaces between them.
The only thing that’s notably missing from pop music is…men. There are women tearing it up, but this generation just doesn’t have it’s Michael Jackson, Prince, Timberlake icon. (I apologize to Prince for placing him between those two men.) Shawn Mendes seemed like he could be the one, but he only exists in the Top 40-sphere. Ed Sheeran had the opportunity, but he’s committed more to writing than to taking over charts in the past few years. Bruno Mars is the closest we got, but it’s really, really hard to compare him to the stars of the past. Meanwhile, the women have been dominating everything. Maybe the desire to kill poptism comes from the fact that men aren’t performing it.
Regardless of cause, or of argument, it’s clear to me that pop music is in its best stage since the early 2000’s. It’s going crazy, and tons of artists are doing excellent numbers. I’d like to evoke Radiohead, who released “Pop is Dead” in 1993, saying “So what? Pop is dead, it’s no great loss/So many facelifts, his face flew off/The emperor really has no clothes on/And his skin is peeling off.” They were saying that pop had lost all soul and that the genre had become an assembly line, making music about nothing for everyone that will buy it… Right before the last 15 years of alt-rock’s cultural control. It’s kind of funny, isn’t it? Pop is having a powerful mass resurrection, while Thom Yorke is releasing electronic solo albums. The stans are alright. Pop is fine.
Not convinced? Here’s some recommended listening that might make you see it my way.
Featured image: Photo by Yvette de Wit on Unsplash
