{"id":1263,"date":"2024-11-06T11:03:32","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T16:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/?p=1263"},"modified":"2024-11-06T11:21:41","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T16:21:41","slug":"the-state-of-pop-when-the-bubble-pops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/11\/06\/the-state-of-pop-when-the-bubble-pops\/","title":{"rendered":"The State Of Pop: When The Bubble Pops"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Part 1 of an AROUSE special series<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does pop music really not hit the same?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or do you just miss being 13 years old?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nostalgia \u2013 the world\u2019s greatest spice \u2013 enriches even the worst struggle meals. The sounds that permeate your formative years inform and develop the palate you\u2019ll carry for the rest of your life. The autobiographical power of music \u2013 the inherent awe in someone sharing their raw feelings over wax\/.WAV with the world and strangers everywhere ingesting it into their hearts and making it part of themselves \u2013 is nature\u2019s magnum opus. One of my favorite parts of volunteering with the Day by Day Project\u2019s Musical Memories club \u2013 a service project where students can help provide silent discos and live music for dementia patients \u2013 is getting to sympathize with and dance through the joy of recovering cherished memories to timeless tracks like Johnny Cash\u2019s \u201cYou Are My Sunshine\u201d and the Beatles\u2019 \u201cTwist and Shout.\u201d Seeing the gratitude painted across their faces brings life\u2019s highest satisfaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think every oldhead decrying \u2018mumble rap\u2019 and how \u2018pop music isn\u2019t popping like it used to\u2019 wears  over-corrective rose-tinted spectacles. Gen-Xers complained Madonna and Cyndi Lauper floated echelons above Lady Gaga. Millennials and nostalgia fiends boast Lady Gaga lies gradations above Chappell Roan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might be recency bias, but 2024 has been one of my favorite years for music in living memory. From the BRAT<\/em> community that\u2019s formed around Charli XCX\u2019s summer album to the Cowgirl Summer lead by Beyonce to the glitchy alternative hits released by artists like ericdoa and Porter Robinson, in 2024, pop music has vaulted to a dizzying peak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, I\u2019m very much an outsider looking in when it comes to pop. While I\u2019m not as pretentious as I used to be, I\u2019m somewhat self-aware about my musical superiority complex. Even in middle school, I preferred the immersive trance of Grimes\u2019 Art Angels<\/em> over Selena Gomez\u2019s Revival<\/em>. Once I heard Bjork\u2019s \u201cHyperballad\u201d, I could never go back to Alessia Cara\u2019s \u201cHere\u201d or the auditory assault they call Shawn Mendes\u2019 \u201cStitches.\u201d Even in terms of boy bands, the best compromise I can give you is BROCKHAMPTON. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All summer, I\u2019ve interrogated this bias: why do I like Charli XCX but not Taylor Swift? Why do I adore the ecstasy of Magdalena Bay\u2019s \u201cImage\u201d but feel so indifferent to Girl Meets World-alum\u2019s caffeinated \u201cEspresso\u201d? Is there a discernible difference between pretentious \u2018art pop\u2019 vs and plebian \u2018commercial pop\u2019? Is it all just social-in currency and cultural signifiers, or is there more to it? Maybe commercial pop should be treated with a little less cache. I mean, does it make sense for Pitchfork journalists, Anthony Fantano, or Shawn Cee to review Ice Spice or Ariana Grande with the same straight face they review Fiona Apple or billy woods? A few decades ago, this neutrality would\u2019ve been laughable. Looking only at ratings can be reductive, but how can Pitchfork offer Ice Spice\u2019s Y2K a 7.6 after giving UTOPIA a 5.7? We all have different metrics for what qualifies \u2018good music\u2019; when talking about literal  \u2018popular music,\u2019 many stans opt to flaunt their favorite artists\u2019 chart success and online buzz, and in the same breath brag about looping playlists while asleep. Some argue for the meritocracy of the almighty algorithm, but ignore its obvious faults. I enjoyed Tommy Richman\u2019s white boy summer anthem \u201cMILLION DOLLAR BABY\u201d, but a third of my streams for that song can be attributed to Spotify prescribing it after any album\/playlist. No matter the genius of a new song, without the passive exponential growth brought by autoplay, few can dream of a smash hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comparing Michael Jackson to Drake or Taylor Swift feels sacrilegious for reasons greater than the striking quality disparity. Michael Jackson\u2019s chart records were based on intentional sales and purchases, while modern hitmakers coast on the feedback loop created by autoplay. With the lack of cultural impact but chart-topping commercial success of Tortured Poets Department<\/em>, it has become apparent how the charts are only a single (and outdated at that) metric for success due to auto-play and playlisting skewing the numbers and there being no quantifiable way to estimate intentionality in listening — especially when not everyone can afford to buy physicals of all their favorite releases or invest into the aesthetic of vinyl records. Oftentimes, these sales wars like those between Sabrina Carpenter and Travis Scott end up just being a pH test for the socioeconomic stability of respective fanbases. However, I don\u2019t think this passivity is all that subconsciously separates a Tate McRae from a Caroline Polachek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pop music is more than just \u201cpopular\u201d music. I think our answer lies in what pop music means for different people. With Rap and R&B tied to the story of Black Americans, looking down on hip hop culture often translates as looking down on Black people. Disco and house are likewise inextricable with the LGBT community. Whose story does pop music tell? Is pop just tunes for children to bob to at middle school dances? Is it purely propaganda to pacify people on their morning commutes? Mall-goers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pop once meant rock jams like the Beatles\u2019 \u201cHelp!\u201d or Van Morrison\u2019s \u201cBrown Eyed Girl\u201d, but evolved to be more associated with EDM, disco, and the continuum between. Modern rock music\u2019s identity has splintered between white people making self-referential guitar pop for syndication (or a sushi restaurant) in the mainstream and subcultures of British communists angry at jingoists and the Brexit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noting the obvious hand of disco in post-COVID pop music from the Doja Cat\u2019s seminal \u201cSay So\u201d to Dua Lipa\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Start Now,\u201d the not-so-secret sauce might just be that the best popstars are gay. The uplifting of some pop music\u2019s reception could be attributed to its identity being tied to American gay communities. This would align with all the approbation for Billie Eilish\u2019s sapphic Weyes Blood-tinged third album \u201cHit Me Hard and Soft\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the face of BRAT<\/em> summer was shockingly straight\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part 1 of an AROUSE special series Does pop music really not hit the same? Or do you just miss being 13 years old? Nostalgia \u2013 the world\u2019s greatest spice \u2013 enriches even the worst struggle meals. The sounds that permeate your formative years inform and develop the palate you\u2019ll carry for the rest of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[34,27],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1263"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1269,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263\/revisions\/1269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}