hating pop music doesn't make you deep
Let Addison Rae speak her truth!
Sharing this in honour of Charli XCX’s album release day - happy BRAT day to those who celebrate!!!
A few months ago, Addison Rae posted a photo of herself wearing a t-shirt with a slogan that reads ‘hating pop music doesn’t make you deep’. As the queen of 2000s-style slogan t-shirts, Addison has worn a number of inspirational t-shirts but this one was my favourite: simple yet effective! straight to the point! It struck a chord with me, partially because the t-shirt itself is iconic, but also because this was a truth that I’ve only recently embraced.
Truthfully, I grew up as a fully fledged pop girly. Taylor Swift was not only my first concert, but also my second concert. I literally begged my mum to buy tickets to the Speak Now tour, where she chaperoned me. I loved Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream album. When HBO’s girls came out, I was fully obsessed with Robyn’s ‘Dancing on my Own’ (still one of the greatest pop songs of all time). Pop music was - and is - unashamedly fun and has no pretences. I’m not going to say that all of it was technically ‘good’ music, but I loved it because of how it made me feel. There is nothing more cathartic than being able to dance around your room belting the lyrics of your hyper-fixation song when you’re dealing with the trauma of being a teenager.
Somewhere around 2016, I distanced myself from pop music. In your formative years, the ones before you start university and the ones throughout it, you spend a lot of time trying to figure out your personal taste. You get to try a lot of new things out and experiment: new music, new genres, new club nights. During this time, I had decided that pop music wasn’t really my type of music. I wasn’t above listening to it occasionally - there is a certain charm to blasting these songs on a road trip with your best friends - but it just was no longer as interesting to me. With a whole world of music available to me, from electronic through to rap, I no longer wanted to listen to music that felt generic and manufactured. I will be the first to admit that I had developed a snobbishness when it came to music and taste, but in my defence I was 19!!
The post-university existential crisis, compounded by the pandemic, led me to returning to my comfort music, to pop music. During those months of being trapped in my central london flat, pop songs were frequently on rotation, fuelled by nostalgia and a longing for easier times. It’s unsurprising that during times of crisis, we revert to the comforts of nostalgia and our childhood - they provide a sense of escapism and security. It was also at this time that I started to realise that as an adult, you can like whatever you want, even if it is considered basic, generic or “uncool”. Like many other girls (read: 22 year old women) who spent too many hours on tiktok during this time, I re-listened to a lot of Taylor Swift’s early discography, discovered Dojacat, blasted Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia all through the summer of 2020 and became obsessed with Olivia Rodrigo.
Most importantly, it was also during the pandemic that Charli XCX released How I’m Feeling Now. Whilst I had occasionally listened to Charli before this, this album became a quick favourite of mine and changed my perception of what pop music could be. Dubbed as her quarantine album, How I’m Feeling Now encapsulates all the anxieties, the uncertainties and the vulnerability we all felt during the pandemic - all woven together with catchy electronic synths and auto-tuned vocals. Since her entry into the music world, Charli has always been challenging what pop music could be - blurring the lines between the mainstream and underground, bringing in electronic influences into pop music - but this album was the one that got me to delve into her discography. To this day, HIFN remains one of my favourite albums of all time, if not the favourite.
Looking at pop music now, the genre has expanded far beyond the sounds that dominated the early 2010s. Charli, Pink Pantheress, Caroline Polachek, and Chappell Roan are changing the landscape of what pop music sounds like today. Mainstream artists like Dua Lipa and Beyoncé are experimenting with mixing genres. The ascendence of global artists such as NewJeans, Rosalia and Tyla are bringing new sounds in from all over the world. The influence of producers like AG Cook and Danny Harle is changing what pop music sounds. Even Addison Rae is making interesting-sounding pop music… an icon in the making (!!) Pop music in the mainstream is evolving in a way that feels exciting and fresh. Now we get to listen to pop music that incorporates the more experimental sounds of pc music, garage, indie and electronic genres and beyond.
Admittedly, now that we’re out of the pandemic, I’ve eased off Taylor Swift. She is reserved for moments where I truly need to feel 12 again, when I will happily blast her earlier albums. But, whilst I used to hide the fact that I listened to her, I will now say with my whole chest: yes, I do listen to Taylor Swift sometimes! I did like her a lot as a teenager!
And not all pop music is objectively good music but that’s okay too. Just like any other genre, pop music has some really good music and equally bad music. What I’ve learnt is that we shouldn’t be embarrassed about liking what we like. We shouldn’t automatically dismiss pop music, or any other genre. Music doesn’t just have to be about what’s critically good, it should be about exploration and listening to what makes us feel things, or speaks to us in any way. Getting to listen to a diverse range of genres and exploring new sounds is what makes music so much fun and pop music should be a part of that.
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! And if anyone wants to buy me Addison Rae’s t-shirt so I can wear it to see Charli and Dua at Glastonbury, I will be accepting donations :)
LOVE!!!!!
I remember loving Taylor swift in middle school but then in hs listening to country and pop was suddenly considered embarrassing. Now, I simply can’t stand her newer works because it lacks the original feel.
what is it about “aging out” of certain artists?
I count myself repeating words my dad would say as he flipped through radio stations “they just don’t make music like they used to”. My playlists full of songs I loved in the 90s and early 2000s.