Illustration by Mina Barry
Your favorite artists’ favorite artists Chapel Rowan, the ultimate BRAT, Charlie XX, the girl they could eat for lunch, Billie Eilish, and pop princess Sabrina Carpenter have dominated the charts this summer.
“Pop music hasn’t been this fun in years,” says Rolling Stone. Pop stars like Roan and Carpenter looked up to Hannah Montana and wanted to make pop music that was as easygoing and fun as hers. Rolling Stone claims we are in the “Hannah Montana generation of pop music,” with songs like “HOT TO GO!” (Roan), “Apple” (Charli XCX), “LUNCH” (Eilish), and “Espresso” (Carpenter) spreading across the Internet.
According to the Official Singles Chart Top 100, as of Monday, Carpenter’s single “Please Please Please” was at No. 1 and had been on the chart for seven weeks. Eilish’s single “Birds of a Feather” was at No. 2 and had been on the chart for 10 weeks, and Loan’s single “Good Luck, Babe” was at No. 3 and had been on the chart for 16 weeks.
Charli XCX’s “360” is one of two tracks from her summer album “BRAT” to have spent three weeks on the Top 100 charts, while “Apple” has remained on the charts for 11 weeks.
As a songwriter, Will Townsley, assistant professor and regional coordinator of music industry studies at UTA, said listeners want songs that make them feel good and provide a comfortable escape, so he’s interested in writing songs that are upbeat and positive.
The genre was popular in the early 2000s, but he says the revival of previously popular genres is a generational tradition: Like Roan and Carpenter, younger people also look up to pop influences like Montana and feel nostalgia when hearing similar instrumentation and lyrics.
“We’re still seeing very cyclical music. From a musical standpoint, a lot of the verses and choruses are written with the same chord progressions,” he said.
Rachel Maliboho, a lecturer in the English department and associate director of digital teaching and learning, said the “pop summer” really began last summer, when Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” and Beyoncé’s “Renaissance Tour” paved the way for up-and-coming female pop artists to showcase their talents and be themselves.
“Last summer was called the ‘summer of girls,'” she says. “It just seemed to give women, girls, permission to embrace girlhood and say, ‘It’s okay for me to be feminine.'”
Maliboho said the music industry has become a safer place for women to express themselves, and Eilish is a perfect example of this: Even when she was criticized for wearing baggy clothes or singing softly, Eilish never felt like she had to do anything other than be herself.
Although Loan, Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, and Taylor Swift have not released albums this summer due to being on tour, they have all been increasingly successful. Rodrigo and Swift have helped these artists build fan bases by giving them the opportunity to perform on stage on their own tours. Loan was the opening act for Rodrigo’s GUTS tour, and Carpenter was a recurring special guest on Swift’s The Eras tour.
“It’s not new music, but it definitely puts the spotlight on female pop music around the world,” Maliboho said. “In terms of the summer of female pop music, this is a big contribution.”
Alaina Brown, an adjunct professor of music industry studies, said in an email that when she was growing up in the early 2000s, she listened to a mix of male and female artists, but bands with male vocalists, such as Green Day, Yellowcard and The Killers, were also popular. Now, Brown said, she’s noticed that women are dominating the charts.
“The fact that chart-topping artists are now releasing new powerful female anthems every other week means we’re living in a whole new era, and I’m so excited about that,” she said. “Women can really take part, not just on the Disney Channel, but in pop, too. This is a long time coming.”
@Amanda Lardridge
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