Pop music is meh right now, according to the Wall Street Journal
Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa and Taylor Swift released hyped up albums earlier this year, but "Pop Girl Spring" has been lackluster, the WSJ reported.
A 31-year-old Katy Perry and Rihanna fan said "it all feels forgettable" and none of these albums "have been cultural moments," even though Ariana Grande's "Eternal Sunshine" was a personal favorite of his.
"A striking number of Top-40 artists have fallen flat with tentpole albums this year, either due to lackluster sales, negative reviews or just a diminished capacity for cutting through the noise and shifting the culture, music-industry executives say," the WSJ wrote.
Why Pop Music Is So ‘Meh’ Right Now - WSJ https://t.co/jou8tkTXRL
- Anna Gaudreault (@ladevita12) June 15, 2024
Taylor Swift and Beyonce "have underperformed based on some metrics relative to their past albums, the WSJ argued. With Taylor Swift, 1989 had six-long lasting hits. On "Midnights," three of Swift's eight Top 10 hits had a four-week stay. But on "The Tortured Poets Department," only one of the 10 songs has stayed in the Top 10 for at least four weeks. Beyonce's "Texas Hold 'Em" had decent staying power in the top 10, but "Jolene" reached no. 7 then quickly dropped.
There could be a "changing of the guard, with established stars ceding territory to more meme-friendly upstarts like Sabrina Carpenter, whose next-generation savvy and humorous delivery on hits like 'Espresso' has her poised to dominate the summer."
-It's getting difficult for pop stars beause "with the world awash in content, TikTok rewriting labels’ playbooks and listeners burrowing deeper into their own personalized niches, even avid pop fans don’t recognize what’s in the Billboard top 10."
-Big stars also aren't doing "full-fledged campaigns like they usually do." Taylor, for example, doesn't have a tour devoted to TTPD, and it's been folded into her Eras tour. Ariana isn't touring at all. J.Lo canceld her tour, Billie hasn't released any advance singles, and Beyonce hasn't done anything dramatic for "Cowboy Carter."
-Dua Lipa's "Radical Optimism" isn't performing that well, and none of her new tracks are in the most streamed songs in the U.S.
-Veteran performers like J.Lo and Justin Timberlake and younger performers like Girl in Red and Maggie Rogers haven't found that much success either
-Big names can land a lot of songs from their albums on the charts, but then they fall off. And their singles don't have staying power either.
-Even Taylor's followers were annoyed by her 31-track album. Neither Taylor nor Billie were on Stereogum's 50 best albums of 2024.
Source
A 31-year-old Katy Perry and Rihanna fan said "it all feels forgettable" and none of these albums "have been cultural moments," even though Ariana Grande's "Eternal Sunshine" was a personal favorite of his.
"A striking number of Top-40 artists have fallen flat with tentpole albums this year, either due to lackluster sales, negative reviews or just a diminished capacity for cutting through the noise and shifting the culture, music-industry executives say," the WSJ wrote.
Why Pop Music Is So ‘Meh’ Right Now - WSJ https://t.co/jou8tkTXRL
- Anna Gaudreault (@ladevita12) June 15, 2024
Taylor Swift and Beyonce "have underperformed based on some metrics relative to their past albums, the WSJ argued. With Taylor Swift, 1989 had six-long lasting hits. On "Midnights," three of Swift's eight Top 10 hits had a four-week stay. But on "The Tortured Poets Department," only one of the 10 songs has stayed in the Top 10 for at least four weeks. Beyonce's "Texas Hold 'Em" had decent staying power in the top 10, but "Jolene" reached no. 7 then quickly dropped.
There could be a "changing of the guard, with established stars ceding territory to more meme-friendly upstarts like Sabrina Carpenter, whose next-generation savvy and humorous delivery on hits like 'Espresso' has her poised to dominate the summer."
-It's getting difficult for pop stars beause "with the world awash in content, TikTok rewriting labels’ playbooks and listeners burrowing deeper into their own personalized niches, even avid pop fans don’t recognize what’s in the Billboard top 10."
-Big stars also aren't doing "full-fledged campaigns like they usually do." Taylor, for example, doesn't have a tour devoted to TTPD, and it's been folded into her Eras tour. Ariana isn't touring at all. J.Lo canceld her tour, Billie hasn't released any advance singles, and Beyonce hasn't done anything dramatic for "Cowboy Carter."
-Dua Lipa's "Radical Optimism" isn't performing that well, and none of her new tracks are in the most streamed songs in the U.S.
-Veteran performers like J.Lo and Justin Timberlake and younger performers like Girl in Red and Maggie Rogers haven't found that much success either
-Big names can land a lot of songs from their albums on the charts, but then they fall off. And their singles don't have staying power either.
-Even Taylor's followers were annoyed by her 31-track album. Neither Taylor nor Billie were on Stereogum's 50 best albums of 2024.
Source