Pop music is meh right now, according to the Wall Street Journal

[gumby]

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

Comments

[wonky]

I'm ngl, the fun and catchy pop music is in kpop as much as people hate it for being manufactured yada yada yada (everything is lol).

[richyrich909]

I agree. I’ve been listening to more K-pop for the past year or so because everything in America pop-wise has been a snooze lol. And they have proper bridges and production that actually goes somewhere.

[wonky]

Same! And they actually, in my admittedly limited viewing experience still, seem to put effort and budget into their music videos too. All the effort is in that industry. The US pop industry is lazy affff right now.

[richyrich909]

Extremely lazy.

[powerranger]

I have got to get back into kpop because I love fun, bubblegum pop music and most the girls today aren’t cutting it in that style. I go to them for other stuff but when I want that I have to go to older 2000s/2010s stuff

[fauxkaren]

You should give Illit's music a listen. I think they're perfect bubblegum pop!

[bsfan]

Oh boy does Im Nayeon have the song for you!

[sandstorm]

Right. I haven't heard Espresso for more than 10 seconds, but I can listen to at least a variety in tones with K-Pop.

[fauxkaren]

Yep. Kpop has so many different vibes within it so like even if you don't get with one group, you can almost certainly find another group whose style you like.

[tigermilk]

This is it though. K pop is delivering.

[originaru]

true and kpop acts are also fun to watch in their videos and on stage because of the dancing too. i miss when the pop girls like britney could actually dance because idc about lip syncing, i wanna be entertained.

[fauxkaren]

Like even just watching the year end award show stages from k-pop acts... current western pop acts could never!

[vanilla_09]

Kpop is where I'm getting my fix for pop adjacent music and it's been consistant for the past 20 years for me. I have never not liked GGs from each generation. And like, I firmly believe the pop scene is a bit dry right now because it directly reflects the audience. A lof of beige white women are looking to other beige white women and elevating their mediocrity and it's affecting the music. If you notice, most kpop GG that are really popping have less white stans and more of a LGBTQ/non-white following and they are doing really interesting things vs the BGs. The girls can't dance, can't write, have no interesting production/have no vision and make music for tiktok.

[bsfan]

. If you notice, most kpop GG that are really popping have less white stans and more of a LGBTQ/non-white following and they are doing really interesting things

Oh this is interesting. The 3 GGs that I find most interesting musically (Red Velvet, (G)I-DLE, Dreamcatcher) definitely have more diverse fanbases (the lesbians lol).

[wonky]

ahhh, see the group i'm really into is a boy group but i think your theory still holds true. when i look at the demo of who is around me on social media circles, i think most people aren't white or if they are they're often LGBTQ (me lol).

but across the spectrum, kpop is doing way more interesting things musically and visually than a lot of the big hitters here are. and by that, i mean the (western) female pop stars specifically but that's simply because the male pop stars aren't even really on the field at this point??? and there being "no vision" really is such a good way of putting it! except for a few people, it's like the biggest popstars in the US are on autopilot.

[deerlike]

tbh even kpop over the past two years was succumbing to awful Western pop trends like lack of proper choruses/bridges, songs barely over 2.5 minutes, etc, but there's been a course correction lately. As seen in releases like Nayeon's "ABCD":

imo though the best kpop bops will always be from what fans call the 2nd Generation of kpop, the era of "hook songs".

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLexDMBiJVLyxJNeYElWdBfySJGDK3v3le
(my personal playlist)