Why Sabrina, Chappell and Charli are stars now?

[milotic2]

Sabrina, Charli and Chappell are suddenly stars. Why now? https://t.co/TkKlbGs3fa
- Los Angeles Times (@latimes) June 25, 2024
“Brat,” Charli’s sixth studio LP, debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, a career high for the musician. Reviews being uniformly positive. Charli’s sudden ascent is one of several this summer, others being Sabrina Carpenter

Comments

[donaestrangera]

I feel like the last couple of years have been dominated by singer-songwriters making, idk what to call it, more mellow music, and people have been waiting for more fun bops. A couple of years from now people will get sick of the bops and want mellow music again, it all happens in a cycle.

[genbu_no_miko24]

Lana, Lorde, and Billie have been giving us those melancholic bops and others have been giving more personal confessional songs.

But for a while now people have been wanting fun mindless pop. The people wanna dance!!

[donaestrangera]

Exactly! I love both personal confessional songs and mindless bops but we really haven’t had pop girls giving us mindless bops since Ariana took a break and Dua ended the Future Nostalgia era. The biggest pop girls of the last few years were Taylor, Olivia and SZA (idk why this article left her out when she mixes pop and R&B and she had a huge breakthrough in that same time period) and they all lean very heavily into the singer-songwriter image and more emotional music. We need the mindless bops to balance it all out lol. We can and should have both at the same time.

[genbu_no_miko24]

See I already forgot about Dua lol!! She was holding down the fort for a while!!

SZA is more singer-songwriter to me, I don't exactly think of fun bops or pop much when I think of her.

[donaestrangera]

Yeah, I think Dua was so successful with Future Nostalgia because she was one of the few releasing fun bops while all her peers were releasing emotional confessional songs. I do think her most recent album not doing as well has more to do with bad management by her father than anything else but she also isn’t the only one releasing fun bops anymore. She can still bounce back if she fixes her manager situation.

Yep, SZA releases more moody songs than fun pop. And both Olivia and Taylor have tried to make bops but I think people prefer moody confessional songs from them as well. I like them but sometimes I don’t want to be up in my feelings listening to music sometimes I just want to have fun.

[genbu_no_miko24]

Olivia makes fun songs too but she leans more into an alternative pop rock sound instead of straight pop. Which funny seeing Sabrina come out with fun pop! because I think her earlier music was a bit more serious~. Sabrina really benefitted for getting the ERAS tour gig and her little rhyming scheme for that one song of hers becoming a viral thing and a bit of trademark because that was thee most I had seen her on social media everywhere.

Even Taylor's pop has never been completely mindless except for ME! and Shake it Off I think cause even blank space has a lot of thought into it.

[donaestrangera]

Yeah, I love Olivia’s fun pop rock songs but none of them have taken off quite like her ballads which is what people really love from her. Taylor’s fun pop songs are definitely not her strength lol, especially from Midnights I found both Anti-Hero and Karma so annoying and grating.

Actually that’s a good point! Sabrina was trying to lean more into the moody singer-songwriter image but finally started to blow up when she made bops. This article didn’t mention her but Tate McRae had the same issue, she and Sabrina were both trying to emulate the singer-songwriters but hit it big when they made “Greedy” and “Espresso.” They weren’t playing to their strengths and now they’re making music that seems a bit more suited for them/their images.

[genbu_no_miko24]

"Adding that as much of happily messy they might appear, each of these ascendant pop stars have honed their craft through years of practice with performances that demonstrate their old-school stage talent."

See I think Sabrina was smart with Please please please cause that song is still fun and catchy but a bit more lyrically serious than Espresso so if can find a balance there she's goood! I thought of Tate but I haven't really listened to her songs but I remember a lot of people comparing her to slave 4 u era Britney because of her dance skills. So she's def leaning into that dance pop.

[donaestrangera]

I need Sabrina to not work with Jack Antonoff though lol, we need more diversity in production and not the same washed out drums on every song!!! Seriously once you know what to listen for you can instantly identify a song he produced and it’s so annoying lol

I actually liked Tate’s earlier albums (more than I liked Sabrina’s earlier albums) but I do think it’s smart for her to lean into her dance skills because that’s what she has that sets her apart from her peers.

[pciam]

Yep and even Ariana sort of leaned more into melancholic production and confessional lyrics on her newest album.

I think that’s partially why Espresso came out of nowhere and immediately catched on. I don’t think Espresso is one of the greatest songs of all time or anything like that - but it came at a time where she was putting out a mindless fun bop against a sea of established artists putting out more diaristic songs with somber-ish production. It was a refreshing feel good bop right in time for spring.

I am actually curious to see which direction TS goes next… I wonder if she’s gonna pivot to trying to make up tempo bops again (esp after Cruel Summer’s success)

[floatinglately]

i think taylor probably is gonna try to kick it up a notch pop-wise for her next album not so much for success (she’s literally too big to fail at this pont IMO) but just bc she put just out a big album of midtempo melancholy and she always changes it up album to album (except kinda for folkmore but i think that was a special occasion for her bc of the pandemic). (haters will say all her album sound the same and you know what i won’t even say they’re wrong… but i will say i can see what it is that makes taylor think “and this is different because X” about each album).

[genbu_no_miko24]

Yeah save for some songs but Eternal Sunshine has been kinda meh for me. Espresso is perfect cute right place/right time song for me entering summer.

Lol me and donaestrangera keep saying that her album tone will probably be determined by whether or not she gets grammys noms for TTPD .

[pciam]

This is def a factor I think. Seems some people are tired of the confessional-morose pop. Even your huge a listers have opted for more low-key productions favoring confessional / personal declarations and lyrics.

I think the public is yearning again for some feel good songs & bops and these 3 are certainly delivering on that front.

[sanditar]

I also wonder about their longevity. Like if a pop girly from my time is going to make it. Like Madonna. Now it's easier that a song reaches people that might connect to it years later while the artists keep doing things for their limited audience.
Is it going to be for a short time, create a catalog and retire? Or releasing albums regularly?
I'm very curious about these things sorry 😅😅

[alwayspolaris]

My sister said specifically with how mellow Taylor Swift's new album was, her summer playlist was entirely Chappell and Sabrina instead.