Pop Music Didn’t Want To Be Forgotten, It Just Needed To Disappear
So, here’s the breakdown-pop is so back.
Last weekend marked one of the quietest weekends of the year in Los Angeles–the weekend where everyone heads to the desert for Coachella, leaving behind a strangely harmonious Hollywood in its wake.
Many notable moments happened at weekend one of the music festival, which has been held in the Coachella Valley of Indio, California since 1999. The festival was initially born several years after a successful Pearl Jam show in 1993, when the band played the Empire Polo Club. This unique performance was a result of a dispute with Ticketmaster that prevented them from performing in Los Angeles.
In the decades since, the festival has expanded to host visual art and musicians belonging to a variety of genres, from pop to reggaeton and rock to rap. In the early 2010s, when social media usage hit the mainstream consciousness, the festival rapidly evolved into a hotspot for influencers and digital creators to expand their online empires. Such a phenomenon has led to some music connoisseurs' criticism of the festival, only deepening the divide between younger and older generations of fans in attendance at the two-weekend event.
But this year, the headliners and performers appeared to unite the generations, festival goers, and influencers alike, through a variety of performances. Lana Del Rey, who seldom tours, was one of three headliners this year (alongside Tyler the Creator and Doja Cat), and she performed a number of her hit tracks, from “Video Games” to “Summertime Sadness.”
Billie Eilish, an outspoken longtime fan of Del Rey, made a pointed statement following their duet of her breakout own hit “ocean eyes,” saying “none of you bitches would be here without her” in regards to Del Rey. Similarly, Olivia Rodrigo also popped up to sing “Bathwater” with No Doubt, proving that bringing back an angsty punk infused pop would not have been possible without the predecessors that came before her.
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It is this sentiment that led me to the conclusion (as a virtual onlooker, I am too busy being at my wit’s end to go to the desert) pop music is finally, definitively, back. While of course, the genre never left, with mainstays like Taylor Swift (happy “The Tortured Poets Department” week), Beyoncé, Dua Lipa, and Ariana Grande maintaining massive fan bases and churning out highly successful new albums in recent years, new pop stars are finally emerging. This is largely because they are leaning into the nostalgia associated with the various pop music subgenre greats.
Among the rising pop artists present at weekend one of Coachella were Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan. Carpenter, while not new to the industry (she starred on Disney Channel’s “Girl Meets World” and released several albums under Hollywood Records) charted her own course with “Emails I Can’t Send.” The album marked her first entry into the Billboard Hot 100 and landed her an opening slot on Taylor Swift’s record breaking “The Eras Tour.”
Carpenter’s newest foray into pop with her single “Espresso” delves into the laid-back subgenre of 1990s and y2k R&B-pop (think the whimsy of The Cardigans coupled with the relaxation of Colbie Callait) that does not take itself too seriously. Amid Carpenter’s several light-hearted kiss-off tracks about past relationships and haters-at-large, there is also a layer of sincerity and a wish to be understood as a multifaceted artist.
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The brutal honesty coupled with the humor and signature retro on-stage style (1960s blonde curtain bangs and chunky platform shoes) have secured Carpenter as a mainstay in the music world. She ruffles feathers in the Catholic Church, she uses lip gloss anyone can buy at the drugstore, she gets her heart broken, but she also brings a level of vintage glamor to the scene that both pays homage to those who paved the way for her yet feels distinctly contemporary.
Chappell Roan is an even newer force in pop, gaining notoriety similarly as an opening act, but for Olivia Rodrigo’s east coast run of her “GUTS” tour. Roan’s campy aesthetics pay homage to drag queens and other queer performers known for their avant garde looks, including Lady Gaga. Roan’s brand of indie pop combines elements of 1980s glam rock and synth pop (think Kate Bush and Cyndi Lauper) that has not been seen in the mainstream for quite some time.
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Roan and Carpenter’s unique takes on pop and its accompanying aesthetics prove that pop is back because at long last, it is no longer homogenous. Both cultivate their own unique niches within the industry, and manage to even have some overlap in fan bases. TikTok creators young and old have shared videos of themselves enjoying both of their tracks, and I can only hope that their growth and the diversifying of pop as a whole can continue following their hit Coachella performances.