FEATURE:
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life?
IN THIS PHOTO: Billie Eilish/PHOTO CREDIT: Sebastian Sabal-Bruce
Where Will Pop Music Head in 2021?
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I know that the term ‘Pop music’ is quite general…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kylie Minogue/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
but, in my mind, I am thinking about popular artists covering a few genres, rather than something more defined and genre-specific. Like I often do, I have been looking at The Guardian’s articles. Alexis Petridis wrote a feature regarding the sound of 2020 and how things differ to last year. I want to quote a section:
“If the pandemic impacted on the sound of pop at all, it was in a shift away from melancholy introspection. While Lewis Capaldi had five of the 40 biggest songs of the year by October despite releasing no new music this year, the expected post-Capaldi glut of sad acoustic troubadours never materialised – it was hard not to wonder if labels planning to launch such acts decided to hold off on the grounds that the public tolerance for dejected solipsism had dipped – while Sam Smith’s forlorn album Love Goes noticeably failed to repeat the blockbusting sales success of its two predecessors. Instead, the music that hit big in 2020 suggested an audience keen to retreat from the present into a more comfortable, escapist space, and a wave of nostalgia manifested in a variety of ways.
The big pop trend was disco revivalism, which, in various hues, touched everything from Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia to Róisín Murphy’s Róisín Machine to Jessie Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure? to Kylie Minogue’s prosaically titled Disco, at one point the fastest-selling album of year. These were largely made before Covid hit, yet disco revivalism made a perfect kind of sense amid the strangeness of 2020. As a genre, disco is lavishly escapist, but the best of it invariably comes with a curious undertow of melancholy. It is music that celebrates the transportive hedonism of the dance floor without ever entirely forgetting that there is something out there you’re keen to be transported from”.
It could easily have been the case that musicians this year felt the weight and fear in the air and responded with music that was quite glum and tense. There have been albums like that but, as Petridis mentions a Disco revival – with artists like Kylie Minogue, Dua Lipa, and Róisín Murphy giving a new spin on a classic genre – and the fact that many artists have been releasing music that nods to the past, we have not only witnessed quite a lot of joy and energy, but also a great mix of modern and forward-thinking artists splicing in older sounds to create something progressive and stunning. One cannot say that all music by our most popular artists has been upbeat. Even when we have heard Disco -inspired albums from Jessie Ware and Dua Lipa, there has been sadness and an undercurrent of loss on certain songs. I don’t think Pop or Disco is synonymous with uplift as a whole but, in a really bad year, so many albums have burst with colour and life! Alongside albums that have been harder-hitting and more political, brilliant releases from Charli XCX (how I’m feeling now), Rina Sawayama (SAWAYAMA), Tame Impala (The Slow Rush), Chloe x Halle (Ungodly Hour), and Lady Gaga (Chromatica) have delivered some huge rushes. Whilst there has not been a definitive sound of 2020, I think there has been a lot more positive and fun than I was expecting – in terms of the tone of albums and the energy levels.
It has been an awesome year for music where artists right across the board have delivered sensational albums. I am always interested by the way Pop evolves and how it is impacted by politics and the larger world. From Disco queens brings elements of the 1970s and 1980s to a modern template, to those fusing together early-2000s sounds together with something original, I think it has been a much more interesting and fulfilling year than the past few. From a more mature sound of Taylor Swift’s folklore, and evermore, to some beautiful music from Laura Marling (Song for Our Daughter), and a career-high album from Nadine Shah (Kitchen Sink), there has been so much variety and quality! In terms of the most popular artists and how music will transition in 2021…I think we will see more of the same, but with some additions. Many artists recorded their albums before the pandemic was announced, but many were writing and recording whilst in lockdown. Next year, for the first few months, will be kind of similar to this one. I think there will be a lot of albums looking back on 2020 and how we tackled a tough year as people. I do feel that Pop artists will produce some big and bright albums with some more stirring and personal moments; I don’t think we will see a return to the wave of more doom-laden and downbeat acoustic artists that seemed to be everywhere as recently as a few years back.
I am not sure what is already slated for 2021, but I do think there will be more albums with a Disco tinge; quite a few bigger and rising artists looking back and taking inspiration from past decades. That has always been the case but, in a year we all want to forget, it is expected that so many are finding comfort and inspiration in older music. The sense of nostalgia, I don’t think, will be too overwhelming, and I think we will hear a lot of optimism and hope in 2021. As I said, many will look back and give an overview of the world in 2020, but with things looking more promising in 2021 there will be a lot of albums that exude something warmer and more hopeful. That is not to say that next year will be similar to this one. Maybe comfort and tenderness will be more prevalent than outright joy and big choruses, but it has been interesting to see more warmth and positivity come into Pop. I have written several articles about Pop music and whether it has stagnated and is too downbeat. That was definitely the case in the past, but I have heard a lot of wonderfully variegated music that not only harks back to the best Pop of the 1980s and 1990s, but it is very inventive and nuanced – so many songs and albums still in my head. It will be very hard for artists planning on releasing albums next year.
Nobody knows for sure when live music will return and when they can promote their work like they did pre-pandemic. We hope that the worst is over and things will be significantly better by Easter, but there are no guarantees at all. I want to finish by returning to that article from The Guardian, as one interesting point was raised: artists who are not touring and out there have more time to write. I do think a lot of the biggest artists are so busy during the year that writing can be a drain; either that or they are quite fatigued – and that can feed into their music. Not that lockdown and isolation has cheered artists up, but there has been increased productivity from many; others have listened to other music more and incorporated it into their own sounds:
“It is telling that for all the undoubted misery and upheaval caused by the shutdown of live events, some pop artists – particularly women – seemed empowered by being temporarily unshackled from the album/promotion/tour cycle. It is unlikely that Taylor Swift would have made two albums this year had she been required to promote the first one live. Currently in the process of following up her vastly successful breakthrough When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? when she should have been touring the world, Billie Eilish recently said: “As much as I wished that I had been able to have the year I was planning on having and tour and blah blah blah, we would never have made this album … we would have made something, but it would have been completely different.” Whether the music industry takes notice of this and alters its approach to promotion and touring remains to be seen – either way, a year stuck in the past may have irrevocably changed pop’s future”.
This year has seen a transformation in terms of Pop’s outlook and model, and I predict we will see further change and extraordinary releases. Whether there is more hope and togetherness in terms of the lyrics or bold compositions and more revisionism, it will be interesting to see. I do think that 2020 has seen Pop transcend to new heights, not just in terms of quality and emotional variety but the way artists have adapted in such a retched year. Even though a lot of 2021 will be quite restricting and strange, I think we will see Pop artists and music…
GETTING better and better.