FEATURE:
Perimenopop
IN THIS PHOTO: Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Why the Young and New Are Not the Most Exciting and Essential Queens of the Genre
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THAT is not to say that…
IN THIS PHOTO: Tate McRae
the artists I am going to mention are not young. It is to say that, as has been the case for decades, those that get the most attention in Pop are the young. The very young. It is still very much a genre where the mass attention goes to the mainstream’s youngest. Perhaps things have broadened and improved a bit. You can look at the most celebrated and hyped Pop artists of today and many of the women mentioned are in their thirties. That is not necessarily super-young, though they can still be considered young. In the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, there was this hype of women who were in their teens and twenties. A feeling that, if you were in your thirties or older, then you were less relevant. Although there is still ageism in music and some stations rarely play artists over a certain age, it is clear that one cannot necessarily link the best and most essential Pop with youth. I am focusing on women in Pop here, as they are subjected to ageism more blatantly and, in my mind, are dominating the genre. Today, whilst the most popular artists are perhaps in their late-twenties and thirties, there is still a majority of the spotlight put on those who are younger. These new and rising artists. Unconsciously or not, younger women are seen as more vital and worthy when it comes to Pop music. That is not a new revelation and realisation. I don’t think we have progressed as much as we should have. Look at women in Pop who started out very young and are still going today. Artists like Kylie Minogue producing her best music and delivering her most memorable tours in her fifties. It is the experience they have gained being in the industry for years that I think makes their music richer and their performances more assured and dynamic. The stagecraft and command is a result of the years and decades they have been playing.
However, clearly, some truly exceptional live sets are coming from younger women in Pop. However, think about modern Pop and its health. Women in Pop not necessarily dominating the charts. There is this assumption that Pop has lost its fun and is not what it used to be. I would disagree. I think Pop has become more interesting the past five years or so. Artists like Charli xcx and Chappell Roan adding to that. Maybe CMAT could not be defined as a (purely) Pop artist, though she is among a wave of women in music who add wit, spice, energy and fun into music. In addition to revelation, vulnerability and honesty. Melody in Pop is less common or has been in decline. Some saying that Pop is all but dead and the fate of it rests with The Last Dinner Party. There is always going to be that debate as to whether Pop is declining and as good as it used to be. I think that it is in great shape. So many interesting and promising artists coming through. However, I do feel like there is the assumption that age and youth equates to the best Pop music. That women in Pop of a certain age are less exciting and have lost that spark. That is definitely not the case. Legends of the genre like Louise are still producing music as essential and interesting as their earliest work. What I am finding is that so many major Pop artists of today are releasing music that is quite forgettable or formulaic. Maybe their experiences and perspectives are either too familiar and over-discussed or else there is that lack of melody, killer chorus or anything with genuine invention. Sabrina Carpenter is an artist I respect, though there is little to distinguish her from other artists. Her new album, Man’s Best Friend, might not linger as long in the mind as it should.
She is not the only one. I think that the most interesting and impactful music made by young women is in other genres. R&B and Rap especially fertile and exciting right now. Although there are clearly a lot of brilliant and inventive young women in Pop, I wonder if we should be paying more attention to a different generation. I am going to end with an artist who I think makes a huge argument as to why you cannot define the best and most relevant Pop sound with youth. Pop pioneers and icons who have been making music for decades, I feel, have a lot to say. They should not be relegated to a certain radio station have to stand aside whilst the industry focuses on the very young. There is still ageism in music. Especially against women. Lady Gaga spoke about this earlier in the year. Just getting warmed up and hitting her stride, this might also be the case for one of Pop music’s queens. Sophie Ellis-Bextor is someone I spoke about recently when I marked twenty-five years of Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love) by Spiller. Ellis-Bextor co-wrote and sang on that track. Her new album, Perimenopop, is among the best of the year. A phenomenal album that confidently shows why you cannot exclude or marginalise women in their thirties, forties and fifties. In her mid-forties, Sophie Ellis-Bextor is in an age range that is defined by restriction. Maybe played on stations like BBC Radio 2 and not considered appropriate for ‘younger’ stations. Women in their forties not seen as cool or as important as their younger peers. Sophie Elli-Bextor’s new album is perhaps her best. I think that it is so memorable and phenomenal because of her experience and intuition. Someone who has been in the industry for decades, she brings everything that came before into Perimenopop. There are not as many interviews with Sophie Ellis-Bextor as there should be this year. Maybe indicative of the media and how, still, age is linked with importance and relevance. That the freshest, best and coolest Pop is from those in their teens, twenties or thirties. There are a couple of interview archives I want to bring in. The first is from The Bristol Magazine:
“I wrote Perimenopop when I was in the absolute momentum and head rush of everything that happened with Murder on the Dancefloor last year [which appeared in key scene of the aforementioned smash-hit movie Saltburn]. That is actually a really glorious way to make pop music, because pop music thrives on momentum. It’s something that needs that rush of vitality in its veins. So it was the perfect time.
“I was already going to make a pop dance album anyway, but having all of this rocket fuel with Murder on Dancefloor returning to the charts and taking me all around the world with it again just injected this real fizz into the project – and also into the people I was lucky enough to get in the room with. I’ve worked with some incredible people, artists, producers and writers on Perimenopop. I just wrote a wish list and managed to get in the room with most of them. Happy days – and lucky me. I took full advantage, quite frankly, and this album is joyful, it’s celebratory, it’s inclusive, and it’s also about how lovely is to have all of those feelings”.
Before moving on, I am keen to include this extract from a recent Billboard interview that answer a few questions and tackles some stereotypes. Amazing to read Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s words. How she feels at her happiest and most content. That reflects in her music:
“I have to say, Perimenopop — album title of the year. How did you come up with it?
For me and all my girlfriends in our mid-40s, there’s a bit of a narrative about some aspects that might sound a bit gloomy. And I just wanted something that would flip the script on it a little bit — and also invite into the room the fact that I’m not the way I was when I was 20. I think it’s also quite a good indicator of how much more ballsy I’ve gotten as I’ve gotten older. But how lucky am I that I’ve been able to have a career long enough to feel that comfortable?
Are you liking what you’re seeing from the rest of the U.K. pop world these days?
What happened with Charli xcx and brat is obviously so brilliant. But also what I love about it is it really lets the mask fall. And I think teenage me would have completely resonated with that. We talked about a Brat Summer, and I think in my head I was like, “Well, maybe Perimenopop is your autumn?”.
What Sophie Ellis-Bextor said about feeling ballsy. That determination, courage and strength that you get as an older woman. It lends something to music that is not necessarily easily ands readily possessed by younger women. Also, as she said, it is quite fortunate to have a career after a certain number of years. It is so completive and cutthroat, so many do not have the luxury of releasing albums decades since their debut. I still think it is needlessly tough for women. How they need to prove themselves in a way men do not. I do find that, in terms of emotional and sonic range, Pop artists like Sophie Ellis-Bextor have that experience and gift that takes years to come. Life experiences and a full catalogue that means, decades later, she can pull in all of that and release an album that is marries so many styles, emotions and layers. So much modern Pop music is aimed at TikTok and it can be very samey. Artists that are not necessarily aiming for that market, I feel, are releasing the most interesting and listenable Pop. Music that lasts longer and has genuine depth. This is what The Line of Best Fit in their rave review of Perimenopop:
“From lesser known singles, to deep cuts, b-sides and more, the British siren has proven that the pop genre can (and should) move about in various sound spheres. Which brings us to where she last left off: HANA (花) (2023). Her seventh release capped off her trilogy of progressive adult alternative recordings helmed by the renowned Ed Harcourt; it courted positive notices and respectable sales tallies. Contrary to the aforementioned “Saltburn effect” (and ensuing mania) with her signature tune "Murder on the Dancefloor", Ellis-Bextor had been mulling over a more straight ahead affair for the follow-up to HANA (花).
Not dissimilar to her antipodean foremother Kylie Minogue’s post-Golden (2018) chess move with DISCO (2020), Ellis-Bextor is seeking to reclaim and refine the U.K. dance scene of the 2000s she helped shape with Perimenopop. Originally the set was denominated as The Invisible Line, she ultimately chose this, a portmanteau title for her eighth collection that pithily plays on "perimenopause" – a medical term for when women in their late 30s through to their early 40s transition between reproductivity and menopause – as a comment on the ageism-sexism women endure in the music industry. It is a signal from Ellis-Bextor that growing older won’t find women any less vital, artistically or otherwise. The content of Perimenopop – twelve tracks total – reflect this declarative/celebratory gesture. What’s more? Ellis-Bextor's pen leads on every cut.
The writer-artist-musician-producer talents onboarded demonstrate Ellis-Bextor’s commitment to her vocation in how she balances both compositional substance and hooks aplenty in her songcraft: Hannah Robinson, MNEK, Selena Gomez, Finn Keane, Sam "Karma Kid" Knowles, Shura, Duck Blackwell, Thomas "Kid Harpoon" Hull, Richard "Biff" Stannard, Nile Rodgers (of Chic fame), Janée "Jin Jin" Bennett, Luke Fitton, Caroline Ailin, James Greenwood, Jon Shave, Baz Kaye, Julia Michaels and the cited Ed Harcourt make up Ellis-Bextor’s diverse collaborative court on this outing.
Studied Ellis-Bextor fans will thrill knowing that she hasn’t lost her way kicking off a long player with a bang as "Relentless Love" evinces. The throwback floorfiller – think prime era Taste of Honey or Baccara – packs a punch with its vivid string charts, coruscating programming and sylph-like beat; genres aside, it sits comfortably alongside prior notable album starters such as "Making Music", "Revolution", and "Birth of an Empire".
Switching from old and new school modalities gives Ellis-Bextor room on the production front to rope in various elements from song to song. As such, Perimenopop is always an engaging listen.
Post-"Relentless Love", flashes of disco-pop – in classic-to-contemporary tones – pulse on "Vertigo", "Taste", "Stay On Me", and "Dolche Vita". The uptempo rush of those first five tracks will bring immediate comparisons to her last four-on-the-floor affair Make a Scene (2011), except everything contained on this body of work feels that much richer and more sumptuous. Additional entries on Perimenopop like "Glamorous", "Freedom of the Night", "Layers", and "Diamond in the Dark" keep with this glacial nightlife persuasion.
As with any Ellis-Bextor exercise, Perimenopop contains the hallmark pop eclecticism her discography is known for. On the record’s back-end are "Time", "Heart Sings" and "Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Til It’s Gone". This triptych winningly utilizes a cooler synth-pop palette. "Heart Sings" and "Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Til It’s Gone" are quite the pair; they close Perimenopop with a gorgeous emotional nuance in their respective lyrical scripts and performances. Drawing down on the latter aspect, Ellis-Bextor reveals her hand at how effectively she handles vulnerable stock with her vocal instrument.
Perimenopop doesn’t disguise that the mirrorball is the muse here, but don’t mistake this as some retreat into dance music indulgence. Instead, as stated previously, reclamation and refinement sit at the heart of Perimenopop with a few other sonic surprises tucked in. This should be expected. Ellis-Bextor's decorated back catalog has always split a complementary difference between a good groove and inventive intrigue. Even when she turns the dial ever so slightly in one direction, Perimenopop is no exception. Turn it up and enjoy”.
Although the media and music industry is not going to change its tune or reverse its policies when it comes to women in Pop and who they deem to be worthy and relevant, I do think that a lot of the best and enduring Pop music is not being made by artists starting out or the very young. There are some exceptions though, to me, there is a blandness and homogenisation happening. So many artists repeating what is popular and not adding anything new. Embrace and listen to the enduing queens of Pop and that is where you are going to find the kind of Pop sound that should be played more. It should be talked about more. But it isn’t necessarily. I hope that attitudes do change because, as Lady Gaga said, and something that can be applied to so many women in Pop who experience ageism or restrictions, they are very much…
JUST getting started.