rolling pop 2020s

The general vibe I’m getting is — “friendly preppy guy in your high school chemistry class; captain of the soccer team; maybe you’re friends with his younger sister,” etc.

been digging this kid deaton chris anthony, this song "1999 she" is pretty hot rn... this is a goofy internet-y sorta track but if you peel it back a bit it's a dope play on 90s house

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9K6-M9gUjY

this rap song w/ clairo is also goofy but i find it charming

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMMshdy-0gw

Well, college kids are Zoomers!

Admittedly my quick evaluation above may have been based more on “related” artists that Tidal was throwing up, such as “Ruel,” “Khai Dreams,” and “Thomas Headon.”

― Murdered-Out Highlander XLE (morrisp), Saturday, February 29, 2020 12:50 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

right yeah, this is just my suggesting that tidal is not really the source of this

hm i kinda like those two xp

I dig this soapy, soundtracky tune:

Charlotte Lawrence - Joke's On You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=532k3IdHSZ8

^she is now one of several artists to announce a COVID-19 diagnosis :(

oh no! i interviewed her last year and she was very sweet.

I confess I don't dislike this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07RHI4MDQ-U

ugh that cover looks way too much like covid 19 stock art

not to judge a song by its etc but

The Ant Man released an EP:

https://antsaunders.lnk.to/BUBBLE

He’s a very interesting interview subject, lol: https://www.idolator.com/7906247/interview-ant-saunders-talks-yellow-hearts-future-plans

i think it's fair to say that the tiktok hit pipeline is unrelenting at the moment

two of the earlier-breaking ones on the charts right now are lil mosey's "blueberry faygo" and surfaces' "sunday best." they're both trifles but the former has a pretty simple appeal to it imo -- and i can't help but appreciate the johnny gill "my, my, my" sample. the latter embodies the same energy as spring breakers in florida last month.

certainly the biggest of the most recent-to-break tiktok hits is megan thee stallion's "savage." while i'm glad to see her, talented as she is, scoring such a substantial success, i wish it had been with a different song -- like "b.i.t.c.h.", which is currently a hit at urban radio but running out of streaming steam. "savage" is not bad, but for me there's not a lot to it aside from the effortlessly catchy hook. i'm generally not one to be amused by dance challenges, but i did enjoy seeing a clip of the 'god warrior' dancing to it.

i appreciate that "supalonely" by new zealand singer benee at least sort of defies expectation as to what hits of this sort should sound like, but i'm not entirely won over by the song itself yet, and the dude on the track is nearly intolerable.

'in these uncertain times' (to use a phrase currently favored by advertising copywriters) it seems tiktok users are connecting with powfu's "death bed," a rap-ballad fantasy about dying young. the sample that comprises the hook is definitely the focal point: pitched up, distant-sounding, like a fading memory replayed in one's head. the song it's derived from, beabadoobee's "coffee," has been out since 2017 but now has a new music video -- perhaps someone is hoping it can be the "thank you" to powfu's "stan."

of course drake had to swoop in with his own. i'll be honest: i was fully prepared to be among the apparently many online bemoaning its crass cynicism, its lack of justification for existing beyond the potential to inspire predictable social media activity -- but oops, i actually like it, certainly more than some of the drake singles that critics have deemed classics, and more than any of the other songs i've mentioned in this post. i have a strange affinity for putatively upbeat 'party' records that have a touch of moroseness to them, and the sustained tones in this one's backing track push it into that territory for me. the synth noodling also has an inexact, uncertain quality that i find vaguely intoxicating; even paying the lyrics little attention, it's a track i can find myself lost in. those particular lines meant to inspire the inevitable dance videos are so brief and inconsequential, but i wouldn't consider myself above trying the steps if i found myself at a gathering, were it advisable for me to gather anywhere. it will probably crash in at #1 on the week after next's billboard charts and may remain there a while.

Great post, dyl. I agree the Drake song is catchy (when I let him borrow my house to shot the video, I made him promise it would be a hit).

I remember that Surfaces video from the “Worst Music of 2019” thread. So it finally “broke through,” huh?

The “Supalonely” song has a nice sound, but the lyrics stink...

Several of the songs dyl mentioned are name-checked here (plus “our own” Glenn McD.): https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2020-04-07/benee-supalonely-powfu-deathbed-pop-songs-coronavirus

i appreciate that "supalonely" by new zealand singer benee at least sort of defies expectation as to what hits of this sort should sound like, but i'm not entirely won over by the song itself yet, and the dude on the track is nearly intolerable.

it's a good song, but for all its idiosyncrasies it seems like a calculated attempt to create a meme: goofy adlibs, OTT autotune, self-deprecating sadboi-isms, prominent curse word in the hook to make the 12-year-olds feel edgy, trigger words (thinkin 🤔, drinkin 🍻) that lend themselves to tiktok hand gestures/dance moves. it reminds me of Superorganism in that respect even though they don't have much in common musically. I prefer Benee's first EP to her second because the novelty factor is a little less pronounced. Gus Dapperton's verse is awful and I really wish there was a version without it

What do you guys think of "Stupid" by Tate McRae? I heard it on a top 40 station yesterday. Haven't really focused that much on the songwriting but the guitar line interested me enough to stop and listen. The sound itself reminded me a little of In Rainbows-era Radiohead and the overall production has an interesting atmospheric quality. Apparently, she's a teenager from Calgary who works with Billie Eilish?

― With considerable charm, you still have made a choice (Sund4r), Wednesday, February 19, 2020 9:11 AM (one month ago)

her 'I Wrote a Song' video and Clairo's 'Pretty Girl' refused to leave my youtube sidebar for what seemed like a month toward the end of 2017. Billie and Finneas wrote one of her songs ('Tear Myself Apart') but they haven't worked together directly, and Tate's own songwriting style owes more to Alessia Cara than to Billie. I like that song and 'Stupid' and 'Happy Face', but as a whole her EP is a little awkward: the production is all sparse reverby beats and ominous bass drops, which doesn't really suit all her artless confessions about crushes and backstabbing friends. but of course it's 2020 and teenpop is expected to be grimdark rather than just plain moody. fwiw she's probably one of the best competitive dancers in the world, so this is sorta the equivalent of Shaq having a music career on the side

as misposted in the indiepop thread:
this comes via breastcrawl in the afro thread, where i would rather it didn't lie unnoticed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEI0U55rM-I

i feel like this should hit a lot of ILM's pop tastes dead-on. it certainly got me!

yeah, that's great. I really need to lurk on the Afro thread more often

Lennon Stella - Save Us

hopefully this isn't too downbeat for the pop thread. really elegant interpolation of that one overplayed nineties hit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXYqNYwJuVI

It’s a nice track, but I’m not sure about the strategy of reminding the listener of a better song as your song wraps up.

This country song was released nearly a year ago, but just recently stormed the charts (including the Hot 100):

Gabby Barrett - I Hope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlPfN4heqBo

There's also a poppier remix feat. Charlie Pluth.

this new yungblud song is actually pretty dope... it's like all american rejects trying to do a 1975 song. the production team behind it also did the poppy album from this year which has at least one amazing song on it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIWALAgvz2U

This one's a bit of a rush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO-U2WlgroQ

"somebody" is fine but it's funny that this sort of scandipop hasn't changed at all in the past decade

Yeah I wasn't immediately struck by excitement over 'another one of those', but I guess there are turns and subtleties of melody and delivery here that just gets me

New charity fundraiser single, I think it's pretty good:

Ariana Grande & Justin Bieber - Stuck with U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE49WK-oNjU

Long article on Dr. Luke. I don’t much care for “Say So,” but there you go: https://variety.com/2020/music/news/dr-luke-back-doja-cat-say-so-kesha-1234605151/

Here's one I am fond of (very atmospheric):

NIKI - Switchblade

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQLbzyoQlUg

I think Audrey Mika (from the "Yellow Hearts" remix) is limited as a singer, but this is a nice & "professional" track that should appeal to fans of Dua Lipa, etc.:

Audrey Mika - Just Friends

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBfEK320hVg

truly abhorrent quotes coming from some of the interviewed a&r folks in that dr. luke piece

i like "switchblade" tho!

Victor Leksell's sappy, and not exactly inventive, but sweet 'Svag' is the undeniable monster hit of the spring in Sweden and Norway, currently #1 in both countries for the nth week in a row.

He did a performance with Norwegian popper Astrid S that was pretty clever -- the two of them sat on each side of the Sweden / Norway border. If she went over on his side she would have to be quarantined coming back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_PkXvkFBY4

curtis waters - "stunnin"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgduhk26sIw

this is a tik tok thing that is like a gen z chromeo song or something, i think it's pretty dope

that feels like a very deliberate attempt to write a tik tok hit but I love it regardless, very charming and the kind of thing it's difficult for a male popstar to pull off

pretty intoxicating production honestly. in a good way it also ~feels~ much longer than it actually is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HqTDoScPI4

Those Surfaces doofuses did a track with... Elton John?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaDmrrlYNv4

screaming at jason derulo catapulting himself back to relevance by becoming the world's thirstiest tiktok personality + putting lyrics over a preexisting tiktok instrumental hit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUci-tsiU4I

the original instrumental (jawsh 685's "laxed") is honestly entertaining in a kitschy/goofy way, the main synth sounds like something off an snes sound chip

I like her voice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrjvJxv5Ht4

(Angel Cintron - Hometown)

This is a nice slice of bedroom pop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-NmCipcL-M

(ELIO - LA in Two)

I'm really into this cute album by Roki Fernandez (from Argentina) right now:

https://rokifernandez.bandcamp.com/releases

this is awesome. like a bit more twee Javiera Mena

pop industry + charts news: trade pub billboard is making some long-overdue changes to its tabulation processes to disincentivize the most fashionable of chart-rigging tactics lately, the music/merchandise bundle

while at first glance this would seem to have little relevance to anything 'real' regarding how the industry operates, the fact of the matter is that these aggressive bundling tactics, generally used to juice a release's charting stats during the first week of release, have been so heavily relied-on that eliminating the incentive for this practice may even increase the rate at which album sales continue to crater into oblivion, which may have something of a ripple effect in an already-challenged industry

especially as the pandemic continues to rage, leaving touring generally off the table (of course, ticket bundles were quite popular until recently), i would expect fewer high-profile 'pop' artists to take chances on initiating new album cycles for the next while, and for the pace of tune-turnover at 'pop' radio to slow to an even more glacial pace

while those would obviously not be good developments, it was unquestionably the correct decision for billboard as far as protecting the utility and meaning of their charts. with both streaming volumes and radio audiences in a modest-but-significant ongoing depression since the pandemic took hold, it's become unusually easy lately for artists to use these tactics to launch their hits at #1 overwhelmingly based on encouraging mass-purchasing from artists' hardcore social media-connected fans, in many cases leading to precipitous drops immediately following the first frame once labels/fans apparently stopped caring to put in further effort, the chart peak having already been achieved.

(on a less important note: i am honestly impressed with how direct they are being about the motivations behind this rule change, even going as far as to directly name some of some of the artists who were beneficiaries of some of the more blatant attempts to rig the charts in recent weeks. i generally find billboard's writing about its own charts in recent years to be very lacking in insight, rarely acknowledging in any meaningful way the strategies by which labels work their product to play that particular game, tho such strategies remain abundant. it wasn't always this way, so this more direct/honest announcement was nice to see.)

i know that at this point the billboard charts are mostly about spins and not purchases but the real bottom line is that no one is buying albums and i assume billboard would prefer not to say the quiet part loud. at least bundle sales are sales.

In addition, Billboard will no longer allow sales of physical albums or singles that are bundled with digital downloads to be reported as digital sales, thereby eliminating the practice of “spontaneous” non-manufactured items being used to influence first-week chart rankings. Only when the physical item -- ostensibly what the consumer is buying -- is shipped, will it be counted in Billboard’s official tallies.

Why would a purchase of a CD + download not count as a sale until the CD ships? I've bought these myself, and was not under the impression that the CD was what I was "ostensibly" buying. I was buying both formats at once. I was buying the single.

presumably because vendors are shipping cds well past the date of "purchase" but those numbers count toward week one sales? it's juking the stats no matter how you look at it.

But so what? I bought it when I bought it - that's when the "sale" happened - and got the download immediately. Who cares when the CD ships? (I don't care about the chart, btw, but don't get this controversy.)

To put it another way - the merch item is the add-on to the download, not the other way around. At least, that is how I saw it, as the "consumer."

^I may make that mod request, lol

Has anyone heard A-N-Y good stuff lately? I'm in the mood for something new, but the usual playlists have pretty dire stuff – fake Olivia, fake Billie (...and that's the better slice of it).

Here's a gem for y'all:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPe9MJMn7i4

Have had this on heavy rotation the couple of months

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMfIuOooDIc

Great song! Her voice is raspy in almost a Kim Shattuck kinda way.

I like this new song by NIKI, an artist on 88rising... it's sort of literate, emo-ish, singer-songwriter pop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMqcb16umH0

(the whole album is nice, though it's mellow... this is probably the poppiest track)

A little more on Niki, as I'm really digging this Nicole album (btw, I mischaracterized it above... all of the first four songs are really poppy).

Her previous LP, 2020's Moonchild, is an exercise in basic trend-hopping: there's a Reputation-era–Taylor style song; an Ariana clone (complete with "yuh"s); a tasteful nu-disco tune; a Billie Eilish ripoff... etc. (these are all in a row, btw). The songs aren't bad, but they're obv. not distinctive, and Niki's voice isn't strong enough to create interest ("Plot Twist," another Taylor soundalike, is pretty good IMO).

She also had an earlier single, "Lowkey," which people seem to know (it has 237mm plays on Spotify). It's fine, but fairly generic pop/r&b.

So it's fascinating how Nicole suddenly features a "voice" (both literal and metaphorical) – the songs are personal, specific, compelling, and don't really sound like anyone else in particular. Turns out that many of these are re-recordings/recreations of old songs she released online... she cites the "Taylor's Version" projects as a comparison, but it sounds more like a Car Seat Headrest–type thing to me.

It's really cool to hear an artist evolve like this, even if the "evolution" actually involves circling back to an earlier approach (which clearly plays to her strengths more than simply aping chart-toppers).

Sorry to triple-dip on this... but after listening to Nicole a few dozen times, I'm convinced it's a truly top-tier album. Her songwriting is really strong, the production is on point, and every song is good. Anyone who's into Taylor, post-Taylor (or, heck, pre-Taylor) personal singer-songwriter pop really should check it out.

I think it's hard to write a big, emo-y ballad like "Oceans & Engines," and stay on the right side of corny (...tho I may have an atypical tolerance for corn):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ0pazUc3ZA

It's a good album!

I like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPgN4EfzUrU

Rema & Selena Gomez - Calm Down

REMA : days of Rave & Roses (& of course Bangers)

there is a rema thread

"calm down" rules but gomez was not a good fit at all

Thx

Heard this playing in a coffee shop... I dig it. Sorta nü-Sheryl Crow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_miaFW4nRYk

(Ashe - Another Man's Jeans)

Here's a really nice ballad ("Love Is Letting Go") from the same album – featuring Diane Keaton, of all people:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBqh2CiDPyM

Feel like this year was kinda… good??

Hottest Record Of The Year 2022 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001fv8t

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MUPTcjjiCA
Klara Keller - Sad Thinking of You

I guess this is Bebe doing Miley, but I like it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrGhXL9zCPQ
Bebe Rexha • Heart Wants What It Wants

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSMryyB315A

not totally sure where to post this incredible jam with all of 9k views but an early soty for me

This is a good place for it! I like to see this thread revived… :)

I've got this vibey jam on repeat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYBlOxyB3sU

Audrey Nuna ft. Teezo Touchdown - Starving