"It's a new state of mind," sings the pop artist Lorde in a sunny new single. "Are you coming, my baby?"
With America reopening, there's a summery exuberance in the air. And the songs blasting from our radios may reflect that newfound carefree attitude.
We caught up with our culture writer Spencer Kornhaber, who argues that, as the nation reopens, Americans may see a return to a simpler, sparkly 2000s vibe.
Lorde's first album was also a cultural reset, back in 2013. She ushered in a more introspective, vulnerable, and somewhat morose mood on the pop charts. People might have expected her to come back and make more music like that. But she said, Screw that. I'm going to make my Sheryl Crow, strummy campfire anthem and tell everyone to lighten up.
You recently argued that, as we exit the pandemic, we could see a 2000s-pop-culture revival . Can you explain what you mean by that?
The most frivolous time in recent memory for a lot of people was the early 2000s. The pop culture of that era was just sort of ridiculous and flashy and joyfully artificial, with artists such as Britney Spears and Fergie and early Kanye West.
People are nostalgic for that vibe, including the Gen Zers on TikTok. There's this mood of Let's forget our problems and just care about wearing silly outfits—and not making all of our pop music have to reveal our soul.
You've also written about how pop music of late has been less in the bombastic style of Katy Perry . As America starts to reopen, do you think we might drift back that way? Or will something else dominate?
Between BTS, Doja Cat, and Dua Lipa, you definitely see signs of an upbeat dance-pop moment brewing in the charts. And then at the same time, you see songs like Lorde's. You also have Justin Bieber's " Peaches ," featuring Daniel Caesar and Giveon, which is definitely a strummy sing-along. And even Polo G's " RAPSTAR ," the biggest song in hip-hop right now, is built on a pretty guitar loop. The singles from Billie Eilish's new album are all very guitar-based.
Biz 3's Dana Meyerson Launches Slashie, New Label Through Mom+Pop - Variety
According to Meyerson, the imprint takes its name from the local term for hybrid bar-liquor stores in her hometown of Chicago — “sort of business in the front, party in the back” institutions, and it’s also slang for a multi-hyphenate.
Over the years Meyerson has also freelance-A&R’ed for Warner — where she helped to sign Grammy-nominated rapper Chika — as well as Skrillex’s label OWSLA, and Mom+Pop, where she helped to sign singer Alina Baraz.
Meyerson will continue in her role as partner (and 16-year veteran) at Biz 3, where she has worked closely with a wide variety of artists, including Jessie Reyez, Jorja Smith, Danny Brown, Diplo and his Mad Decent label and newer artists like Remi Wolf, Lolo Zouai and Reggie. She splits her time between Chicago and Los Angeles.
Commenting on the deal, Mom+Pop chief Michael Goldstone says, “We’ve wanted to work with Dana Meyerson and her imprint Slashie for quite some time. Dana is a cultural force with so much respect from the artist and business community. She is still at Biz 3 doing her magic, but we’re glad to have her with us. Dana’s aesthetic is diverse and broadens our musical reach. We are thrilled to build Slashie with Dana in the years to come and our first imprint at Mom+Pop!”
Artists Explore Pop Music Icons in Two Local Shows | Jersey City Times
Among other things, pop music is a form of visual art. Rarely is it enough to mint a melody that makes the world sing. That tune must also be tethered to a recognizable image. The most efficient deliverer of the iconography upon which pop music depends is the artist's own face. The face of the singer is a kind of brand, which helps to explain why it is often abstracted, and often estranged, from the work and placed on posters and advertisements. It also helps explain why a massive mural of David Bowie now overlooks the Holland Tunnel.
There's a much, much smaller image of David Bowie in "An Artist's Duty," which closes at SMUSH Gallery (340 Summit Ave.) on Saturday, June 12. It was painted in acrylic on canvas by the curator of the show: Stephanie Geremito, a Long Island artist who takes the sociopolitical statements made by popular entertainers seriously. "An Artist's Duty" is one of two local exhibitions that place the image of the singing star at the center of the show. Like "An Artist's Duty," "Top Ten Hits" at Novado Gallery (110 Morgan St.) contains work that's informed by street art and popular portraiture techniques, and it situates its famous subjects in a volatile world. But the tone of the silkscreened and spray-painted canvases by St. Petersburg-born artist Denis Ouch is sharply different — and so is his understanding of the place of the pop star in the global imagination.
Which, if you're a fan of pop, means that there's a lot for you to enjoy here. But the thrills aren't spaced evenly, and that inconsistency might say something about Geremito's relationship to music, or to iconography, or both. While it would be unfair to call some of the portraits of older artists (a poised Jackson Browne, a steely Neil Young, an exhausted John Lennon) overly reverential, she's not adding much to the popular understanding of the public characters that these Hall of Famers endeavored to project. She does better when she pokes the icon a little. Ironically, given her fascination with rock history, her most revealing portraits are the ones of current artists. Sia Furler, for instance, crackles with the childlike impishness and mischievousness that animates her best pop writing; she looks as if she's about to reach through the frame and apply finger-paint to your nose. Childish Gambino emerges, shirtless and strangely vulnerable, from a background of smeared grey and green paint, head bowed, grim, radiating despair. Harry Styles – the only artist to feature in this exhibition and "Top Ten Hits" as well – cocks his head with the combination of camp insouciance and near-professorial discernment that always separated him from his groupmates in One Direction. Janelle Monáe, decked out beautifully in a jacket and tie, seems legitimately shocked that she's even under observation.
Those of us who believe in the power of popular music — and that includes Denis Ouch and Stephanie Geremito — would surely argue that it's more complicated than that. Pop stars, even at their most superficial, really do have the ability to unite and inspire millions of people, and that influence is felt transnationally, in defiance of borders and government restrictions. Artists who've got the talent and charisma to project their personality and their ideas across the void of consumer space are vanishingly rare: if it was easy to manufacture a Taylor Swift or a Beyoncé, another one would have been fabricated by now. These artists may or may not reflect the times, as Nina Simone would have them do, but they certainly do channel and shape the dreams of their fans, and maybe even those who aren't fans, but could be if they'd only listen without prejudice. That's why we keep painting them, and drawing them, and silk-screening them, and emblazoning their faces on t-shirts and tote bags. It's why we're desperate to enlist them in our political causes, and why we chase after their fantastic energy like kids with butterfly nets. We all know it: what they do is the closest thing to magic we'll ever find in this material world.
Charli XCX's Six Best Tracks | Miami New Times
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If your music knowledge skews to whatever's on the Top 40, you probably know her from that time she sang the chorus on Iggy Azalea's "Fancy." Or perhaps it was for her single "Boom Clap," which was featured on the soundtrack for the 2014 film The Fault in Our Stars . You may even recognize her from Icona Pop's "I Love It," which she wrote.
Delve a little deeper, and you'll also find out she's written songs for Bella Thorne, Will.i.am, Blondie, and, most famously, Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, who topped the Billboard Hot 100 with "Señorita."
But all of that still pales in comparison to the work she's been putting out herself. Since breaking out with her 2013 debut, True Romance , the British singer has evolved to one of the most exciting figures in pop music today.
After that, she amassed a constellation of collaborators who helped her create the kind of pop music she longed to hear. Charli's pop is maximalist, repetitive to the point of annoyance, and experimental — and somehow, it all works. In Charli's wake rose the term "hyperpop," which has come to describe the exaggerated take on pop music that seems destined to be the big thing five years from now.
While you wait for the world to catch to Charli XCX's genius, here's a primer in the form of six must-listen tracks.
Released only a few weeks ago, "Xcxoplex," is the best example of why A.G. Cook and Charli XCX complement each other so well. A remix of "Xxoplex," off Cook's 2020 album Apple , "Xcxoplex" takes the frenetic energy of the original and transforms it into a contemplative hyper-ballad. "Even if nothing glows/There's light inside my bones/It fills me up with feeling," Charli sings on the track. The track meshes Cook's pop-futurism production with some of Charli's best vocal work. It also proves that even after all these years, the pair still have a vision to alter the pop-music landscape.
Wynwood Pride. With Charli XCX. 5 p.m. Friday, June 18, at the Oasis, 2335 N. Miami Ave., Miami; oasiswynwood.com . Tickets cost $80 to $150 via oasismiami.tixr.com .
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Curtis Waters on Popstar Role-Play & New EP Plastic World | Complex CA
It’s a full-force bright-skies Saturday when I sit to chat with Curtis Waters about his latest project, Plastic World . He is our generation’s answer to the one effortlessly cool scene kid of the early aughts: the self-effacing wuderkind has a penchant for a very self-aware brand of irony, and grew up in Nepalese culture, which is a world (and few shades of melanin) away from the predominantly white pop-punk that captured his musical imagination growing up. His warm and sunny laughter brings the sunshine inside in a way that allows me to forget I am embarking on what feels like my millionth Zoom call of pandemic purgatory. Curtis is the consummate gentleman and immediately sympathetic.
The Nepal-born, Calgary-bred artist’s phone has undoubtedly been blowing up since uploading his song “Stunnin’” on TikTok last year. Tens of millions of views and streams later, he’s got three recent Juno nods , a placement in a Mercedes Benz commercial, an article in Rolling Stone , and a deal with BMG to his name. But he’s also got a lot less privacy.
We caught up with Curtis to chat about weird Harmony Korine movies, DIY culture, and how he’s pushing the pop-punk sound.
What drew you to explore that in music?
Music is my coping mechanism: if I’m having a good day, I make music; if I’m having a bad day, I make music. I just don’t know how to express myself very well outside of that. If I’m having an excess amount of validation, you can come to depend on external validation. My take on vulnerability is that there are two sides: there’s one where you see yourself as worthless, and the other where you’re compensating and being really egotistical.
“Even though I’m a brown immigrant kid, I have no idea why I relate to this skinny white kid complaining about his step-dad and small town in California.”
What role does your character play in your music?
Artists can put on a character and make 100 songs in this character. But for me, if I’m manic, the character will be manic, and if I’m depressed, the character is going to be depressed. It’s very personal to me. I know my fanbase might be divided on this release because it’s so weird and aggressive and punk and digital and there are people who came to me for a sweet pop sound. I think that’s cool but I also need to express myself so I don’t die.
Where are you inspired to take your sound now?
Lately, I’ve been into industrial rap. I’ve been into Godly the Ruler. Ever since I was a kid I’ve been into pop-punk and emo stuff. Growing up, I was looking at 20 white dudes playing drums in their basements playing guitar and complaining about their step-dads and was like, “Wow, that’s what I feel like, for some odd reason.” Like, even though I’m a brown immigrant kid, I have no idea why I relate to this skinny white kid complaining about his step-dad and small town in California.
What’s it been like to work with your friends and family?
We shot a music video out in Vancouver recently. Our best friends that we get drunk with had this house and it had a red carpet and red couch and it was so dingy. We found random friends from Instagram and made it happen all day. My friends were putting fake blood on me. It’s very DIY. It feels like a village and like we’re building something together. I work with my little brother back home, he’s still in high school. I bought him a camera and he takes pictures all the time. It’s all very homemade.
And you’re making all these projects under your own label?
Yeah! It’s Curtis Waters Inc licensed to BMG. No one’s signed to the label, but down the road, I wanna sign people to the label because I love producing. I wanna be like Pharrell. There’s so many things I can’t do: I’d love to make sexy R&B music. I can do rap, pop and punk, but I want to expand my scope to do everything. I’d love to work with artists that have a very whimsical fairy vibe but contrast it with hard industrial style. I’m a big fan of soft voices.
Kitchener's indie-pop artist Courtney Wolfe releases debut EP - Guitar Girl Magazine
Today, singer-songwriter Courtney Wolfe is thrilled to release her debut EP New Moon, available to stream now .
Delivering passionate indie-pop music through stripped lyrics and abstract sounds, Courtney Wolfe’s EP was produced by Sydney Johnson at Wonlife Music Group. Taking listeners on a journey through the beginning highs and the darkest lows of a relationship, this EP provides a balanced mix between upbeat indie-pop to soulful sounds. With the intention to release music built upon a storyline, Wolfe knew this was the perfect combination of tracks for New Moon. “I feel that now is the perfect time to release it as I am at peace with how things ended and am looking forward to a new beginning – or new moon,” Courtney added. She’s confident it will enable her to connect with listeners on a whole new level as they relate to the songwriting and stories of love, heartbreak and peace.
Beginning to sing from a young age, Courtney’s true connection with music unfolded when she discovered her love for the art of songwriting. As her musical skills developed, she made her debut in 2019 with the single, Missing Out. Praised for her alluring vocal tone, emotive songwriting and overall intimate atmosphere, her singles have reached new audiences and have garnered support by CBC, regular rotation on a number of radio stations and tremendous love from music blogs around the globe.
“Courtney’s smooth vocals, paired with the relatable lyrics and the perfect mix of instrumentation, make the track a must-listen, and a definite contender to add to your playlists this Summer.”
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Gary Graff is a multimedia journalist covering music and entertainment for MediaNews Group in Michigan.
10 Cool New Pop Songs: King Princess, CupcakKe | Billboard
Kicking off the Monday following a four-day week is never easy, but we're here to help with some excellent new pop music.
These 10 tracks from artists like Bülow, King Princess, CupcakKe and Samia will get you energized to take on the week. Add any of these gems into your personal playlists -- or scroll to the end of the post for a custom playlist of all 10.
The 21-year-old Berlin-born artist has been releasing a string of EPs and one-offs since her 2017 project Damaged Vol. 1 first made a splash. Her latest, "Revolver," is perhaps the most heart-racing yet, with pulsing production that supports the storyline of admiring a woman who's a bit too daring -- and forcing listeners to reevaluate the idea of what makes a role model. — Lyndsey Havens
UK-based electronic production duo Jungle will release a new album, Loving In Stereo , on AWAL come August 31, and based off its first singles, the album will extend the summer energy into fall. For latest single "Talk About It" -- a groovy, disco-inspired jam -- the pair delivers deep lyrics asking for better, or any, communication ("Let's talk about, don't run"), though the juxtaposition of the upbeat production makes it clear the talking can -- and will -- simply have to wait. — L.H.
"Nothing could ever stop my ass from showing up," Samia declares over crashing guitars on the chorus to new single, "Show Up," then finishes the thought, "to sing another song for the people I love." During a pandemic-stricken era, Samia has given us an ode to intimacy that pulls in her whole group of family and friends, and feels authentic in its shoegaze-pop approach. — Jason Lipshutz
Danish pop singer-songwriter Drew Sycamore recently unveiled her charming new album Sycamore , and while tracks like "Jungle" and "45 Fahrenheit Girl" are worth your time, late album highlight "The Rhythm" is worth leaping up and shimmying along to, its propulsive chorus destined to soundtrack dance floors drenched in neon light. — J. Lipshutz
Searching for a song in 2021 that evokes emotional, expertly composed pop-rock a la Michelle Branch twenty years ago? Look no further than Lauren Aquilina's "Empathy," which sounds beamed in from a different era but contains the type of sing-along chorus and chewy lines ("Didn't ask to be born as a black hole," the song begins) that work regardless of when they're released. — J. Lipshutz
Over a horn riff Jason Derulo is probably mad he didn't get to first, CupcakKe spits a hilariously filthy rundown of bedroom gymnastics using an off-the-wall assortment of Michael Jackson-related double entendres that are truly invincible. — Joe Lynch
Coming in, well, hot from the Platinum Edition of her 2020 party-starter What's Your Pleasure? , "Hot N Heavy" is an unstoppable disco-tinged excursion that starts at 9/10 and somehow maintains that breathless energy for the full three-and-a-half minutes. — J. Lynch
Carrie Underwood & More Who Dominate Their Awards Categories | Billboard
Carrie Underwood wins Video of the Year for the 2021 CMT Music Awards at Bridgestone Arena on June 09, 2021 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Carrie Underwood won video of the year for the ninth time at the 2021 CMT Music Awards on Wednesday night. She took the award this time for the video for "Hallelujah," a collab with John Legend that appeared on her 2020 Christmas album, My Gift .
And that's not the only CMT Music Awards category that Underwood has thoroughly dominated. She has won eight times for female video of the year. (Do you get the sense that CMT viewers really like her?)
Underwood isn't the first music star who has won so many times in a given category at an awards show that the category should almost be named in their honor. Here's a healthy sampling of other artists who have won eight or more times in a category at various award shows -- both EGOT-level and genre-specific shows. (In each case, these artists hold the record for the most wins in that category at that show.)
Enrique Iglesias : The second-generation Latin heartthrob won the American Music Award for favorite Latin artist eight times between 1999 and 2016. Fun fact: The category was added the year before Iglesias began his win streak. The winner that first year: his dad, Julio Iglesias.
Garth Brooks : The country titan won the American Music Award for favorite country male artist eight times between 1992 and 2000. Brooks' trophy case is jammed with other awards too. He won the CMA Award for entertainer of the year seven times between 1991 and 2019 and the ACM Award in that category six times between 1990 and 1998.
The Statler Brothers: The veteran group took the CMA Award for vocal group of the year nine times between 1972 and 1984. Fun fact: Despite the name, only two members of the group (Don and Harold Reid) were brothers and none of the group members had the surname Statler.
Alfred Newman: The late film composer and one of the founders of the Newman film music dynasty won the Academy Award for best original score nine times between 1938 ( Alexander's Ragtime Band ) and 1967 ( Camelot ).
Miranda Lambert : Lambert won the ACM Award for female vocalist of the year nine years in a row between 2009 and 2017. The star also took the CMA Award in that category seven times between 2010 and 2017.
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