Looking back 2013 pretty clearly marked the end point for the late 2000s early 2010s iteration of pop music. The biggest songs of 2011 were marked by artists who rose to prominence in the late 2000s early 2010s – Katy Perry, Maroon 5, Lady Gaga, Pink, The Black Eyed Peas, Kesha and more. 2011 represented a peak for pop music – making up around 41% of all Hot 100 hits but by 2013 it had slipped under 40% and rap had risen from 17.5% in 2011 to 22% by 2013 fueled by the success of artists like Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
Labels desperately searched for a way to stem the tide, with 2013 representing a year of attempts to craft a ‘Hip-Hop’ Popstar. Miley Cyrus, Robin Thicke and Macklemore all represented some of the biggest songs of the year. Even Country artists like Florida Georgia Line started dipping toes into Hip-Hop influenced music. From a 2020 standpoint it’s pretty apparent that all of these attempts failed miserably. Miley Cyrus retreated back into conventional pop music, Macklemore stumbled around the hip-hop genre with little relevance and Robin Thicke returned to obscurity. Pop’s market share faded to 36% by 2016 while Rap’s rise accelerated to 30% by 2016. By 2018 Hip-Hop was the biggest genre in the United States. Pop superstars like Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga have battled to remain relevant over the past decade while up and coming rap artists dominate the charts.
Miley Cyrus came under flack in 2017 after criticizing Hip-Hop despite using it as a method of renewing her popularity
2013 also marked a breakout year for streaming services which grew by over 50% over the course of the year. Streaming services have classically represented a predominantly Rap-centric audience largely thanks to their fast adoption by younger people who lean towards Hip-Hop as their genre of choice. Streaming over the past 7 years has dominated market share and lent itself to diminishing radio’s impact. To this day radio remains one of the last strongholds of pop music. The vast majority of pop songs on the Billboard Hot 100 manage to stay charting thanks to significantly higher airplay numbers comparative to genres like Hip-Hop.
Cue Lorde. To me Lorde represents the death of conventional pop better than any other single artist. In 2013, Justin Timberlake was 32, Pink was 34, Katy Perry 29, Britney Spears 32 and Adam Levine 34. Pop Music was old – the superstars of the genre had been around for years and the sound of the top 40 had adapted little over the past years despite the growing success of Hip-Hop. Lorde was 16.
Lorde embraced the sounds of Hip-Hop and did so in a genuine manner. While labels tried to create pop stars to vulture the sound of Hip-Hop, Lorde embraced the genre, the production of Royals is similar to typical Hip-Hop beats, she uses slang of the genre and her vocal work on the track took note from rap flows. She cited artists like Kanye West as shaping her musical sound.
Lorde talking about rap in 2013
She was one of the first examples of a streaming success. While Royals became a hit in New Zealand much earlier than the US, the songs success in the US sprang largely from the addition of the song to a Spotify playlist by Sean Parker the co-founder of Napster. His playlist had 800k subscribers and days after it first featured on the playlist, the song appeared on Spotify’s Viral 50. Less than a month later it was the biggest song on the chart. A month after that it was the biggest song on Spotify. A month after that it was the biggest song in the country. This is the exact same pattern we have seen time and time again, especially with rap songs – streaming success followed by eventual chart success.
Sean Parker on 'Hipster International' - his Spotify playlist that helped give rise to Lorde's success
Lorde took pop music from a place of bright, maximalist, catchy top 40 songs to introspective, self-aware minimalism. While the success of her music in 2013 represented the death of that iteration of pop music, Pure Heroine has lent itself to a future of pop, a darker more complex, stripped back genre heavily influenced by Hip-Hop and left-field electronic. Billie Eilish, Halsey, Kiiara, Troye Sivan and Alessia Cara among other represent some of the first successes in this new space and what I would expect to be the first of many.
*A Mashup of Lorde's 'Team' and Billie Eilish's 'Bellyache'. Comparing it to the original version of Team makes the influence particularly apparent'
shorter thread today cause I struggled to think of a topic
again if yall have any ideas for threads please lmk its hard to think of ones that haven't already been explored by journalists and etc
Pure Heroine was a dope album.
still the album of hers I feel most attached to
melodrama is better but I prefer PH
still the album of hers I feel most attached to
melodrama is better but I prefer PH
Haven't checked it out. Lorde is one of the few artists from the 2010s to drop an immaculate debut project (Rocky & Frank as well). Will check it out one day.
Haven't checked it out. Lorde is one of the few artists from the 2010s to drop an immaculate debut project (Rocky & Frank as well). Will check it out one day.
She’ll have a new one late this year - early 2021 you should check it out sometime in the lead up it’s a fantastic project
Pop music has definitely fell off, it seems like Pop stars have been milked by their label to churn out hits rather than good bodies of work
Doja Cat’s Hot Pink is the best pop album in a long time
It’s sickening how pop acts talk down on hip hop but will use a trap inspired beat on 80% of their songs
Pop music has definitely fell off, it seems like Pop stars have been milked by their label to churn out hits rather than good bodies of work
Doja Cat’s Hot Pink is the best pop album in a long time
Agree
I suspect we’ll see the current melodic rap start to move further into pop territory and possibly start to get whitewashed more and more - Post Malone for example
Dojas album was really good it actually felt innovative w the psychedelic sorta influence
I’d love for pop to have a phase like rap did in the early 10s of just multiple new exciting interesting artists quickly rising to stardom (Rocky, Cole, Drake, Odd Future, Kendrick etc)
There's amazing pop out there. You won't find it on the radio though
It’s fascinating to me how unpopular sales wise alternative pop is
Stuff like Sophie, Charli XCX, CRJ etc
All great but wow it really seems like it’s a while out from mainstream permeance from a number perspective
It’s sickening how pop acts talk down on hip hop but will use a trap inspired beat on 80% of their songs
Lorde basically wrote a little on this the other day
“As someone who has made art directly inspired by and in conversation with hip hop, it’s my responsibility to let you know that I’m here. I extend that sentiment to all my fellow musicians and producers who have tightened a snare to make it more trap, who’ve drawn a pattern of high hats in ProTools because they heard something similar in a hip hop song and it made them feel big and cool. We have a responsibility to let our affected listeners know that we’re with them when it’s hard too, not just when it’s easy. Not just when we benefit. We see you, and we’re here,”
Agree
I suspect we’ll see the current melodic rap start to move further into pop territory and possibly start to get whitewashed more and more - Post Malone for example
Dojas album was really good it actually felt innovative w the psychedelic sorta influence
I’d love for pop to have a phase like rap did in the early 10s of just multiple new exciting interesting artists quickly rising to stardom (Rocky, Cole, Drake, Odd Future, Kendrick etc)
Hopefully not honestly, I’m tired of labels vulturing black music for a quick buck
No matter how hard these labels try they’ll never produce a successful star through forcing industry created artists on the masses
Their pop stars need to make organic & consistent content or they’ll just fall off the charts & fade into irrelevancy after their break through single
Bazzi is a perfect example of this
Bump i will have something say about this once i get on my computer cause it was huge changing point
Hopefully not honestly, I’m tired of labels vulturing black music for a quick buck
No matter how hard these labels try they’ll never produce a successful star through forcing industry created artists on the masses
Their pop stars need to make organic & consistent content or they’ll just fall off the charts & fade into irrelevancy after their break through single
Bazzi is a perfect example of this
Yea completely agree
I like to think that the advent of streaming has made it that much harder for labels to force/buy success and hopefully that’s gonna translate into artists who make great music succeeding and vice versa needing to make great music to succeed
It’s fascinating to me how unpopular sales wise alternative pop is
Stuff like Sophie, Charli XCX, CRJ etc
All great but wow it really seems like it’s a while out from mainstream permeance from a number perspective
Even accessible stuff like CRJ doesn't get played in Canada which has strict rules about playing Canadian artists on the airwaves
Radio is way out of touch these days and I don't know why
Definitely agree that pop is dying. The Billies of the world will be successful but I can't see labels jumping head over heels to clone her. What she does is kind of hard to pull off because of how minimalistic it is. Those old pop stars are barely surviving nowadays and are being supported by small but extremely loyal groups of stans; they're making up like 75% of pop album sales because the streaming numbers are pitiful. I think we're going to see Rap on top for the next several years before a challenger even appears. I think the "Pop" genre is as dead as Rock at this point and I don't think it will ever return.
Yea completely agree
I like to think that the advent of streaming has made it that much harder for labels to force/buy success and hopefully that’s gonna translate into artists who make great music succeeding and vice versa needing to make great music to succeed
sorry unrelated
but are you the safe from old ktt
It’s sickening how pop acts talk down on hip hop but will use a trap inspired beat on 80% of their songs
I think about this daily when I hear my sister listening to Demi Lovato or Ariana Grande
shorter thread today cause I struggled to think of a topic
again if yall have any ideas for threads please lmk its hard to think of ones that haven't already been explored by journalists and etc
i would love you to do a***ysis two live crew and how they influenced hip hop censorship
it was huge turning point for pop with the larger then life of pop stars started decline (something like artpop rollout was one biggest messes i have ever seen) and start with more personal style already bleeding into indie & pop circles (i think lana was just as influential through video games bringing another star)
but lorde was when it the mainstream changed in a big way
Definitely agree that pop is dying. The Billies of the world will be successful but I can't see labels jumping head over heels to clone her. What she does is kind of hard to pull off because of how minimalistic it is. Those old pop stars are barely surviving nowadays and are being supported by small but extremely loyal groups of stans; they're making up like 75% of pop album sales because the streaming numbers are pitiful. I think we're going to see Rap on top for the next several years before a challenger even appears. I think the "Pop" genre is as dead as Rock at this point and I don't think it will ever return.
This is an interesting point
If pop is bound to the same fate as rock what does that mean for Hip-Hop
And if Hip-Hop dies so to speak what replaces it
sorry unrelated
but are you the safe from old ktt
Yuh