Rising Again and Falling
A weird phenomenon has been changing the rules of the music game: it doesn’t matter anymore if your name is historically iconic, it could still be a flop if the audience is not heard. And 2024 is the symbol of how the new generations want to be heard (in every area of life).
Image taken at Bruno Mars’ concert. In the image Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars are singing “Die with a smile”, shared via Pinterest. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
The mother of monsters couldn’t choose a better period for her comeback: this spooky fall welcomed her album “Harleyquin”, inspired by her work on the set of Joker: folie a deux. Everything seemed perfect for a triumph with the red carpet, but has anyone truly stopped and listened to the full album?
Apart from the hit that feels like the old Bruno Mars in a revived happy-tears song, what happened to the icon that raised generations and led a full movement? First, the album clearly recalls a genre: Jazz. The sophisticated Lady Gaga’s piano skills were accompanied by classic infused soul, which sides her other jazz works with Tony Bennett: 2014’s cheek to cheek and 2021’s love for sale. And it’s beautiful but for a very specific kind of audience; great covers and classics inspired this beautiful piece, which unfortunately doesn’t leave room for the expectations of pop record makers. Well, times changed and so is the culture and the request for it; sometimes some artists may come back with genius untracked routes, but some other times these have already a huge sign stop at the start. In fact, for a year baptized with the resurrection of disco-pop and electronic synths, jazz unfortunately doesn’t find lucky ears yet and is still faithful to the lounge atmosphere of the big cities, even if it’s slowly remarkably infiltrating in the new generations.
The huge paradox of nowadays is that there is a nostalgic request of those 2010 vibes that were soundtracking teenage adventures and dances in discos, but these expectations aren’t fulfilled from who we should expect from, the originals who created those times, but instead a new wave of talents, who are inspired by those times, but add a fresh touch creating the right bridge between old and new.
Katy Perry is another example of this pattern that keeps repeating: an unexpected flop. The visuals aspired to be a new futuristic kind of pop for the singer of California girl, but the effective communication failed to deliver a real message of empowered feminism, instead it was severely criticized after her performance at the MTV VMAs 2024: a scene opened the doubt about an attempt of queer-baiting, seeing the evident contrast between the real lyrics of her song and the actual visual representation of it. Fans don’t want this anymore. And numbers show it, more than ever. Transformation and evolution with past inspiration will always be accepted, but more than ever we see a clear attachment to coherence and authenticity, especially in the essence of beliefs and messages.
Pop stars which are rising lately in the top charts like Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Charlie XCX, Addison Rae, Billie Eilish, etc … have been building their identity around being true to who they are out of cameras, effectively gaining more and more enthusiasm with their work and grasping also those vibes which were for a long time missed, those tones which bring out the most alive parts of us during a car ride.
Evolution requires certainly destruction and building, and as humans the process of being authentic is not consistent: showing up in honesty sometimes could find blockages through the artistic filters, which don’t allow the real voice to get to the audience and adds layers to a mask instead of celebrating the uniqueness. Ironically, the more screens are around, and the more reality is looked for.
