For the past decade we’ve all seen the same viral post, video, infographic, GoFundMe page, email forward and cave painting. “Pop is dead” types @AvaMaxCuntress, failing to stream ‘Maybe You’re the Problem” for a second time. “Teenage Dream literally saved my life” says the thirteen-year-old stan account @HollyValanceKissKissCoquette on TikTok. The lack of bubble gum dominance on the charts has truly rotted some people’s brains. Because they’re all missing the point.
Pop isn’t dead.
Pop music has had some amazing highs in 2022. Look at the moments that brought us together. TikTok, for all the varied impact it has had on music (and we’ll return to that later) has emphasised hooks again. So much of the previous decade seemed to have an aversion to choruses –a result of the EDM invasion– that I think we forgot why we liked them. But in a culture where the teen market explicitly wants to connect to a 15-30 second section of a song, we’re seeing a shift back.
That’s where singles are at this moment. Yes, the children seem to forget what a bridge is, but they’re getting honest-to-God choruses. That’s a win in my books.
But its albums where the best music is. This year, following the Covid panic of 2020 and 2021, we wanted to perform joy again. The pandemic may continue, but we’ve moved on culturally. Now we’re in recession mode, which means sonic escapism.
‘Renaissance’ brought Beyonce to the most joyous place she’s been since ‘4’ (2011), and to the top spot of the Hot 100 all by herself for the first time in over a decade. The shedding of stress, the thumping of the dancefloor – the album was a wall-to-wall party mix. There’s an inexplicable bright quality to the lead single ‘Break My Soul’, that exists only in context of the full track list. It isn’t a “raw” or “personal” record like ‘Lemonade’ (2016), but in returning to club, she didn’t lose the complexity in her music that’s been developing for over two decades.
And that’s true of all the best albums this year. ‘Motomami’ allowed Rosalia to ascend even further into genre bending and sonic irreverence than her discography had already done so - which was already a lot. ‘Caprisongs’ saw FKA Twigs escape from the more painful moments of her previous album to something wistful, playful and full of wonder. ‘Dawn FM’ is almost in tandem with ‘Renaissance’, looking both backwards and forwards with a pulsating beat. Even as depressing an album -thematically- as ‘SOS’ saw SZA reminiscing for the “good days” on her mind.
In so many years past, we’ve had it called the “Year of the Album”. This year feels no different, and yet it’s truer than ever. Following Beyonce’s self-titled record in 2013, there’s been an increasing trend towards music’s biggest wanting to be album artists. Desire doesn’t always equal success, but many have produced phenomenal bodies of work. An unintended consequence has been the decreasing necessity and relevance of singles.
Billboard is dead.
Look at the hits of this year. So many are less songs and more incredibly niche viral moments. Heavy hitters like Harry Styles and Beyonce are obviously going to be widely known, but not even radio play seems to be cementing hits as hits anymore. Streaming certainly isn’t pushing the dial towards individual tracks the way it seemingly should.
We’ve seen some of the biggest “Billboard” moments of all time in the past few years, but so few feel tangible. Artists debuting multiple songs in the top ten at once that are gone at the end of the month. Hits that are smashing on radio or streaming, but not both, and thus fail to maintain a foothold on the charts. Lyrics the entire world can and does sing along to, that just…failed to impact the Hot 100.
Major artists are gaming the system, but not necessarily winning the war.
The “biggest” hits of the year feel increasingly stale. ‘30’ might have been Adele’s most experimental and mature record to date, but ‘Easy On Me’ feels like a re-tread of where the British star had been half a decade prior with ‘25’. ‘Hold Me Closer’ took all the steam of a Britney Spears comeback narrative and wasted it on a mediocre track. Ed Sheeran continued to produce lacklustre Target pop, followed suit by Meghan Trainor returning to her signature grocery store radio sound after failing to transition to normal pop with her last two albums.
‘Big Energy’, ‘First Class’ and ‘Super Freaky Girl’ all hinge their catchiness on a type of sample-focused production that feels increasingly thin. Sampling used to build to something, now it’s all certain songs offer. Maybe as a result of ‘Blurred Lines’ (2013), ‘Dark Horse’ (2013), and the copyright lawsuit craziness hence, sampling has become so much more obvious now. And as an added consequence, the less obvious the sample, the more protracted and annoying the legal action. Or sometimes just outrage on social media. Thank you bald man on TikTok - you’re not the problem but you certainly don’t help.
Even outside of samples, the music charting rarely feels that original. Not every single feels reductive, but so many do feel like we’re filling slots between the records actual superstars are more deserving of. Gayle’s ‘ABCDFU’ took over for Olivia Rodrigo for a while, continuing the flaccid pop punk revival that seems to be pushing the wrong songs. Very few people have the emotional or vocal range for the music they’re making, and that annoying TikTok hit by Leah Kate was the worst of them. A nostalgic push just isn’t enough to make things work, particularly when the quality is so low.
In contrast, Demi Lovato released their best project to date, to such an unfortunately tepid response.
The role of TikTok
I feel like every few years since ‘Crank That (Souja Boy)’ (2007), music criticism has blamed the youth online for “ruining music”. In 2012, we saw ‘Gangham Style’ and ‘Harlem Shake’ get blamed for making a mockery of the charts with YouTube virality. Vine saw hits like ‘Panda’ (2015), and ‘Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)’ (2015) find footholds on both the Hot 100 and “worst of” lists. The fact that “viral songs” have been a thing for decades, including many platinum-standard hits of yore, always seems to escape these cultural nags.
TikTok, of course, can clearly be manipulated. But it’s cultural chokehold currently is pushing the dial of what songs get made and what songs get supported. It celebrates artificiality, but rewards authenticity, and thus we’re getting a lot of various products. Kate Bush can rise to the top ten after decades, and in the same session Carly Rae Jepsen can find her newest project with more eyes on it than the last few combined.
But I do think there’s an insidious nature to TikTok’s relationship to music. Labels are getting increasingly lazy. It isn’t enough to make and perform a song, an artist now is at least suggested, if not downright ordered to, create a #viralmoment. While for some like Chloe Bailey with ‘Have Mercy’ (2021) it’s fairly natural, most do struggle. The most effective campaign strategy seems to be producing a snippet and hoping it takes off. See ‘Unholy’. By god, that song deserved a bridge.
I beg no other artist to repeat Halsey’s strategy, because I never once heard that song.
The result is that so many artists clearly are no better with a label representing them than without. If you literally cannot release music, you’re just trapped in a business relationship with no tangible benefit. Congrats on getting out, Raye, ‘Escapism’ is the hit you deserve! Considering how predatory many of these record deals are and have continued to be exposed as, platforms like TikTok offer an amazing alternative for independent artists looking to promote themselves.
Just be careful what you wish for when you sell out a concert to an audience that knows 30 seconds of one song and nothing else.
Did you have fun?
Whether you’re headed to the disco or looking for some good driving music, I feel like there’s something for you in the releases of 2022. Hell, you probably like some of the stuff I all but called garbage. It’s all about finding what you like and when you like it.
For me? I plan on playing my ‘Renaissance’ vinyl while sipping on a glass of something cold by the pool this hot Australian summer. That’s heaven for me.
P.S. Like everyone else, my Spotify Wrapped was embarrassing.
Some of my favourite music articles of 2022
Exploring Jazmine Sullivan's Expansion of the 'Heaux Tales' Universe on The Bulletin
"I never knew my killer would be coming from within" on El rincón de Nomart.
‘The Loneliest Time’: Carly Rae Jepsen Came Back For Us, Baby (Album Review) on MuuMuse
Carly Slay Jepsen on kasstastic
Notes on Sour on Mumblings Musings and Mullings
extremely kessacore: an updated playlist on muse & blues
The not j*ss Halloween Spooky Playlist on Not J*ss’ Newsletter