(Post) Recession Pop

Header by Martha Steele

There’s a reason why we beg for 2000s nights at every club and bar in town, pop music has been in a slump for a while now. At first, I thought maybe I’d outgrown pop music, but no, that’s not the issue. Off-shoot genres of pop are thriving, and alt-pop is doing great thanks to the likes of Caroline Polacheck, Charli XCX, and an entire army of underground artists dropping perfect albums and the catchiest tracks. These songs are hardly considered “mainstream,” and radio play is very different now from what I could imagine it was like when Rihanna released “Don’t Stop the  Music”. I could also be a victim of nostalgia, for when I was in preschool and did not know a single thing about pop culture. Even when I was ten years old, obsessing over Kesha, oblivious to what she was talking about in her lyrics, I loved the completely carefree attitude surrounding her as an artist. I think there is a serious lack of pop personas right now. The girls aren’t giving it their all with their characters and performances like that of Britney Spears and her mesmerizing dance-focused award performances. Maybe it’s because many of the songs simply aren’t dance-worthy in the first place. I’m sorry, but I cannot imagine anyone would choose to dance to “abcdefu” over “Evacuate the Dancefloor” when they’re out with their friends. So, what happened? Where did all the dance music go? 

Much like with fashion and beauty, changes in the greater aspects of culture can drive trends in the music we listen to. Many people have correlated the rise of house music with an impending economic crisis. During the Great Depression, there was a popularity boom in jazz and swing music, implying that even during the worst of times, all we wanted to do was dance. A similar phenomenon was seen during the Great Recession in 2009. It began with a multitude of hits that we all know, including “Just Dance” and “Tik Tok,” which shot to the top of the charts. Don’t think about the current problems, just have fun and party were the messages of mainstream music at the time. Soon after, it transitioned towards more apocalyptic-leaning anthems like “We Found Love” and “Till the World Ends”. No matter how bad it gets, we will always have each other - that was the message being echoed on the radio every day. Following the upswing of party music, once the worst of an economic decline had passed, the rise of slower, more heartfelt post-recession pop ballads began. These correlations are just a theory, and I’ve read comments from people online stating how ridiculous it is to try and make these connections at all, but I can see why this trend cycle occurs. It makes sense that at a time when money is the only thing on the mind, we would be bombarded with the best ways to spend what little is left. The need for escapism rises when we are facing a crisis, and this can also be seen with more people going to the movies and reminiscing on past times. I mention this because, in the past year, there has been a boom in movie popularity as well as the desire to bring back the aesthetics from the prime times of 2012- 2014. So, are we approaching a new era of recession pop? 

It seems that artists have been dropping more and more disco and synth-heavy tracks influenced by the hits of the 70s and 80s. Think of Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” albums and 

The Weeknd’s “Dawn FM”. Lady Gaga also released a hyper-pop remix album of the 2020s  “Chromatica” so things are most definitely speeding up in the music world. For me, the biggest indicator of a shift to party music is Beyoncé’s “Renaissance”. All the best parts of club music have been plucked out and mixed with samples from black and queer icons from across the 70s, 80s, 90s, and even the early 2000s. The “Renaissance” album is most definitely an instant classic that could go head-to-head with the pop anthems of economic declines in the past. But with the current staying power of folk-influenced and singer-songwriter albums, it seems like the house music trend is far from reaching its peak just yet. 

Trend analysis is not perfect, but it is an interesting way to look for explanations of major pop culture shifts every few years since we began maintaining media from the past. As someone who doesn’t know much about the economy, I do know that the trying times of 2008 gave us Lady Gaga. We will always manage to find hope and some amount of fun in the best and worst of times, often thanks to music.