Charli XCX

funny that you ask because the bonus track that the Dare produced is the first time I haven't hated something he's done

Im putting that in a kind of dumbed down way but its closer to that kind of post electroclash dirtbaggy cobrasnake vibe to me than anyone else really trying it rn

Heh, thought this was interesting re: her relationship to auto-tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ1Io84s9cM

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/commentary-charli-xcx-pop-girl-moment-brat-lorde-1235045384/

I feel like I’ve been reading “this is her breakthrough album” for every album she has ever released.

This could actually be it though

It could potentially hang on for a third week in the Billboard top 10 which is...crazy

Btw I was looking for her other albums and couldn’t find them by looking at their cover until I noticed she changed all her album covers in the same style as brat on spotify. That’s kind of funny.

I think this probably is her breakthrough album, which I think reflects a whole bunch of shifts and alignments in the surrounding cultural context.

There's a full-fledged scene of post-hyperpop Pop music (this is an awkward framing but you probably know what I mean - actual pop singers who are drawing on hyperpop sonics and vibes while also presenting themselves at least notionally as being potential pop stars) that did not exist to the same extent even 2 years ago and which in particular is now the clearly dominant brand of queer-aligned pop - and Charli (perhaps ironically) benefits from the fact that none of Kim Petras or Slayyyter or Shygirl or Tove Lo or etc. are really convincing as Top Tier pop stars - the fact of there being so many followers supports the inference that Charli must be a leader. I feel like some of the investment in her right now is, like, people trying to work out which AI company they should buy shares in.

I find some of the "ahead of the curve" / "future-forward" narratives that constantly get trotted out (see the rolling stone feature above for example) kind of irritating, both because I'm not persuaded that the last ten years of people trying to make pop songs that sound like Alter Ego or Ewan Pearson tracks from the mid-00s really merits that description (though some of it sounds great, to be clear) and because there's a real Pascalian "if I keep saying it over and over again like a mantra, maybe I and others will start to believe it" desperation vibe to this framing. Like, if we don't all agree to accept that framing, why are we spending so much time listening to and talking about this stuff?

Seemingly the fact that this is just a really catchy and fun and danceable and memorable pop album is insufficient.

(before everyone jumps in with the fact checking, obviously all the above artists I mention were making music two years ago, but there's a much bigger primed-audience to receive Brat now than there was to receive something broadly equivalent like Kim's Slut Pop two years ago, though the people who were wandering around quoting Kim's "Treat Me Like A Slut" then probably comprise(d) the core nucleus of the much bigger group who are now wandering around declaring "I'm so Julia")

idk that most of those acts you list really have much to do with hyperpop or that it's the dominant brand of queer-aligned pop - just look at chappell roan. i also don't really think petras' slut pop is equivalent at all to brat, it was doing a different and ultimately much more niche thing (being absurdly vulgar to the point of being one-note)

i think it just helps a lot that this is really charli's first album to be playing to her strengths while having a proper promotional campaign behind it, and she's spent a long time building up a cult fanbase by being really good at what she does, while continuing to have a minor hit every now and then. if pop 2 had been released as a proper album with a full promotional campaign (presumably leading to "unlock it" being a minor hit) then she might have had this sort of breakthrough moment earlier, idk

For what is worth several lines in the album are very explicit about her doubting her relevance and the anxieties of a pop career tip-toeing between “famous, but not quite”

Examples:

“Should I stop my birth control?
’Cause my career feels so small
In the existential scheme of it all”

“I used to never think about Billboard
But, now, I’ve started thinking again
Wondering ’bout whether I think I deserve commercial success”

“Guess I'm a mess and play the role
Used to live just for the party, door is open
I'm famous but not quite
But I'm perfect for the background
Onе foot in a normal life”

dominant != sole. I would of course not suggest that there is any one type (or even a small number of types) of pop music that can be described as "queer-aligned".

Also I definitely am not trying to defend either the quality or commercial prospects of Slut Pop. I would say that that release had an outsized impact on the same audience which appear broadly responsible for promoting "brat supremacy" online.

the genius entry on "Sympathy Is A Knife" (which I love) is pretty funny with respect to both the positioning of charli as an innovator and her insecurity vis a vis her status as a pop star:

"Charli is successful, but she’s not on the same level as Taylor, one of the most awarded and commercially successful musicians ever. Taylor’s exceptional status means no artist should feel bad they don’t have her numbers, and her music is more focused on mainstream appeal whereas Charli prides herself on avant-garde innovation, but insecurity is often irrational. As Charli says, she doesn’t know why she feels so strongly."

I dont think chappell roan is in the silo tim's describing at all, that's its own thing entirely

Charli prides herself

Anyone going to San Antone?