Satirically, this 12 months in pop was outlined by a pair of 2022 blockbusters: Taylor Swift’s Midnights and SZA’s SOS. Though the 2 Billboard 200-topping albums are starkly completely different in sound and tone, there’s a lyrical by way of line of unflinching self-examination and sarcastic self-deprecation that programs by way of every. “Anti-Hero,” the lead single from Midnights that dominated the Billboard Sizzling 100, turned considered one of Swift’s largest chart hits thanks, partially, to its cheeky chorus: “It’s me, hello/I’m the issue, it’s me.” Likewise, SZA dominated the Sizzling 100 together with her Grammy-nominated “Kill Invoice,” during which she sings, “I’m so mature, I’m so mature/I’m so mature, I acquired me a therapist to inform me there’s different males.”
Olivia Rodrigo, a pop powerhouse who this 12 months scored a Sizzling 100 No. 1 with “Vampire” and one other prime 10 with “Dangerous Thought, Proper?,” constructed the whole lot of her Grammy-nominated GUTS album round this idea. In “ballad of a homeschooled woman,” she croons, “Every part I do is tragic/Each man I like is homosexual/The morning after, I panic/Oh, God, what did I say?!” Delivered with a tone that rigorously swells from apathy to mania, Rodrigo’s lyrics are biting — however she’s the topic of her personal takedown. By way of revealing the social and romantic cues that also confuse her regardless of her famous person standing, Rodrigo goes from inaccessible movie star model to digital pal and confidante in just some bars.
This kind of tongue-in-cheek accountability — which struck a very resonant chord within the context of the evolution of Swift’s public persona and notion — harks again to a pivotal album launched a decade earlier. Lorde’s 2013 debut, Pure Heroine, was outlined by its pointed pop songwriting, with couplets that bemoan the singer’s personal shortcomings simply as a lot as they deride and analyze the world round her. Ten years later, pop music in 2023 has proved that not solely is that this fashion of songwriting right here to remain, nevertheless it has additionally change into more and more reflective of range and illustration in common media.
SZA’s model of self-deprecation speaks extra on to Black girls. When she sings, “I was particular/However you made me hate me/Remorse that I modified me/I hate that you just made me/Identical to you,” in “Particular,” she’s talking from a spot that’s uncomfortable, embarrassing and legitimate — particularly to Black girls who should combat varied compounding types of misogynoir of their quest for love. She’s making emotional area that holds simply as a lot weight as extra constructive anthems like Beyoncé’s “Brown Pores and skin Lady.”
For as many pseudo-protest songs as summer season 2020 produced, that interval additionally intensified the already-brewing ramifications of a pandemic on the human psyche. “I believe between individuals being on lockdown and coping with all of the hardships of the previous couple of years, [they] have had rather more time to show inward and typically face their very own demons,” says “Particular” co-writer Rob Bisel. “I believe having music that’s self-deprecating helps make that technique of turning inward a lot easier and makes individuals really feel much less alone throughout these turbulent instances.”
Bisel additionally labored on Reneé Rapp’s standout debut, Snow Angel, which options a number of sarcasm-drenched pop tunes together with “I Hate Boston” and “Poison Poison.” The previous is a cheeky rebuttal of Beantown as a consequence of a no-good ex, whereas the latter is a fiery rumination on a friendship with a lady that went up in flames. As an out bisexual lady in pop, Rapp writes lyrics that seize the minds and attitudes of an viewers not often focused — however usually objectified — by prime 40 radio. Troye Sivan’s Sizzling 100 hit “Considered one of Your Ladies” — which particulars the minefield that’s being a homosexual man messing with romantic pursuits who haven’t beforehand been with different males — features in an analogous approach for homosexual males. Even Barbie (by means of Ryan Gosling’s worldview-shattering viral hit, “I’m Simply Ken”) and Paramore (with the sassy “Operating Out of Time”) employed this development of sardonic, intimately self-aware songwriting this 12 months.
In response to Alexander 23, who co-wrote “Poison Poison,” this fashion of songwriting is “right here to remain as a result of we simply see an excessive amount of of individuals now through social media to consider one thing too constructive.” He provides, “I believe persons are listening to issues that really feel extra conversational, extra just like the artist is somebody [who] they really know and [is] their pal.” After all, this hasn’t fully pushed apart flashy, confidence-boosting pop jams — take Tate McRae’s “Grasping” and aliyahsinterlude’s “IT GIRL,” for instance — however there’s no mistaking its dominance.
Each Bisel (Beck, Inexperienced Day) and Alexander (LCD Soundsystem) level to previous generations of pop artists as proof of this songwriting fashion’s legacy. “Probably the most highly effective issues you are able to do as a songwriter is to share the emotions that everybody experiences however are too afraid to say out loud,” Bisel says. “A self-deprecating track in some methods is a car for listeners to share their very own burdens and to really feel seen.”
With self-critical information from Lana Del Rey (“A&W”) and boygenius (“Not Robust Sufficient”) scoring key Grammy nods and tongue-in-cheek tracks from Swift and SZA dominating commercially, pop is staunchly in its sarcastic period. “I’m an enormous believer that traits in music are cyclical and continually come again round,” Bisel says. “On the identical time, trustworthy music won’t ever exit of favor.”
This story initially appeared within the Dec. 9, 2023, difficulty of Billboard.