Pop Goes The Bubble

notes on the music industry's managed decline

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There’s an article making the rounds. It’s about how label reps are “depressed.” You see, pop stars just aren’t “popping” anymore. Few new acts break through, and most that do find themselves stuck in the dreary limbo of being a one-hit-Tiktok-wonder. I mean, think about it: how many new, truly famous pop stars from the past 5 years can you name? Billie? Olivia? Ice Spice? Black Pink?

Era-defining stars, by definition, are rare, but our time today feels markedly different. If other eras were defined by the rare comeuppance of a new pop messiah who fed us glorious manna, then this moment feels defined by a relative hunger. It’s not just that we’re not drinking godly nectar, but rather that we’re scrounging through the troff. “Stan Mother!!!” I call out to the empty void . All I hear are echoes. And then the quiet hum-back of one Sabrina Carpenter.

The death of the mono-culture and the rise of an algorithmic, highly-personalized one has meant that Big Pop is categorically uncommon. In an era where “music discovery” is facilitated by attenuated algorithms rather than mass-taste-makers or gate-keepers, big ubiquitous pop (which is, after all, short for “popular”), becomes a rarer thing. How can we all get hip to the same cultural moment when all of us are siloed in our narrow, weary, threads? And even when we do all tap into the same phenomena, the rapid flow of the algorithmic stream makes it nearly impossible for any of us to grasp onto anything long enough to hold on, let alone to gasp for air.

So when you can’t go big, go reasonable.

Those same depressed executives seem to be re-defining success. They cite artists like Laufey and JPEGMAFIA, who don’t stream like The Biggest Artist Ever but who do sell out shows and have strong merch sales, as the potential new model. The executives seem to have re-set their focus on modest, sustainable breakthroughs, rather than dominant stars. And look, I’m all for re-adjusting expectations. For a return to regarding value as it is rather than as it’s speculated to maybe become. But I think music execs are making a grave error with this.

I believe that execs resigning themselves to the good-enough rather than the Mega is reasonable. But I fear that it may be a cover for tacit defeat. A quiet resignation that music, and pop music in particular, is no longer the big, pulsing heart of culture.

Some of us who are obsessed with music, be it as makers or consumers, may forget that music is not destined to remain all that popular in relative terms. In fact, it may help us to consider music as directly competing with other cultural forms like movies, TV, video games, etc. Doing so allows us to see music as part of a broader cultural ecosystem of competing mediums. Thus the the relative decline of pop stardom speaks to not just music’s stand-alone stagnancy, but it’s comparative diminishment in culture.

It’s easy to get lost in the glimmering narrative of Taylor Swift’s overwhelmingly dominant Eras tour, which has descended on the globe like a series of militaristic takeovers. A record breaking global tour does not spell music’s decline. But if we are to read the tea leaves than we could see this tour as a potential last gasp of The Ultimate Megastar. Taylor Swift, with her Eras tour and Beyonce. with her Renaissance tour, are culturally totalizing in a way that may soon no longer be possible. Because, after all, who will have her Eras tour in 10 years? I believe in the Church of Olivia Rodrigo, but that’s a lot of eggs in one basket. Can she sustain? Can Billie?

It’s not these artist’s fault, but rather the industry writ-large’s. The decline of the pop star is indicative of a stagnant, hopelessly non-proactive industry that has foregone any sort of interest in artist development or investment. That relies on algorithmic platforms to thrust people to mega-status. And that makes no correctives when those same platforms sweep those artists away in the rushing pace of culture. I mean what would you expect of such a business model?

Sure, execs cant take refuge in sustainable stars like Laufey or JPEG, but if you want to make a case for your form’s cultural import, its necessary dominancy, then low-key B-listers doesn’t cut it.

It’s like today’s movie business. We have the movies, but very few movie stars. In this context what do we get? Franchises. And while Marvel may be a certifiable mint for Disney, the cultural centrality of the Cinema has certainly waned in opposition proportion to the franchise’s rise. A movie business with no movie stars becomes hollow, rendering itself a container for whatever IP it chooses to depict. A music industry with no stars feels similarly vacant, just the home for contextless sounds and trends. And when that’s the case, how are you supposed to defend the cultural import of your medium?

Time moves on. Things change. But if we are to be so bold as to try and hold on to a thing of the past — that is music’s central force in pop culture — then maybe we’d be wise to at least try to hold onto one leaving thing. Our stars.

Give me a star and I’ll give you an industry. But if you rather have the whole thing fade into sort of casual obsolesce then at least make it quick. Allow me to smile in my Eras hoodie and dance to our Last Great American Dynasty, before finally killing off this thing I so foolishly love.

I love music, but I love music as a prism to see it all. The drama of the whole world condensed into a song, a moment. Fame, humongous, glorious cultural centrality is a necessary component to that. Sigh. I guess I’m a maximalist. Because when I close my eyes and I imagine the power of pop, I get this Big Image, this sort of allusive dream that floats above me and crashes in like a tidal wave. It’s like Beyonce singing on a cop car. Like the world becoming blue when Melodrama dropped. Frank Ocean disappearing but haunting us with his timeless, empty beauty. It’s music, but it’s also fame. The ultimate metaphor and container for all that the world can hold. I liked eyeing it to see if it cracked under all that earthen pressure. If it combusted or turned to diamond. But if Mega Musical Fame, if Music as The Biggest Thing in the World, is no longer possible, well, I guess, I’ll simply take what I can get. Pop without the popular? Maybe it’ll have to do.