base talk Did 1989 re-start the Poptimism era?

[Safe&Sound]

2010s is one of the most complex decades in music. There are some depiction of how the decade went. Some people think it's the transitional decade between digital era and streaming era, some people see it's divided to the dance pop death/the trap birth, and we all know it's not fully valid either, since there were many trends changing and overlapping in span of 10 years

 

1989 was released in the middle on 2010s, somewhere when radio has become a little bit too alternative/leaning into more rock-ish influence, with We Are Young, Radioactive, Rolling in The Deep, Counting Stars, Somebody That I Used To Know, and many instant popular genre which seems trying to neutralize the fun Pop music, in this case, dance-pop, which overtook the radio in late 2000s and early 2010s

It seemed that many people's taste in music drastically changed, thinking music in general had declined on its quality, just because they were fun Pop

 

1989 lowkey proves that a Pop album can have depth like some music leaning to more indie/alt-rock root by underlining the lyrical content, that a pop album can have layer of emotions too on the album, despite being a collection of radio-friendly songs. 1989 also successfully mixed some indie music idealism, like how a song started being written in guitar or piano, then developing it into Pop records, which gives a stretch for Pop artists to display their records have some fascinating stories on their record

It can be seen by how the critics rated some Pop album post-1989 higher than pre-1989 era

 

Few examples :

2012 - Sept 2014

Halcyon - 69

KISS - 63

Warrior - 71

Stars Dance - 59

PRISM - 61

Bangerz - 61

DEMI - 64

Stronger - 62

TITLE - 59

Queen of The Cloud - 73

My Everything - 74

 

1989 - 76

 

2015 - 2017

Revival - 74

Delirium - 70 (for an album which sounds weaker than Halcyon, Im surprised it is not 10 points lower)

Confident - 74

Lady Wood - 74

Know It All - 70

EMOTION - 77

Dangerous Woman - 76

Meaning of Life 

Rainbow - 81

 

Also, worth to be noted that after few years on indie/alt-rock domination on Grammy general field categories (Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons, Adele, Beck), after 1989 won AOTY, the chance of Pop album/more commercial-sounding album snatching general field categories is bigger. The following years, they even went to the most successful albums to win AOTY (25, 24K Magic, WWAFA, WDWG)

*) I knew Adele also won it with 21, but by that time, she has more HAC/AAA image than 25 where she radiated more popstar energy

 

 

[vuelve88]

Taylor Swift is a critically acclaimed artist regardless of trends. 

Lady Gaga’s “Joanne” was released in 2016 and has a 67 on Metacritic, so I guess it wasn’t affected by “poptimism”. 

 

 

[Cain]

No, Emotion by Carly started the poptimism era among critics

 

After 1989 pure pop music was largely missing from the charts for half a decade before making a big comeback in the 2020s, so commercially it didn’t usher in that renaissance either 

[Safe&Sound]

10 minutes ago, vuelve88 said:

Taylor Swift is a critically acclaimed artist regardless of trends. 

Lady Gaga’s “Joanne” was released in 2016 and has a 67 on Metacritic, so I guess it wasn’t affected by “poptimism”. 

 

 

still higher than ARTPOP for sure

 

also i think it was another wave

it stood alongside Miley's Younger Now, Kesha's Rainbow, Kylie's Golden, Harry Styles' self-titled, where they tried to infuse country-pop element and their lyrics became more reflective

[orange22]

No

[byzantium]

Yes, I feel like this is pretty well established. 1989 fused the artistry of an acclaimed singer-songwriter with the production of pure pop mega album.  It granted legitimacy to pop music (in the eyes of critics/awards) and helped identify “pop” music as an actual genre rather than just popular music.  
 

After 1989, we see “pop” music both garner a lot more critical praise and attention (compare the reviews of future nostalgia to teenage dream or the fame monster), but also major pop artist focus more on being music creators than just music performers.  

Edited September 7, 2023 by byzantium

[DawnAnti]

NO.

[chiliam]

if anything, its the album mark the end of poptimism  lol

early 2000s teen pop/ punk pop and then we have like 5 years of rnb/urban dominated then pop  dominated again in 2016 with Gwen/Fergie/Nelly F and it was dominated for almost a whole decade until 1989.

Then streaming take off and rap music take over.

 

Your point about pop albums was rated higher and more acclaimed after 1989 is correct, though.

Edited September 7, 2023 by chiliam

[Cloröx]

Yes, there's articles supporting that 

[naval23]

Honestly yes. Style, Wildest Dreams and Blank Space were all massive Pop Radio #1s and 2 of those 3 hitting #1 on overall radio, her domination was insane 

[supaspaz]

No, the poptimism movement preceded 1989 by several years.

[mypaintoyou]

1989 the pop bible perfection 

ALBUM OF THE YEAR WINNER

[Fleahive]

No it was Purpose

[Safe&Sound]

39 minutes ago, naval23 said:

Honestly yes. Style, Wildest Dreams and Blank Space were all massive Pop Radio #1s and 2 of those 3 hitting #1 on overall radio, her domination was insane 

And on top of that, no one trashed those songs as cheesy Pop songs

They are loved by locals and acclaimed by critics

[BtDecember]

That's what you get when you make a HIGH QUALITY pop album

[DoubleRainbow!]

Well Teenage Dream is the reason why 1989 exists so now you know which album did it first 

[OnlyManInTheWorld]

1989 a legendary pop album

[EmailMySwift]

11 minutes ago, DoubleRainbow! said:

Well Teenage Dream is the reason why 1989 exists

I noticed this site actually believes this  I don't know if it's scary or funny to make things up and just operate as if they're real. 

 

Yes to the question about 1989 and optimism. 

[Avenger]

Yes, considering the album is just a decent effort and still this acclaimed makes no sense otherwise. 

[Blank Space]

3 minutes ago, EmailMySwift said:

I noticed this site actually believes this  I don't know if it's scary or funny to make things up and just operate as if they're real. 

 

 

it's funny to see katy fans constantly taking credit for 1989 on this forum when the only thing both albums have in common is max martin. max worked with numerous pop stars but taylor was the first one that was able to win him grammys. the cold hard truth is that teenage dream is a panned mess and 1989 is the most awarded pop album of all time. 

 

 

ot: obviously 

[ugo]

1 hour ago, DoubleRainbow! said:

Well Teenage Dream is the reason why 1989 exists so now you know which album did it first 

TD is panned

[1989]

Yes 

[Zoe_]

Call Me Maybe 

[suneclipse121]

Beyoncé’s ST album was critically acclaimed in 2013 for example before 1989 came out.  Poptimism was already in full effect before 1989.

[Timeless]

2 hours ago, EmailMySwift said:

I noticed this site actually believes this  I don't know if it's scary or funny to make things up and just operate as if they're real. 

 

 

1 hour ago, Blank Space said:

 

it's funny to see katy fans constantly taking credit for 1989 on this forum when the only thing both albums have in common is max martin. max worked with numerous pop stars but taylor was the first one that was able to win him grammys. the cold hard truth is that teenage dream is a panned mess and 1989 is the most awarded pop album of all time. 

 

Let's be serious, the reason why Taylor wanted to work with Max Martin in the first place WAS because of his pop bangers during this era, and this includes Teenage Dream as well. There's a reason why she switched to the pop genre as she noticed that her sound was getting tired but also because pop music was what topped the charts during the early 2010s. Speak Now singles and Red country singles flopped. The commercial success of Teenage Dream among other successful pop albums during this time drove her into making 1989.