base talk Is poptimism starting to die?

[Margaux]

idk. but rosalia is getting high ratings despite producing literal noises. 

[Julia Fox]

Not the sour olives thinking I’m a Rosalia stan  I like some of her songs and and she looks like Lorde on this photoshoot so I just put her on the avi because i found it so funny lol 

Edited December 11, 2023 by Julia Fox

[Pendulum]

yes, nobody has been reviewing Slayyyter's STARFUСKER aka the pop album of the year

 

[lustforyou]

Mmm I don't necessarily think so, I simply think there haven't been a ton of super quality pop releases lately. From 2017 to 2021, we had Melodrama, reputation, Lover (low lows but super high highs), folklore, evermore, A Star is Born, Sweetener, thank u next, SOUR, Plastic Hearts, WWAFA, Happier Than Ever, Dua Lipa, Future Nostalgia, Hot Pink, Planet Her, Rainbow, all of Lana's work, even a lot of Halsey's, etc all as really solid, good bodies of work from pop girls.

 

The last 2 years (2022 and 2023), I really can't think of a ton of amazing complete bodies of work by pop girls. Ariana/Lorde/Rihanna/Billie/Gaga/Dua/Halsey haven't released to even be in the ring (neither have Selena or Camila, not that they make great music lol but they don't even have new material out), Rainbow was Kesha's last hurrah as a semi-main pop girl, Lana is only pop-adjacent and Tunnel was more alternative. That really just leaves Midnights, SOS (if you wanna count that as pop), Renaissance, Endless Summer Vacation, Scarlet, GUTS, and now Tate's debut for the last 2 years as albums by notable female pop stars. 

 

Endless Summer Vacation was a major letdown after the huge hype of Flowers; it has some really great songs (Flowers, Jaded, Rose Colored Lenses, River), but basically every single other one is a major dud. Same with Scarlet, PTTR and Agora Hills are good, but most of the rest are super lackluster. Tate is new to the mainstream and her album is decent but super basic sounding. Midnights, SOS, Renaissance, and GUTS are the only pop albums of the last 2 years I'd say are actually good bodies of work overall, and of them, GUTS feels like a retread of SOUR and Renaissance, while really good, is a stepdown from Lemonade because of how great that album was. The "regression" or "stagnation" kinda taints their images in people's minds I think, even when they're solid works on their own.

 

SOS is fantastic and has a metacritic score to reflect that, and Midnights is a little wobbly but at least really interesting/overall good and offers a new side of Taylor, and its score reflects that.

 

I think pop scores as a whole will look better in 2024 if Lorde, Ariana, Billie, Dua, prob Taylor all release albums like I expect them to, as they usually make consistently good pop music.

[justin.]

No, I don’t think so. I feel critics are still very gentle on pop records, and I attribute that to not wanting to upset deranged stans. With reviewers getting death threats, insults about their appearance, etc. I don’t blame them. 

[Abracadabra]

1 hour ago, Espresso said:

95% of Back to Black’s melodies are direct rips from the Motown era pieced together, and Mark Ronson’s admitted it.

That's not true  It's stylistically inspired by that time period and uses a couple of samples, but to say that 95% of the melodies are rip-off's is just untrue, and I doubt Mark has said that.

[suburbannature]

No, but even poptimism couldn’t save a certain recent release 

[Polgg48]

Only apply to limited range of pop girls, wake me up when they rate jlo album as content non-bias based.