Jamwise #45 - Special Edition: 2024's Chart-Topping Albums

A side quest exploring some 2024 Pop as an exercise in critical listening. Featuring: Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, Beabadoobee, Chappell Roan, Olivia Rodrigo, Ariana Grande

This is kind of a bonus spin-off issue of Jamwise - a Friday side quest, if you will. The regularly scheduled 90’s deep dive will continue next week as planned with an exploration of almost everyone’s favorite year in music, 1994.

With all the new music flying around in 2024, this seemed like a good time to come up for a breath of fresh air and see what’s going on in modern times before continuing to relive the 90’s, as every Millennial dreams of doing.

The premise of this post started when I got a free trial to SiriusXM in my car, turned on Today’s Hits channel, and realized I couldn’t identify a single song for like ten songs in a row. Through the low-resolution satellite-beamed signal, the tunes of Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, and even the internet’s current favorite Chappell Roan were foreign to me, almost blurring together - the only conclusion I drew was that there’s a very 2024 sound to a lot of these artists, a subgenre of sorts forming at the top of the charts, and I wanted to know more about it. I knew these artists were everywhere and probably wouldn’t fit my typical genre preferences (an assumption I’m trying to stop making), but I just wanted to understand.

I’ve written a lot about the way I used to approach music before starting this newsletter - I had lots of disdain for Pop as a genre, which was partly inherited and partly me trying to act cool and smart about music as many insecure humans like to do. Part of the reason I’m doing this project is to figure out why this disdain existed, and to prove to myself that it was dumb and preventing me from enjoying a bunch of dope music. I’m figuring that out, but I still find myself getting little cringes when I hear poppy pop music, little echoes of my old self bleeding through: “what are you doing, this isn’t Pearl Jam” or “Pop is for regular people but you’re a unique and special boy, you shouldn’t listen to this” or “you’d get verbally assassinated and possibly assassinated for real if you admitted you like this on Reddit.”

I’m going to be brutally honest - 2 years ago I would have, and probably did, make fun of people who liked the artists I’m writing about here. What I didn’t consider at the time was that if you’d asked me what I liked that was so much better, so much more deep and meaningful, I would have crumbled like a house of cards, mumbling something that sounded like “pearljamzeppelin…chilipeppers…basicboymusic”. This has been the best and most freeing revelation in my music appreciation career: it turns out the old me actually knew nothing, and I was missing out. I don’t have to like all the Pop I hear, but I at least need to listen to it with open ears to form my own opinion.

Since then I’ve been expanding my music listening as much as humanly possible, in many genres including pop. I’ve discovered enough awesome pop music to mostly get past those little judgy impulses, but there’s still room for improvement. So now, it’s time to see if all the listening I’ve been doing has, in fact, made me a better listener. To do so, I’m gonna hit myself over the head with some poppy 2024 poparific pop.

“But Dave,” you might ask, “doesn’t everyone already know all of these artists? Surely we don’t need another online person talking about them?”

You’re right, but that’s not what this is about. This is about demonstrating that growth as a music listener is both possible and fun, and listening to pop music happens to be an area in which I personally wanted to grow. It’s a test of how open my ears have become. And most importantly, it’s to show that when you listen critically and reflect on what you’re hearing, you tend to find the good in things more than you did before, even if the negatives are still there. That’s what I want to get better at - finding the good in music even if I ultimately dislike it. That will lead to a more balanced attitude and allow more good music to find its way into my brain.

Project NAE - The New Album Experience

This selection of albums is based on pretty much 2 things - they’re new, and they’re impossible to miss if you search “music” on Google in 2024 (note: yes, I’m a Millennial so yes, I know this is sub-optimal Google search technique). By the time this is published there will be ten more albums in this category, and I’ll just have to get to those another time - it’s not meant to be complete. I thought very little about it, to be honest, like a well-meaning kewl dad just trying to fit in with the kids these days who picks up the first album he sees in the Walmart music section.

HIT ME HARD AND SOFT - Billie Eilish

Before listening to this album, I never even came close to “getting” Billie Eilish. I’ve heard a lot of the common complaints about her music, and I probably even used them myself as excuses not to give her a shot - she’s just whispering, she’s only big because of social media, etc. I also had to admit the all-caps thing was a little annoying, and then a little funny when I realized that she basically sings in subscript while naming her songs in ALL CAPS.

This album is pure bedroom confessional pop songwriting - literally, in Billie Eilish’s bedroom - and it’s impressively done. Sure, she sings as if she’s afraid her mom will overhear her from the next room, but one, that’s a very universal feeling that’s being captured perfectly, and two, when you pay attention you realize how much control it must take to create that effect so consistently.

I think Billie Eilish’s story outside her music is almost as important to her mega-success as the music itself. She’s relating to Gen Z as few can. She publicly struggles with many of the personal issues that are at the forefront of the cultural conversation for her generation - body image issues, exploring sexuality, searching for acceptance. She represents many of the social views shared by her generation - she’s vegan, concerned about climate change, and supports ethical work practices in her fashion. I don’t even know how one person can handle being a public symbol for all of that, but she does it well.

Would these songs be as impactful without her specific, “Ms. Gen Z” persona? I don’t know. But I say it doesn’t really matter - because could this music even exist without her persona? Could someone with another persona have written these songs? I doubt it. The whole package, her personality and her music, feels extremely authentic and inseparable to me.

The album gets better the longer you listen. You kind of have to fall into a trance to really get into it though - like match your breath to the beat, stare into space for a minute, let your eyes unfocus. Inhale, exhale. Downward dog. 

All in all I’m a few steps closer to getting Billie Eilish - I don’t actively dislike her music - but I still can’t get into the all-caps. Millennials are afraid of all caps, it feels like you’re yelling at us. We’re just out here trying to survive, y’all.

Jams

• “WILDFLOWER”

• “THE GREATEST”

• “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE”

Short N Sweet - Sabrina Carpenter

The production of this album is flawless, but to me it feels very plastic. This album feels like more of an effort to capitalize on social media fame than an honest musical effort - the songs are all hook, and even the best hooks feel like social media bait more than anything. That seems to be Carpenter’s business model, though; hooks and one-liners designed for TikTok. And identifying a successful business model, then executing it flawlessly, is arguably one kind of genius even if it’s not everyone’s favorite kind.

The beats are enjoyable and bouncy, and her voice is big, which is kind of at odds with the uncomfortable-to-watch pre-teen aura she seems to put off. This is pop designed to be pop, with all the good stuff at the surface with little hidden underneath. But hey, that’s perfectly fair; it’s a tried and true route to success, and every generation is entitled to reinvent the tried and true in their own way.

To be totally clear, this album is not bad. It’s actually closer to perfection, from a certain point of view - it’s exactly what it’s designed to be. But it feels like an actress/influencer making an album as a promotional tool, not a musician making music to authentically express herself. She’s bouncing around genres to see what sticks (see the insanely awkward country-thing “Slim Pickins” and the R&B experiment “Don’t Smile”). It feels like she’s saying “Idk who I am as a musician, so here are some options. You pick!”

To be fair, “Espresso” is an absolute bubblegum banger despite the above complaints, and the world can never have too many of those.

While I’m improving when it comes to my acceptance of pop for pop’s sake, this album was difficult to embrace musically. I guess I get why it’s popular - it’s almost like today’s version of easy listening, with no brainpower required to bop to the beats, the only thing to shock your mind back into activity being the occasional lewd reference or inexplicable genre change. I just don’t value the traits that make it so popular, which is probably a reflection of my exhaustion with social media as anything else. Social media stars, and those who pursue that kind of ten-second-soundbyte fame, rub me the wrong way. And this music is so entwined with the influencer and Disney kid vibe that I don’t know how to separate the two. Would I like it if I hadn’t been on Instagram in the past year? I’m not sure, but I’d probably like it more.

Jams

• “Espresso”

The Tortured Poets Department - Taylor Swift

Here’s a fun thought experiment - is Taylor Swift creating a new version of the blues? Her music isn’t technically that similar to the blues, but there’s an element of cathartic expression in the self-confessional sad bedroom pop genre she’s spearheading that reminds me of the blues. It’s made up of new topics and new voices, but the main joy to be found is in the music, in the hope for better days expressed by the major chords and sometimes the lyrics. That’s the blues, baby. We’re in music’s sad girl blues-reinvention era, and it’s resonating with tons of people around the world. And like the blues, the downcast vibes of these songs isn’t just complaining - it’s tinged with hope, images of overcoming whatever’s got you down by becoming a badass, as in “Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me?”.

I feel like this theory has the potential to make everyone on the internet mad at the same time. Taylor Swift sings Gen Z’s version of the blues. Send all complaints to my agent.

My only musical issue with this album is the somewhat tired-sounding production from Jack Antonoff. It feels like he’s used up all his tricks at this point. It never gets in the way, and it shouldn’t considering T Swift needs her songwriting at the forefront anyway, but it’s not like the days of 1989 when the production drove the songs as much as anything else. He’s entered the realm where his die-hard supporters will cry “minimalism is the best kind of art” while the rest of us get bored and move on to more interesting beats, like my off-balance washing machine, for example.

The most enjoyable parts are mellow and background-y (“Down Bad”, “Fortnight”), with only one fun song on the whole album that still has “new blues” (TM) undercurrents (“I Can Do It With A Broken Heart”). Also, “Florida” is unintentionally hilarious. I don’t know what the message is supposed to be, but I literally laugh out loud when I hear it. FLORIDAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. It’s like a battle cry.

There are some artists where you get the feeling they’re trying to write more intelligently than they’re really capable of - T Swift is the exact opposite. I get the feeling she has to simplify and edit her songs to make them as approachable as possible. That’s purely speculation, though. Maybe she just naturally hits that sweet spot, intuitively sprinkling on a few grains of her brand of intellectuality to spice up the pop base layer without over-doing it. But I think it’s more fun to imagine it’s all intentional string-pulling.

Nothing I heard on this album makes me think T Swift isn’t the mastermind she claims to be. But even a mastermind can get stuck in a rut - T Swift might not be there yet, but her tires have started spinning just a little.

Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess - Chappell Roan

I’ve noticed some recurring themes in my exploration of the top of the 2024 charts. Chappell Roan hits them all:

Theme 1: “I’ve been good, now it’s time to be bad”

Theme 2: “We broke up and now your life sucks”

Theme 3: “I’m hot, let’s dance”

Theme 4: Always pronouncing the letter O at the end of a word like it has an umlaut (why does everyone say “uhh” while making an “O” shape with their mouth? What is this new Gen Z accent?)

This album is the result of a long, hard slog for Chappell Roan to make it to the top. Even though she was essentially discovered via Youtube, she’s the definition of a working musician, and it’s pretty cool to see someone have this level of success after so long in the trenches - it seems she’s rejecting the attention as much as she possibly can, which makes me think she’s even more authentic in her blue collar musical roots.

There’s real creative energy here. Sometimes artists can yield to inertia when trying to fill out an album - but this album feels like it was edited down from a larger pool of songs rather than expanded to fill the space. The variety is pleasant, and so is the performance, although the vocal “flicks” and yodels were a little heavy-handed at times. 90% of the time the yodel comes across like a little exasperated sigh at the end of each note - like she’s pissed about something but also exhausted about it.

The Midwest makes zero appearances, to my knowledge, but it seems the story here is about her leaving the whitebread land of her upbringing and seeing the wide world for the first time, her personality and awareness expanding into the larger universe she now occupies. The message I take away from this quest is shallow at first glance - shit sucks, so let’s dance - but who ever said Gen Z doesn’t deserve a little escapism to deal with the crazy-ass world we’ve handed them?

Jams

• “After Midnight”

• “Pink Pony Club”

This Is How Tomorrow Moves - beabadoobee

If you’re a 90’s alt-rock fan, this will be your favorite out of this selection by far. Look past the voice that could belong to a 16 year old, and you can imagine that her Spotify Wrapped is full of Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails and 90’s alternative jams that have influenced her sound. The lyrics sound well-read, there are actual, honest-to-god guitars on a lot of the tracks, and the songwriting is stellar. Beabadoobee has brought guitar pop to the mainstream in a way I wasn’t expecting to hear in 2024.

The only negative is the cover - why does she look so confused? Beabadoobee is the least confused of anyone I’ve listened to this week - she’s self assured in her songwriting, confident in where she comes from musically, and seems unafraid of writing music for herself and not for the algorithm. None of the other top of the charts artists are even in the same league as the songwriting on this album - and it’s not remotely close.

These days not writing music to target an algorithm is in itself an act of rebellion. For a generation whose lives have been dictated by algorithms and feeds and phones, this makes perfect sense, and it’s a rebellion I’m fully onboard with. Between the alt-rock influences and the subtextual rebellion, I’m totally onboard with Beabadoobee. (Damn, I guess it’s beabadoobee, all lower case. I guess I’m too old to understand, but I’ll be doing my best not to mis-Case anybody else in the future).

Jams

• “California”

• “Girl Song”

• “Ever Seen”

• “Everything I Want”

Guts - Olivia Rodrigo

All lower case instead of Billie Eilish’s all caps. Is capitalization the next cultural battle of this generation? I just need to know so I can get onboard the train.

OK, this one is a year old now, but thanks to Rodrigo’s ongoing tour it’s still been all over the mainstream, plus I already listened to it and I’m not turning back now. It’s new enough and it’s totally new to me, so we’re going with it.

If T Swift is reinventing the blues for today’s generation, it feels like Rodrigo is trying to reinvent punk-pop. That’s not to say that true punk aficionados will recognize their favorite music except a surface-level resemblance here and there, but that’s why I called it a reinvention. It’s got totally different input energy than the punk of old, but it’s undeniably filtered through the punk vibe filter - a little angry and a little unserious and totally over the bullshit.

Her influences seem to be everywhere - “Making the Bed” could be a Taylor Swift B-side, and “Logical” sounds, complete with the “s” pronounced “sh”, like “it wash all in my mind. She sounds like a major music fan inspired by her favorites and making these songs as an homage to them. Great reason to make music, if you ask me. She also has a weird country-lite song just like Carpenter, which is an interesting trend. Are pop stars starting to be country-curious again? Or is this just another tribute to a favorite artist of Rodrigo’s youth? It’s hard to tell, but somehow even with the varied influences, this still feels like a relatively confident and cohesive album.

eternal sunshine - Ariana Grande

I’m no producer, but I don’t believe it’s possible for Ariana Grande’s voice to be more in your face than it is on this album. Her main vocals are mixed so far to the front you forget there’s music behind her, and on top of that you’re assaulted by a chorus of more Arianas from all sides, singing harmonies and multiplying like an Attack of the Clones. They have you surrounded and they’re not going to let you forget it. The mix and the music is all about her voice, almost to the point of narcissism.

But to be fair, she’s clearly the most talented pure singer on this list. That’s not lost on Ariana - her brand is like the mega-voiced divas of the 90’s and 2000’s, with the songs serving her voice and her persona rather than the other way around. There are lots of sparkly Disney dreamland vibes, which I suspect are mostly an act of branding. She acts very spacey and the music fits that, which on the one hand achieves a very consistent brand, but on the other hand I refuse to believe someone with so much talent is actually an airhead in real life as the occasional Insta posts the algorithm sends me about her would have me believe. I think it’s an act to appear more relatable, hiding the genius within for the simple fact that America hates smart people.

It’s cool that she makes it seem so easy and acts like she’s just kind of bopping along through life. But I also hate that fact because it probably makes people think she didn’t work her ass off to get to this level of singing prowess. I hate when artists underplay the amount of work it took them to get to their level - why hide that under the rug? Why not be proud of how hard you’ve worked? I get that they want a cool, DGAF image, but it sucks that our society doesn’t see the grind as the cool part.

This album is calculating and shrewd, and Ariana Grande has undoubtedly inspired millions of singers with her talent. But it’s interesting to me in the way a story about a CEO is interesting. Impressive, but there’s not much human connection and nothing drawing me back in.