Pop music has always been a genre that has been under fire for many different reasons, but the main one is that people don’t take it seriously. This would be a fair argument if we were still in the height of bubblegum pop from the 1990’s, however times have changed and so has pop music.
For example, there are now so many subgenres to pop music that it is almost impossible to list them all here. To name a few, there’s dream pop, indie pop, alternative pop and so on. The beauty of these subgenres is that we gain access to a wide range of pop music, which is great on its own because pop music tends to make people feel good, but also the many layers of pop music leads to some pretty powerful music.
This powerful music can even be seen in more mainstream artists like Troye Sivan. Troye Sivan is a 22-year-old pop artist that is openly gay, which is something that he stays true to in his art. In 2016 he released a video trilogy from his debut album Blue Neighbourhood, which featured his songs “WILD,” “FOOLS” and “TALK ME DOWN” and showed the story of him growing up with a boy that he fell in love with and all of the trials and tribulations they faced together. It is an incredibly moving performance and is definitely important in today’s society.
More specifically, Troye Sivan’s song “HEAVEN” is one of the most powerful songs I have heard in the past five years. This song focuses on the struggle he faces with being an openly gay man and whether or not he will get into Heaven because of it – this is some pretty heavy stuff, but the way that he presents it is so powerful and beautiful it cannot be ignored. The even crazier part about it is that he was 19 years old when this song was released, which says a lot about the level of his musicality and lyricism.
Another group that comes to mind when thinking about pop music that addresses important issues and topics is The 1975, specifically with its song “Loving Someone” off of its sophomore album I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it. Musically, this song could be categorized as a pop song, but when looking deeper into the lyrics it is obviously a politically driven song.
The song discusses the importance of embracing each other’s differences and just focusing on the fact that we all should be loving someone, regardless the gender or sexual orientation of the individual. Looking back on the pop music of the 90’s, it could be easily said that the music didn’t really face any real issues, but it would be ridiculous to make that same argument in regards to contemporary pop artists.
I could go on for days about so many pop artists within the subgenres discussed, but there isn’t enough time for that now. I just think it’s important to consider the fact that pop music isn’t what it used to be a few decades ago. It is about time that people started giving pop artists a chance and the respect they deserve as individuals, as well their art.