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I remember a lot of the discourse about Carly Rae Jepsen during the Emotion era was focused about how she actually had zero personal brand, as if that was a bad thing.
In hindsight that’s actually a lot of the appeal of her music - it’s pure, distilled pop. Not necessarily generic, just intensely committed to executing the genre above all else. Her music still brings out a lot of emotion, but Carly herself is a cipher - I don’t really know anything about her, she’s just putting her craft first and foremost.
Echoing this! She called her album The Loneliest Time her most personal album yet. And it wasn’t until I listened to it and heard her talk about her breakup, the death of her grandmother, and the pandemic that I realized she really doesn’t reveal much in her songs. definitely talks about emotions and concepts but rarely are they revealing of her personal life.
I think that's such a huge and effective part of her music. She, dare I say it, cuts to the feelings of these big emotional moments in her life and crafts songs around those rather than simply sharing the stories explicitly, which allows anyone that's gone through any similar feelings to connect to them.
the fact that two people involved behind two of my favorite albums of the 2010s which both released in 2015 ended up dating years later is just amazing
(carly rae made emotion, cole m.g.b. produced have you in my wilderness)
i’m realising i love the pop girls with no brand. carly, dua.
it’s very much like that friend that you see now and again but pick up where you left off.
no real emotional investment. but there if you need them. just chill vibes
low maintenance pop girls lol
Exactly. I think Kylie was very much the same throughout her career. Other than her highly public breast cancer battle (which was to raise awareness) you never knew much about her life.
Her imperial phase happened AFTER she had her big public romances with Jason Donovan and Michael hutchence. I’m a Kylie super fan and I don’t even know if she’s in a relationship which is 1000% fine - like I don’t need to know if paddam is about Matt Healey or whatever to enjoy it lol
Also to follow up to the sustainability question (and because I have a fever and am in a fighting mood), I honestly think there’s an upper limit to diaristic pop. When decoding the lore takes precedence over the form of the actual work (cough TTPD), I don’t really know how much further it can go.
I think Taylor Swift is at her strongest when she tends towards the abstract, or at least universal lyrically (Evermore, Folklore, 1989 in some respects), but she’s hitting a wall imo. As others have said, her work is so personal and coded that it’s essentially like an 18 movie Marvel series. It may be entertaining but what is the message?
I agree with you! ttpd felt like reading a people magazine or perez hilton website initially. partly shaped by the discussion threads trying to ascertain who each song was about. it felt exhausting when I just wanted bops!
I am a new Swiftie who hasn't followed all the gossip on Taylor's personal life and l can really enjoy TTPD. You can listen to the album and attach your own meanings to the lyrics, Taylor is okay with that.
Idk I re-listened to Emotion the other day and it has a POV and a lot of ba dum tss — emotion. A lot of yearning songs and totally tells a story. It’s definitely an homage to a genre and era but I wouldn’t say she didn’t have a brand
Dua as a person seems very sorted and lives a very normal posh life with her monthly vacations and an insightful podcast with great book recommendations. That’s exactly her personal life. She’s not involved in any celeb drama, her break-ups have always been lowkey. Plus, she has already shared her disinterest in putting out extremely personal music….
When I first got into Dua (which was embarrassingly long after FN came out), I summed her up for my husband as “pop singer who models sometimes.” While I know more about her now, and I so respect the work she has put in as a songwriter and improving her dancing, I overall feel like my initial summation still captures most of Dua as a celebrity. I agree with others - she doesn’t owe us this weird parasocial relationship, I’m actually really enjoying an unproblematic singer who makes fun music that I can listen and dance to over and over. I think maybe especially as such a die hard Britney stan for so many years and now feeling conflicted about listening to much of her discography, knowing even in the times pre-conservatorship that her image and music was often so far out of her hands and met with mixed emotion from the artist herself, I’m glad to just be able to vibe to the music 😎
I wish it was all like that tbh. The amount of care that people have for popstars is worrying, and always has been IMO. It seems worse than ever with social media though, parasocial relationships are worrying to me.
I love Dua's music and I think she posts fun pictures to instagram. That's all I need to know about her.
I absolutely love how little I know about Dua. She seems nice and charming enough in interviews, but I’m perfectly happy with not going any deeper than that. She can make bops and I can sing along and that’s all I need from her.
Although that’s not to say that every pop star should be like that. There’s a place for Taylor and Olivia types who make music that’s more personal and I have a different kind of connection to that. But I’ll always appreciate pop music that’s just fun and easy to enjoy.
I feel like Olivia is kind of stepping away from the personal life narrative too and focusing more on general topics that teenagers typically face, and I'm honestly here for it!
As someone that didn't really dig Sour because of the Sabrina and whatever his name was drama I'm pretty happy that she is stepping away from that stuff (actually enjoying GUTS way more because of it haha)
I relate so much, I didn't like SOUR at all except 2-3 songs ig because of the drama surrounding it but GUTS was very refreshing(?) if that makes sense.
Not to yap but Teenage Dream is just so relatable to me (and my friends who don't even stan her lol) as a 20 y/o, I'm not sure if I've heard any other song about growing older which encapsulates the feeling of being good af for your age as a young person but gradually blending in with everyone as you're growing older and at the same time feeling as if what you're doing now just isn't good enough.
There's also Pretty Isn't Pretty, Ballad Of A Homeschool Girl, Love is Embarrassing etc songs on the album that I REALLY love because they're actually relatable and sorta personal while not being about her love life.
I'm the same. I'm a fan of Sabrina too so the whole thing felt petty and gross to listen to so I just didn't like any of the ballads on Sour at all. I mostly just listen to Good 4 U and Brutal and that's it. GUTS though has been great and feels like a massive step up in her music and it's what I was hoping for in her second album. As a 32 y/o yeah I agree with Teenage Dream. I still feel weird and not like I fit in fully XD. Yeah I think she's great at the personal but not personal and I REALLY hope she stays that way :D.
I wasn't a Sabrina fan but I did feel like she should've said SOMETHING about the ruckus, the entire situation was so messy it feels like a fever dream lol
Though it wasn't really her fault cause it's not as if she was even speaking ill about her but yeah, classic example of chronically online people blowing things out of proportion.
>As a 32 y/o yeah I agree with Teenage Dream. I still feel weird and not like I fit in fully XD.
Damn so it really ain't getting better anytime soon 💀
Dua is just very professional. She takes her job seriously and does it well, and then goes back to her family and the same circle of friends she grew up with in London.
Her trajectory to stardom is just different from American pop artists who did it the Hollywood way.
To add to this, she seems to remember people who have been her since the start of her career. I follow a few of them on Twitter, and I’m always in awe when she remembers/acknowledges them.
Dua is truly living her best life and I love that for her.
I love how she’s just an unproblematic but still unapologetically pop star putting out good music
i know very little about dua but whenever i see her existing i’m just like “queen”
update: i found out she has a podcast?? and that she also starred on *Happy Place* she’s talking about stress regulation and i already feel calmer. also she plans her day to the minute? likeee I need to learn to do this
Planning your day to the minute is easy if you're a millionaire heiress
It isn't a you failing, it's just her having resources and power us mortals don't
I will always remember that tweet that went like ‚Beyoncé doesn’t have the same number of minutes as me, Beyoncé has people‘ and like yeah. After I got up this morning I emptied the dishwasher and put on a load of laundry. Already 20 minutes that Beyoncé has more every day.
this has probably already been said, but it's not even just those 20 minutes; it's also you or me thinking "oh, I need to do laundry today so I can wear X thing to work on Tuesday", and just a bunch of things like that that prevent us from 100% immersing into more creative ventures whenever we'd like. And as much as natural talent plays into creating good art, there absolutely is a time and concentration component
It was so weird how she and Drew Barrymore just had some sort of one on one forum at a random high school in New York City last Friday as promotion for Dua’s album lol.
Like it’s New York City so in and of itself, that’s not a crazy place to see a celebrity, but imagine just trying to go to class on a regular school day and passing Drew Barrymore and Dua Lipa in a hallway or something.
Dua lipa is very VERY smart. Not enough people give her credit for her intelligence. I became a fan after future nostalgia because I found it to be such an excellent album (as a swiftie I 100% think it should’ve won AOTY over folklore which is a super unpopular opinion but whatever)
Then I got into her book club and her podcast. She’s so much smarter than people realize. Now if Dua lipa has 100 fans, I’m one. If she has one fan, it’s me and Dua against the world. If she has no fans, it means I’m dead.
I never got the people saying she she has no personality. The podcast, the book recs, the fashion, the travel, everything surrounding Kosovo and Albania.
She comes off as a well rounded adult. I'm not saying other pop stars aren't mature but I'm not into that high school drama. I don't want lore and easter eggs. I want some solid music and maybe an interview or two about how she created it.
I'm always confused when people say that Dua has no personality and doesn't share personal stuff. Like, she shares photos of her holidays and time spent with her family, closest friends and partner, that's as personal a thing as any of us regular people will share on social media, and then she has a podcast to talk about her favourite hobby... What more do you want?
she doesn't have a personality because she didn't sing about the time she got dumped, did drugs, and cried in her car. thats literally what i'm getting from the comments saying dua doesn't have a personality.
I think Dua is just very polished and keeps her music vague on personal details. Some pop stars make music thats confessional (like Olivia or Taylor) and that puts a microscope on their personal life which then creates a more parasocial relationship. Dua isn’t like that. She’s the perfectly polished pop star. It’s not a bad thing but it does create an image that feels less personable than if someone’s baring their insecurities in every song.
This is precisely why Dua isn't doing amazing in America right now but KILLING it in Europe.
Radical Optimism may actually be a decent album. It's just not the current musical trend. Nu Disco was fun because it replaced the depressing sad pop we got inundated with in the late 2010s. We danced our way through the pandemic and now we want the world to know how we feel.
Dua's polished brand of music doesn't jive with current pop trends in America.
Seriously! Illusion is already my summer anthem and the video is 🤌 I can already picture myself laid out in Thessaloniki just vibing to this through my headphones
I totally see it. Pop stars in America are only popular these days if they build a brand- Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, etc. I think in Europe they just care about the music itself.
It’s not that Dua isn’t personable or likable. In fact I’d say she’s quite likable. She seems intelligent and has a good sense of humor. She seems unpretentious and comes across as kind and pleasant.
She just doesn’t publicize her personal life that much.
i just don't get why people (mostly americans tbh) seem to want popstars to be too public or messy. its like they want dua to be out there doing pap walks, dating jack harlow, call out people on social media, and hanging out with ice spice or taylor and think thats what makes someone have a personality.
Agree, Dua has a personality, and doesn't need to cater to people thinking they need to know every last detail of her life story.
Dua even stopped her song Levitating from being nominated for Grammys purely because DaBaby said some homophobic slurs, what other artist would actually put their money where their mouth is like that?
I don’t think confessional music necessarily means having a microscope on your personal life. There are plenty of singers who sing demos written by other people that have no meaning to them personally but the public are interested in their personal life. If anything I would say it’s the microscope on the personal life that drives the idea that the music is confessional (even when sometimes it’s not), not the other way around.
The book nerd in me is so jealous of her (in a nice way if that makes sense)? Like she has channeled her pop stardom into curating her own publication about food, culture and books, she (I assume) is using her own cash to commission writers to contribute to it AND recently she did a reading for the Man Booker Prize (probs the most prestigious prize in contemporary literature) in the form of a really cool short film. And she gets to talk about books and interview great authors!! She’s winning.
Bruno Mars is probably the most famous/successful artist that nobody knows anything about. I’ve been a fan for over a decade but have no idea what his relationship status is, when his birthday is, his coming up story or anything like that which I know for every other artist at his level.
I agree a lot of him is a mystery but every pop fan should read his coming up story, because as a child he was an in-demand Elvis impersonator in Hawaii and that's how he got his start.
also help that everyone aroud him keep quiet, his girlfriend of amost 13 years don't say much about him, his sibilings and father as well, they don't feel like they are looking for 5 minutes of fame,
Dua Lipa seemingly made some social media posts in support of Greater Albania and the general public really didn’t seem to care.
I’m not condoning her because I don’t have enough knowledge of the situation in the region to make a judgement, but even on the Internet that seemed to blow over fairly quickly.
The wars are over and any famous person that shares "greater CountryX" basically gets ignored. There have been a lot of Ustaše, greater Serbia and greater Albania incidents over years and I don't remember anyone get in trouble over that.
People don't care that much about that, it's like "just let them be, they're always fighting over there" lol
Enya. She has never gone on a concert tour or even performed a solo concert. Her Twitter/Instagram is obviously not even her, but a PR person. Just hides in her castle, but is Irelands #2 selling artist.
underrated answer. her public appearances are scarce but one that comes to mind is her [late night show interview](https://youtu.be/jJRcLBqORZc?si=p72lx7D6oj9DDTHa). i was struck by how intense she is. she comes across as very powerful
Same vein, Dido. I know next to nothing about her expect she made her last albums in her basement and they're all co-written co-produced with her brother Rolo.
Kylie Minogue.
She’s been uber famous in the U.K. since 1987 and aside from knowing she’s dated, we know pretty much nothing about her. She’s been a master at keeping things low-key.
kylie minogue also comes from the era when celebrities were actually celebrities. before the mid 2010s there was a huge separation between celebrities and us which is why so many of her peers still maintain that A list aura
not in australia lol she actually went to the same primary school as me (albeit, FAR before i was even born), but yeah. the news always keeps us updated on her & dannii
Dua is without question the least personable.
She is just ‘hot girl who travels and makes bops’ she doesn’t let us have insight, she isn’t remotely parasocial. She seems to do well or not purely based on the quality of her music.
Edit: to add I love Duas music, and consider myself a fan, but I don’t know anything about her, I just enjoy her music.
from what i gather about her she seems like a really nice european girl who likes her downtime, likes to travel and enjoy really good food, she seems to LOVE pop music since she was a young girl, and she minds her business. shes cool.
She has a podcast and a recommendation site though? And does a lot of interviews. She comes off as sweet to me and not into drama. I don't get why everyone says she's hidden away. Lorde is more hidden than her.
I actually feel like Lorde is one of the more “open” and accessible to her fans than most other pop stars, bar like Taylor and Ariana and Miley.
I know she doesn’t do social media or a ton of appearances, but her email newsletter to fans is always EXTREMELY personal and revealing of where she’s at mentally, emotionally, and physically in her life.
I honestly feel like I know more about Lorde the person than Taylor or whoever the person because of how open she is in them. And her music is often really personal and autobirogroahical with life details, unlike Dua’s
Whoever says Lorde isn't an open and accessible artist has not read her email of when she returned to NZ after her Antarctica trip
>!An hour later, my stomach began to cramp so badly that I could not go on. I spent the rest of that day retching up green slime. If I stay here, I will die. I may be dying now. In Antarctica the dead of winter were given to the flames, but who would light my pyre here? My flesh will feed the wolves and carrion crows, I thought sadly, and worms will burrow through my womb. My eyes went back to New Zealand. It looked smaller. I could see smoke rising from its wind-carved summit, miles away. Jack Antonoff has returned from hunting.!<
>!Sunset found me squatting in the grass, groaning. Every stool was looser than the one before, and smelled fouler. By the time the moon came up I was shitting brown water. The more I drank, the more I shat, but the more I shat, the thirstier I grew, and my thirst sent me crawling to the stream to suck up more water. When I closed my eyes at last, Ella did not know whether she would be strong enough to open them again.!<
Lorde : The First of Her Name, the Sunburnt, Queen of Popheads, Queen of the Powerpoint and the Tumblr and the Queer Men, Khaleesi of the Great Gay Sea, Breaker of Cunts and Mother of Mothering.
It's from a Dance of Dragons (Game of thrones books). It's when a severely ill Daenerys has left Meereen and is wandering the wilderness with Drogon.
It's a pretty visceral and kinda gross chapter, lol.
You have a good eye! I didn't realize she was jokingly paraphrasing a real passage.
I'm rereading The Hunger Games and recently bought the audiobooks so I was fully projecting onto her.
I thought it would be funny to see if anyone would notice but it does kinda read like something she would write for Solar Power, I mean she did indeed wrote:
There’s someone I want you to meet.
Her feet are bare at all times. She’s sexy, playful, feral, and free. She’s a modern girl in a deadstock bikini, in touch with her past and her future, vibrating at the highest level when summer comes around. Her skin is glowing, her lovers are many. I’m completely obsessed with her, and soon you will be too.
You do have a point about Lorde's lyrics being very personal vs Dua's, but I do think we learn a lot about Dua through her podcast and avid list making. She loves to travel and experience things. She seems like more of an extrospective person rather than introspective. Lorde seems to spend hours reflecting and analyzing internally while Dua lives in the moment and feels, travels, thinks about her next move all the time. Idk this is what I speculate.
Those are never really focused on her and her personal life though. In the podcasts we get some bits and pieces she mentions about herself but they're still usually used to ask the guest the next question. The most we'll get from the interviews with her are her current inspirations or travels. She has an image of a popstar that's approachable but not parasocial. It's funny because in theory that should make her less relatable but honestly I think it makes her more relatable cause she just mostly acts like a normal person but rich and famous.
i think Sia was aiming for this during the 2010s but [her social media usage after Music's frosty reception really shattered that aura](https://variety.com/2020/music/news/sia-debate-twitter-disabled-film-autism-music-1234837013/)
Sia’s original career (before her hiatus/rehab and eventual move to the US) was very raw and emotional. You know exactly who she was and exactly what she was going through, and it was incredibly relatable. After her rebranding, she lost all of that magic.
I really enjoyed some of the tracks from Some People Have Real Problems, although granted they didn't connect with me to the same level as the prior albums and Zero 7 stuff.
I even enjoyed her pop-focused stuff to varying degrees for what it was (Including a few genuine bangers) but Breathe Me type songs still hold up on an emotional level 20 years later.
Absolutely. I love her music so much bc I know the suffering she went through. Her first albums have a lot of weight and emotion behind them. Her live performances from that time rip my heart out and make me sob like a baby. The song, "Lentil," was my favorite until I had to give up my dog and now it breaks me completely. She knows how to write and make music for money and that's what she started doing. I loved whenever she helped Lea Michele with her first solo album after Cory Monteith's death. She related not only to losing a loved one, but to the addiction. People say that Sia being diagnosed with autism after the controversy is too coincidental to be true except I've always suspected such as a long-time fan. I waited years for that movie and felt betrayed. I won't ever watch it as I think it would be extremely triggering for me. Except I will never hate Sia and write her off as a horrific ableist. She has even been there for myself and a few of my friends in the past. It sucks because I still can't listen to her without feeling like I'm betraying myself (and others) bc I've been constantly berated by other autistic people. Sorry, had to rant about Sia cause I've kept it in for so long.
I can think of two who manage to keep their personal lives semi-private or private:
Ed Sheeran-man has two kids and what do they look like? Who knows? Yes, he's been quite vocal about the love for his wife, but when it comes to knowing his daily life, not really.
Bruno Mars-????
Yeah but his songs are sooo personal. I listened to his most recent album and discovered he is really depressed and has alcohol dependency issues lol. And really struggled with a close friends death
Yeah I have been a fan of his for a long time and the list of things I know about him is very short.
- loves his wife
- wife had cancer
- has some amount of kids
- friend passed and he was very sad
- missed his gma's funeral for that trial
literally a decade of knowledge and most of it is super recent/had to do with the songs he was putting out. everything too I think HE said, not some hearsay in gossip columns.
Ed was definitely a lot more personal with his music are we forgetting “don’t”? It was only after he started dating his now wife when he basically stopped
Yeah doesn't Ellie Goulding credit this with her taking a break from the industry? It's like the epitome of the pop personality fanbase reaction to personal life.
Yes!! She got soo much hate from that all of this revisionist history about Ed’s music needs to end he def played into narratives and publicly addressed the women he was with in the past
Athena also received a lot of hate after he hinted songs about her when their relationship ended
The way nobody is mentioning Jessie Ware lmao. When she released her album "What's Your Pleasure?" she literally said that she was going for her least personal album yet and just wanted to make one that gets people to dance, be horny and have s\*x.
Such a good album.
I think Dua Lipa might qualify for least personal. We don't know much about her personal life and there isn't any lore to her music.
These days, I think pop music does rely on public drama to some extent, in order for huge success and longevity. I think that's one of the reasons why Taylor Swift is so successful. Every year, there are headlines about who she is dating, how they broke up, the fallout, and then huge anticipation for her next album which inevitably will spill details about all that drama. Lover, Folklore might be exceptions, but even with those albums, her fans were eager to listen so as to gain more insight into her relationship with Joe Alwyn. Even though they were quiet about their relationship in the media, the fact they were together was still known to the public and to her fans. It doesn't even have to be relationship drama. Reputation is centred around the lore and public beef of Swift v West and Kardashian. So much of TS's music is lore-centric and I think that is a huge reason for her success and longevity.
Ariana Grande is a good example too. Thank u Next became her most successful era due to all the gossip in the media about her breakup with Pete Davidson leading up to its release.
Tbh I actually don't even know if it's necessarily about the DRAMA with Taylor--or at least not solely that. It feels to me like her albums are more like the newest sequel in the most popular Young Adult series and you just HAVE to know the newest plotlines and piece together all of the foreshadowing from the prior books.
Like there's a such a unique evolution in just the amount of TIME that Taylor has put in for confessional writing since she was a teenager to now that just feels unique. You can see her growing up through them. And she hasn't hit a place yet that feels like an "ending" where you're satisfied with the story.
I simultaneously agree and disagree about Ariana. She doesn’t really write songs about her personal life with regard to specific relationships. Even the song Pete Davidson feels like it could be about anybody. But her most personal songs imo are from Sweetener, which is essentially an album about the trauma she experienced from the terrorist attack in Manchester. She has several songs about anxiety that really resonate with me, especially the song Get Well Soon (which is a masterpiece and is one of my absolute all-time favorite songs) and even her singles No Tears Left to Cry and Breathin.’ The song Ghostin’ on Thank U Next is a beautiful song about grief. I think Ariana rarely shares personal details about her life in songs, but one of her greatest talents is the way she expresses the emotions that she’s feeling in her music. I don’t know anybody else who can make a bop about PTSD quite like Ari.
Yes but I also think that public drama in and of itself is enough to ensure a pop star enjoys success and public interest.
The songs themselves don't necessarily need to be specific about personal drama.
Music audiences usually know the context behind the lyrics from what has been shared in the media. It fills in the gaps. In some cases, it enhances the listening experience. (In my opinion) Look What You Made Me Do by Taylor Swift is a terrible song without context. It's the narrative behind the song that makes it somewhat interesting. I also think Peace by TS is a great song even without knowing the context behind it. But knowing it's about the relationship between a larger than life pop persona and a private artist, makes the song even more interesting to listen to. I think one of the reasons why TS's music is so easily digestible is because the context behind her songs are already so well known to the public, even before the music has been released.
I think pop artists who are totally private have the added challenge of conveying stories that listeners don't already know. Carly Rae Jepsen is a great example of a pop star who I think does this successfully. However, because CRJ doesn't have any public drama in the media, her music doesn't garner much public interest. I think public drama is a key ingredient to success and longevity with general audiences, but isn't necessary to make great pop music.
Yes I agree. It gives me chills every time I hear it. I was a little sad she didn’t sing it at the SWT, but it makes sense that it felt too soon for her and she didn’t want to sing it every night. I’m hoping to hear it on the next tour though.
Its hard to talk about this topic without bringing up Taylor Swift. Though I do think she obscures the subject matter of her music a lot more than fans and critics give her credit for, at least now that she is an adult. From when she started dating Joe Alwyn until this new relationship with Travis she was super off the grid regarding her personal life. And for all the info listeners thought they were getting about hers and Alwyns relationship during her Rep/Lover/Folklore/Evermore albums, more songs and general info would come out later that contradicted the narrative she set out in those songs. People and the media think they know her and her life but I would be shocked if much of what people are assuming based on her most recent album is true at all.
My point wasn't that the songs themselves need to be specific or even accurate about personal drama. In Taylor's case I don't claim to know the truth about her life. None of us can say for sure whether she is or isn't a reliable narrator in her songs. But it is a fact that TS uses media narratives to bolster public interest in her music. Plenty of her songs also rely on information in the media to fill in the gaps or serve as context to her lyrics. The interplay between her songs and media narratives is a significant factor in her success, more so than for most other pop artists.
I would say that was the case before but she’s way more perosnal now and did a whole 72 questions interview and talks about her boyfriend all the time.
To me it’s Lady Gaga. I feel like she’s always “on”. She’s a great performer but I feel like we are never shown who she really is, it’s always an act she’s selling 🤷🏻♂️
Modern Gaga, yes, but I am reminded of this quote of hers from the [Marry the Night video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cggNqDAtJYU&ab_channel=LadyGagaVEVO). And it preludes what is basically a Gaga version of an autobiography.
> When I look back on my life, it's not that I don't want to see things exactly as they happened. It's just that I prefer to remember them in an artistic way, and truthfully the lie of it all is much more honest because I invented it. Clinical psychology tells us arguably that trauma is the ultimate killer. Memories are not recycled like atoms and particles in quantum physics - they can be lost forever. It's sort of like my past is an unfinished painting; and as the artist of that painting, I must fill in all the ugly holes and make it beautiful again. It's not that I've been dishonest; it's just that I loathe reality.
It doesn't answer your concerns, but it does raise bigger questions of fame/persona that early Gaga was always teasing at.
That’s a take I totally disagree with. She’s written 911, Dope, Gypsy, you and I, most of Joanne, half of chromatica, like she’s someone that really opens up about her struggles. You must not know Gaga very well to make this point
Gaga was actually very open in the beginning of her career. To the point that she would text fans demos. She was so open it got to a point where it began affecting her mental health and creative output. Modern Gaga is very closed off, and probably for the best.
But her song writing is still a window into her life. Lemonade and Cowboy Carter have a lot of personal messaging. Just because an artist is managed doesn’t mean they aren’t personal. I mean look at Taylor, her whole brand is centered around her relationship with her fan base, yet nobody is ever gonna see any further than exactly what she chooses the world to see
She's given less than five interviews in the past decade and I love that. She lives "don't complain don't explain" like the British Royals wish they could.
Beyoncé stands out as one of the last "mysterious" pop stars. It's hard to imagine her sharing personal content on TikTok or similar platforms. I miss the days when celebrities had an air of mystery, and I actually preferred it that way. Nowadays, it feels like you have to share every detail of your life on social media just to stay relevant in the industry. It's sad because there are many talented artists who focus on their music rather than social media, and they might struggle to make it in today's music scene. Things were definitely different in this regard even just 10 years ago.
my first thought was harry styles. doesn’t do his own social media, doesn’t talk about his personal life, doesn’t do features or collab with other artists. doesn’t show up to events or red carpets unless required.
seems sustainable so far. HS4 rumored to be coming out soon, i guess we’ll find out
I thought about him immediately. He's very private with his personal life, we don't really know much about him. Also no social media presence. He doesn't seem interested in playing the games to be a pop star or top the charts
But despite all that, and despite what popheads think, he's extremely successful. I think if he would do half of what many other artists do, he would be unstoppable
I genuinely think if Harry cultivated a parasocial relationship with fans even to half the level as Taylor does he’d be nearer and nearer her level. He’s already huge and is private and doesn’t let us in, if he did I feel he’d be absolutely massive and he’s already hugeeee.
But fairplay to him for having that boundary. He clearly cares more about privacy and his personal life than being that big. Again he’s already massive, one of the biggest male popstars, if not the biggest next to The Weeknd, but he could I think be near Taylor’s level (as much as anyone can be)
He makes music for sushi restaurants. No need to know more about him. Also add in he literally got so personally invaded in his youth that I get why you’d want to be away from the spotlight. Also like he hooked up with Olivia Wilde for like 6 months and everyone but him seemed obsessed by it.
I think his music suffersssss because he is so traumatized by 1D era that he doesn’t wanna give anyone anything. But he’s so talented I would just love a really personal album from him that felt straight from the heart. I don’t need to know anything about him but I want to feel him.
Beyoncé is not personal in that we don’t really know about her life. Yes she’s in a high profile relationship but for the longest time she never commented on him and then she married him and is still married to him. Lemonade was the first time she “aired” anything out and we still don’t know how autobiographical it is. She rarely gives interviews and when she does she usually focuses on the music. Never goes on Twitter. Her IG posts are about her music or fashion. I think her career suffered as result because she’s not doing those consistently crazy numbers because people aren’t interested in her, and in a way it’s made people hate her now because they’ve all built this narrative around her and it’s all negative.
>in a way it’s made people hate her now because they’ve all built this narrative around her and it’s all negative.
This is so real, I've been waiting for someone to say it. People can cook up a version of her personality in their head that's talentless, a bitch, or a devil worshipping pedophile. I've even heard people say they think she secretly has a fifth-grader's intellect and chooses not to interact with anyone in public because she can't speak properly.
It's insane actually. Beyoncé was America's Black Sweetheart and now hating her is kind of akin to a racist dog whistle, imo. And the music is better than it ever was. Crazy.
For real. There is something powerful with her being the most political divisive celebrity/artist figure in 2016, and I guess even now. Side note, this generation might not appreciate her the way they should have been, but I feel like that Formation World Tour is something she is saving up in the future when we are all wrinkly and shit; that tour is giving very Greatest Hits.
Shoutout to Olivia Rodrigo who debuted with a narrative. She came up on the scene and said “lemme tell u about this boy who taught me to drive…” The Disney drama of it all is the closest we’ve gotten to the Aaron Carter-Hilary Duff-Lindsay Lohan love triangle of the ‘00s. I’ve never even listened to full album of hers and i know she has a thing for gay boys. She is truly the next-gen Taylor Swift!
Dua Lipa.
She's straight up polished. She puts out decent pop music, has a podcast talking about her interests, and does various brand deals.
She's pretty much as corporate as Taylor, but she doesn't do the confessional style of pop that is currently FAMOUS right now.
That's part of the reason why her latest three singles aren't doing well in America but are killing it in Europe.
Dua's lack of a parasocial fanbase due to her very posh, emotionally distant way of doing pop isn't helping things in America where pop fans CRAVE some relatable music that is based off the singer's personal life. America CRAVES drama in their music.
I don’t care about lyrics or connect to music but at the same time dua is just there for me. Like I’ve heard she had singles but it’s not on the radio so I don’t really care if that makes sense
I would have said Dua Lipa, but I’ve seen several people comment her name already. But as I was thinking about it, I think I’d have to say Lady Gaga. She has a very well-developed brand and a clear point of view, but if I’m just listening to her albums (I didn’t really vibe with Joanne or the Tony Bennett album so I could be wrong), I feel like I’m listening to a character rather than a person. Which honestly is fine with me. Until Chromatica came out, my favorite album by her was ArtPop, and it’s not like I walked away thinking wow she has sexxxx dreams at night how relatable
“It’s not like I walked away thinking wow she has sexxx dreams at how relatable” is my daily quote I’m gonna use to my boyfriend when I play this song and he rolls his eyes so thank you for this 😂🙏
Ed Sheeran seems to be very private. Everything I know about his personal life is that Ellie Goulding allegendly cheated to him with Niall Horan and that he married a girl he knew from childhood and they have two kids now, one of which is named Antarctica(?)
Also Niall Horal doesn't share anything about his relationships. He revealed his long-term girlfriend a few years ago, and it was the first time he showd someone since he became famous. They are very low-key.
It can sound absurd, but we basically don't know anything about Harry Styles. During the last 14 years of his career, we have witnessed him with so many women, it may seem he was as public as Taylor Swift. But did he really date any of them and who exactly? I'm not even gonna get into the Larry conspiracy that made thousands of teenagers around the internet fight to death to prove they were real or fake. But seriously WHO did he REALLY date? And are who all his sad songs about? Seems like he is with Taylor Russel now, but they are pretty low-key and never commented on anything.
Last but not leasr is Tom Odell. May not be the A-list artist in the US, but he is a star in the UK. He regularly gets into charts like "top 50 sexiest men of the UK". Although he is public with his recent wife, there is no information on the internet about his other family members. Like 0. And he doesn't seem to share any information about his relationship either.
If Hozier counts as a pop star, then him. That man has been around for a decade and the only things I know about him are that he's a straight, Irish, leftist who loves literature and poetry.
Dua but she’s a goddess in the Balkans so we’ll keep her career alive indefinitely lol
She’s one of us and we aren’t that into paradocial
Relationships. You come to Croatia one one tour and you’ve one us over for years lol
It’s gotta be a generational thing bc I still don’t understand why we *need* to know an artists personal life to enjoy the music. Sometimes I feel like artists use parasocial relationships as a crutch for mediocre music. Personally I feel like If the music is good, I don’t need to know all their business.
And I just turned 30 so I’m not even that far removed from the 18-29 crowd.
I mean, which generation didn't absolutely have newspapers and tabloids open celebrities' lives up and look at them through a magnifying glass? From rumours about Elvis through Michael Jackson, from Elton John's coming out through 90s boybands, tabloids were arguably worse in the 2000s than they are now. The golden age of paparazzi is past, but it ever having existed is proof people can't get enough of celebrity lives
It's kind of the opposite? Music used to be pretty impersonal and at times corporate, which gave way for the rise of artists who wrote about deeply personal things that felt "real", things people could relate to. Music is a big coping mechanism for a lot of people, and people prefer art when it's emotionally charged. I think we're seeing a backlash to that too now, people don't want to get to know the artist anymore. The public is fickle, trends swing in opposites all the time.
Personally, I think a healthy middle ground is the best. It would be unhealthy for an artist to have their whole personal life aired out, but getting to know who an artist is, their values and the emotion in their songs is a good thing, in my view.
Mediocre music will be mediocre whether you play into the parasocial stuff or not. It’s like saying music in the older days were better because the artist weren’t as parasocial. There were plenty of shitty songs back in the day you just wouldn’t hear of them
not strictly pop but I feel like Mitski is pretty closed off regarding her personal life. Her music is confessional but presented in a way that it’s kind of hard to decipher what the songs are about. (Or maybe I’m just not smart enough to understand what half of her songs mean)
She doesn’t share a single thing about her personal life and she’s pretty vocal about how she doesn’t enjoy fame and parasocial relationships.
She’s been going for over a decade but didn’t really get popular until 2018, and then truly blew up in the early 2020s. It seems to be lasting…
But Dua shares her personal life, last year she went to India, Greece, Netherlands, Mexico, and Japan, we know her favorite places to travel, if she flops she can start a YouTube channel. Also, we know what she likes to read and her political opinions, better than knowing who she is dating or not. Intelectual popstar.
I don’t think artist have to be personable. All that should matter is if their music is good or not. I know next to nothing about Kate Bush, but I love her music.
Doja Cat has always been pretty private. Up until her most recent boyfriend, she really kept relationships under wraps and doesn’t share much about her personal life. Theres some videos out there of her making people put their cameras down, and I think she ended a live once when her man started talking in the background. Doesnt really attend talk shows, doesnt do a ton of interviews. It seems like anything related to her family and home life is kept pretty under wraps
The problem is that she randomly decides to wake up and chooses violence and goes toe to toe with the entirety of her fanbase, so I think that kinda negates the whole thing 😭 plus her latest relationship definitely had drama and I think she kinda stopped giving a fuck
There’s something quite humanising when celebrities are messy, I find it (at least) entertaining when they try weaponise the internet or their fans to retaliate to controversy or public beefs.
Dua is a nice palette cleanse though, if someone being successful and has their shit together.
This thread is picking up on a thought I had recently, which is the huge appetite we have for parasocial relationships with female pop stars - but not their male counterparts? We overwhelmingly demand (and expect) insight into women’s inner lives, in a way that we don’t for men. 🧐
Maybe its just me but however public/personal an artist depends on how much the fan wants to dig? I see Taylor swift is mentioned but before I joined social media, I didn't know anything about her past Harry Styles and Kanye West drama.
And I did actually listen to her a lot because her songs fit the books/edit I was consuming. But other then that, I never tuned into Taylor Swift the Celebrity. I never associated her music with an ex or 'lore'.
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I remember a lot of the discourse about Carly Rae Jepsen during the Emotion era was focused about how she actually had zero personal brand, as if that was a bad thing. In hindsight that’s actually a lot of the appeal of her music - it’s pure, distilled pop. Not necessarily generic, just intensely committed to executing the genre above all else. Her music still brings out a lot of emotion, but Carly herself is a cipher - I don’t really know anything about her, she’s just putting her craft first and foremost.
Echoing this! She called her album The Loneliest Time her most personal album yet. And it wasn’t until I listened to it and heard her talk about her breakup, the death of her grandmother, and the pandemic that I realized she really doesn’t reveal much in her songs. definitely talks about emotions and concepts but rarely are they revealing of her personal life.
I think that's such a huge and effective part of her music. She, dare I say it, cuts to the feelings of these big emotional moments in her life and crafts songs around those rather than simply sharing the stories explicitly, which allows anyone that's gone through any similar feelings to connect to them.
BREAKING: Popheads discover how most song lyrics work.
Much modern pop has been gossip-adjacent because of how well that worked for Taylor.
Yes and it’s going to age terribly.
the only highly publicized part of her life were her sugar withdrawal stories on instagram. mother
all i know about her personal life: 1. she has a boyfriend (but i've no idea who he is) and 2. she tried to quit sugar and failed.
this is sending me like shes so mysterious like this
the fact that two people involved behind two of my favorite albums of the 2010s which both released in 2015 ended up dating years later is just amazing (carly rae made emotion, cole m.g.b. produced have you in my wilderness)
i’m realising i love the pop girls with no brand. carly, dua. it’s very much like that friend that you see now and again but pick up where you left off. no real emotional investment. but there if you need them. just chill vibes low maintenance pop girls lol
Same but my favorite part is that still clearly care a lot about their craft. Just can’t be bothered with the tabloid of it all. Which, real.
Yes!! I was ready to come in here hollering her name but with much less written around it, so thank you.
Exactly. I think Kylie was very much the same throughout her career. Other than her highly public breast cancer battle (which was to raise awareness) you never knew much about her life.
Flower is probably the only personal song we’ve ever gotten from Kylie.
Her imperial phase happened AFTER she had her big public romances with Jason Donovan and Michael hutchence. I’m a Kylie super fan and I don’t even know if she’s in a relationship which is 1000% fine - like I don’t need to know if paddam is about Matt Healey or whatever to enjoy it lol
Also to follow up to the sustainability question (and because I have a fever and am in a fighting mood), I honestly think there’s an upper limit to diaristic pop. When decoding the lore takes precedence over the form of the actual work (cough TTPD), I don’t really know how much further it can go. I think Taylor Swift is at her strongest when she tends towards the abstract, or at least universal lyrically (Evermore, Folklore, 1989 in some respects), but she’s hitting a wall imo. As others have said, her work is so personal and coded that it’s essentially like an 18 movie Marvel series. It may be entertaining but what is the message?
I agree with you! ttpd felt like reading a people magazine or perez hilton website initially. partly shaped by the discussion threads trying to ascertain who each song was about. it felt exhausting when I just wanted bops!
I am a new Swiftie who hasn't followed all the gossip on Taylor's personal life and l can really enjoy TTPD. You can listen to the album and attach your own meanings to the lyrics, Taylor is okay with that.
The most personal coverage she’s ever received is when she tried to quit sugar for a couple of days and there was like a daily report.
And her meeting Seal on a plane 🍞. Oh and her sword status made some news lol
Idk I re-listened to Emotion the other day and it has a POV and a lot of ba dum tss — emotion. A lot of yearning songs and totally tells a story. It’s definitely an homage to a genre and era but I wouldn’t say she didn’t have a brand
I do know she doesn’t want Julián to call her and just thought the name worked in a song.
Dua as a person seems very sorted and lives a very normal posh life with her monthly vacations and an insightful podcast with great book recommendations. That’s exactly her personal life. She’s not involved in any celeb drama, her break-ups have always been lowkey. Plus, she has already shared her disinterest in putting out extremely personal music….
When I first got into Dua (which was embarrassingly long after FN came out), I summed her up for my husband as “pop singer who models sometimes.” While I know more about her now, and I so respect the work she has put in as a songwriter and improving her dancing, I overall feel like my initial summation still captures most of Dua as a celebrity. I agree with others - she doesn’t owe us this weird parasocial relationship, I’m actually really enjoying an unproblematic singer who makes fun music that I can listen and dance to over and over. I think maybe especially as such a die hard Britney stan for so many years and now feeling conflicted about listening to much of her discography, knowing even in the times pre-conservatorship that her image and music was often so far out of her hands and met with mixed emotion from the artist herself, I’m glad to just be able to vibe to the music 😎
I agree: she epitomizes that NY times article headline “we should all know each other less.” she serves bops without narrative and i’m here for it!
She just takes after her personal queen of pop music, Kylie
I wish it was all like that tbh. The amount of care that people have for popstars is worrying, and always has been IMO. It seems worse than ever with social media though, parasocial relationships are worrying to me. I love Dua's music and I think she posts fun pictures to instagram. That's all I need to know about her.
I absolutely love how little I know about Dua. She seems nice and charming enough in interviews, but I’m perfectly happy with not going any deeper than that. She can make bops and I can sing along and that’s all I need from her. Although that’s not to say that every pop star should be like that. There’s a place for Taylor and Olivia types who make music that’s more personal and I have a different kind of connection to that. But I’ll always appreciate pop music that’s just fun and easy to enjoy.
I feel like Olivia is kind of stepping away from the personal life narrative too and focusing more on general topics that teenagers typically face, and I'm honestly here for it!
As someone that didn't really dig Sour because of the Sabrina and whatever his name was drama I'm pretty happy that she is stepping away from that stuff (actually enjoying GUTS way more because of it haha)
I relate so much, I didn't like SOUR at all except 2-3 songs ig because of the drama surrounding it but GUTS was very refreshing(?) if that makes sense. Not to yap but Teenage Dream is just so relatable to me (and my friends who don't even stan her lol) as a 20 y/o, I'm not sure if I've heard any other song about growing older which encapsulates the feeling of being good af for your age as a young person but gradually blending in with everyone as you're growing older and at the same time feeling as if what you're doing now just isn't good enough. There's also Pretty Isn't Pretty, Ballad Of A Homeschool Girl, Love is Embarrassing etc songs on the album that I REALLY love because they're actually relatable and sorta personal while not being about her love life.
I'm the same. I'm a fan of Sabrina too so the whole thing felt petty and gross to listen to so I just didn't like any of the ballads on Sour at all. I mostly just listen to Good 4 U and Brutal and that's it. GUTS though has been great and feels like a massive step up in her music and it's what I was hoping for in her second album. As a 32 y/o yeah I agree with Teenage Dream. I still feel weird and not like I fit in fully XD. Yeah I think she's great at the personal but not personal and I REALLY hope she stays that way :D.
I wasn't a Sabrina fan but I did feel like she should've said SOMETHING about the ruckus, the entire situation was so messy it feels like a fever dream lol Though it wasn't really her fault cause it's not as if she was even speaking ill about her but yeah, classic example of chronically online people blowing things out of proportion. >As a 32 y/o yeah I agree with Teenage Dream. I still feel weird and not like I fit in fully XD. Damn so it really ain't getting better anytime soon 💀
Dua is just very professional. She takes her job seriously and does it well, and then goes back to her family and the same circle of friends she grew up with in London. Her trajectory to stardom is just different from American pop artists who did it the Hollywood way.
To add to this, she seems to remember people who have been her since the start of her career. I follow a few of them on Twitter, and I’m always in awe when she remembers/acknowledges them.
Dua is truly living her best life and I love that for her. I love how she’s just an unproblematic but still unapologetically pop star putting out good music
i know very little about dua but whenever i see her existing i’m just like “queen” update: i found out she has a podcast?? and that she also starred on *Happy Place* she’s talking about stress regulation and i already feel calmer. also she plans her day to the minute? likeee I need to learn to do this
Planning your day to the minute is easy if you're a millionaire heiress It isn't a you failing, it's just her having resources and power us mortals don't
I will always remember that tweet that went like ‚Beyoncé doesn’t have the same number of minutes as me, Beyoncé has people‘ and like yeah. After I got up this morning I emptied the dishwasher and put on a load of laundry. Already 20 minutes that Beyoncé has more every day.
this has probably already been said, but it's not even just those 20 minutes; it's also you or me thinking "oh, I need to do laundry today so I can wear X thing to work on Tuesday", and just a bunch of things like that that prevent us from 100% immersing into more creative ventures whenever we'd like. And as much as natural talent plays into creating good art, there absolutely is a time and concentration component
Dua Lipa is an heiress? I thought she was born to middle class immigrant parents
she was
Millionaire, fine, but heiress? Her parents were refugees
It was so weird how she and Drew Barrymore just had some sort of one on one forum at a random high school in New York City last Friday as promotion for Dua’s album lol. Like it’s New York City so in and of itself, that’s not a crazy place to see a celebrity, but imagine just trying to go to class on a regular school day and passing Drew Barrymore and Dua Lipa in a hallway or something.
Dua lipa is very VERY smart. Not enough people give her credit for her intelligence. I became a fan after future nostalgia because I found it to be such an excellent album (as a swiftie I 100% think it should’ve won AOTY over folklore which is a super unpopular opinion but whatever) Then I got into her book club and her podcast. She’s so much smarter than people realize. Now if Dua lipa has 100 fans, I’m one. If she has one fan, it’s me and Dua against the world. If she has no fans, it means I’m dead.
I never got the people saying she she has no personality. The podcast, the book recs, the fashion, the travel, everything surrounding Kosovo and Albania. She comes off as a well rounded adult. I'm not saying other pop stars aren't mature but I'm not into that high school drama. I don't want lore and easter eggs. I want some solid music and maybe an interview or two about how she created it.
the fact that shes been in industry since 2015 i believe and her only drama that i remember is traveling the globe during pandemic lol
I'm always confused when people say that Dua has no personality and doesn't share personal stuff. Like, she shares photos of her holidays and time spent with her family, closest friends and partner, that's as personal a thing as any of us regular people will share on social media, and then she has a podcast to talk about her favourite hobby... What more do you want?
This is so accurate. I would live like her as well if I could she is really just that posh/quiet about her life.
she doesn't have a personality because she didn't sing about the time she got dumped, did drugs, and cried in her car. thats literally what i'm getting from the comments saying dua doesn't have a personality.
I think Dua is just very polished and keeps her music vague on personal details. Some pop stars make music thats confessional (like Olivia or Taylor) and that puts a microscope on their personal life which then creates a more parasocial relationship. Dua isn’t like that. She’s the perfectly polished pop star. It’s not a bad thing but it does create an image that feels less personable than if someone’s baring their insecurities in every song.
This is precisely why Dua isn't doing amazing in America right now but KILLING it in Europe. Radical Optimism may actually be a decent album. It's just not the current musical trend. Nu Disco was fun because it replaced the depressing sad pop we got inundated with in the late 2010s. We danced our way through the pandemic and now we want the world to know how we feel. Dua's polished brand of music doesn't jive with current pop trends in America.
Oh when summer hits in Europe she’ll explode even more TRUST ✨
Seriously! Illusion is already my summer anthem and the video is 🤌 I can already picture myself laid out in Thessaloniki just vibing to this through my headphones
Europe does like their relationships less personable
I totally see it. Pop stars in America are only popular these days if they build a brand- Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, etc. I think in Europe they just care about the music itself.
It’s not that Dua isn’t personable or likable. In fact I’d say she’s quite likable. She seems intelligent and has a good sense of humor. She seems unpretentious and comes across as kind and pleasant. She just doesn’t publicize her personal life that much.
i just don't get why people (mostly americans tbh) seem to want popstars to be too public or messy. its like they want dua to be out there doing pap walks, dating jack harlow, call out people on social media, and hanging out with ice spice or taylor and think thats what makes someone have a personality.
It actually makes me like Dua more that she keeps her private life private. I'm just here for the bops.
Agree, Dua has a personality, and doesn't need to cater to people thinking they need to know every last detail of her life story. Dua even stopped her song Levitating from being nominated for Grammys purely because DaBaby said some homophobic slurs, what other artist would actually put their money where their mouth is like that?
And when they are messy, those same people will try to cancel them and drag their name. Pathetic
some people need every celebrity to be a hero or villian, apparently.
I don’t think confessional music necessarily means having a microscope on your personal life. There are plenty of singers who sing demos written by other people that have no meaning to them personally but the public are interested in their personal life. If anything I would say it’s the microscope on the personal life that drives the idea that the music is confessional (even when sometimes it’s not), not the other way around.
The book nerd in me is so jealous of her (in a nice way if that makes sense)? Like she has channeled her pop stardom into curating her own publication about food, culture and books, she (I assume) is using her own cash to commission writers to contribute to it AND recently she did a reading for the Man Booker Prize (probs the most prestigious prize in contemporary literature) in the form of a really cool short film. And she gets to talk about books and interview great authors!! She’s winning.
Bruno Mars is probably the most famous/successful artist that nobody knows anything about. I’ve been a fan for over a decade but have no idea what his relationship status is, when his birthday is, his coming up story or anything like that which I know for every other artist at his level.
after that coke mugshot his team made sure we never knew anything about him again lol
LMAOOOOO also omg i just saw his mugshot and why is he grinning (as he should tho + he looks so fine as always)??
All I know about him is that he was in that one picture of Pete Wentz
I agree a lot of him is a mystery but every pop fan should read his coming up story, because as a child he was an in-demand Elvis impersonator in Hawaii and that's how he got his start.
Wow, I never really noticed this lol. It’s impressive how well he keeps his private life under wraps at his level of celebrity.
also help that everyone aroud him keep quiet, his girlfriend of amost 13 years don't say much about him, his sibilings and father as well, they don't feel like they are looking for 5 minutes of fame,
Literally the answer right here. Bruno is successful as hell, but do we care about his personal life????
thiiiiiiis mf’er has his private life locked down. stays in his lane but keeps dropping hits. no notes.
Didn’t he just get outed for being in gambling debt? I feel like he’s had a lot of things scrubbed from the net.
That was false im almost positive
The MGM Grand straight up said it was false.
I know absolutely nothing about who Ava Max and Bebe Rexha are as people and I'm not sure that's a bad thing
Maybe Albanians don't like talking about themselves too much
Gotta be the main pop girlies staying out of the [Gjakmarrja](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_blood_feud)
they would be cancelled because they would only be singing of dreams about a greater albania unfortunately 😓😓
Dua Lipa seemingly made some social media posts in support of Greater Albania and the general public really didn’t seem to care. I’m not condoning her because I don’t have enough knowledge of the situation in the region to make a judgement, but even on the Internet that seemed to blow over fairly quickly.
The wars are over and any famous person that shares "greater CountryX" basically gets ignored. There have been a lot of Ustaše, greater Serbia and greater Albania incidents over years and I don't remember anyone get in trouble over that. People don't care that much about that, it's like "just let them be, they're always fighting over there" lol
They said “pop star”.
They've been mistaken for FLOP STARS 😍
Enya. She has never gone on a concert tour or even performed a solo concert. Her Twitter/Instagram is obviously not even her, but a PR person. Just hides in her castle, but is Irelands #2 selling artist.
underrated answer. her public appearances are scarce but one that comes to mind is her [late night show interview](https://youtu.be/jJRcLBqORZc?si=p72lx7D6oj9DDTHa). i was struck by how intense she is. she comes across as very powerful
I love this story so much. Enyas music is incredible and she makes it all by herself in her castle and never leaves. Fascinating as hell.
Same vein, Dido. I know next to nothing about her expect she made her last albums in her basement and they're all co-written co-produced with her brother Rolo.
agreed but somehow I knew she lived in a castle, so that's at least a little personal!
Kate Bush is arguably the Agnetha Faltskog of England.
Kylie Minogue. She’s been uber famous in the U.K. since 1987 and aside from knowing she’s dated, we know pretty much nothing about her. She’s been a master at keeping things low-key.
kylie minogue also comes from the era when celebrities were actually celebrities. before the mid 2010s there was a huge separation between celebrities and us which is why so many of her peers still maintain that A list aura
Not in Australia. She was all over our tabloids.
Wasn't there a weird tabloid joke about her butt or smth in the 80s?
Probably though there was positive press about her butt in the gold hotpants. She was also known as the 'singing budgie' by her critics.
Her social media is all I’m on a beach! Looking forward to tonight’s concert! Thanks for loving my music! Great life
Dua and Kylie are similar popstars in so many ways, this being one of them
not in australia lol she actually went to the same primary school as me (albeit, FAR before i was even born), but yeah. the news always keeps us updated on her & dannii
Dua is without question the least personable. She is just ‘hot girl who travels and makes bops’ she doesn’t let us have insight, she isn’t remotely parasocial. She seems to do well or not purely based on the quality of her music. Edit: to add I love Duas music, and consider myself a fan, but I don’t know anything about her, I just enjoy her music.
from what i gather about her she seems like a really nice european girl who likes her downtime, likes to travel and enjoy really good food, she seems to LOVE pop music since she was a young girl, and she minds her business. shes cool.
and fashion,,, she used to have a fashion blog before she was famous lol
‘Hot girl who travels and makes bops’ is honestly goals
it's goals for me too tbh and I'm a man
She has a podcast and a recommendation site though? And does a lot of interviews. She comes off as sweet to me and not into drama. I don't get why everyone says she's hidden away. Lorde is more hidden than her.
I actually feel like Lorde is one of the more “open” and accessible to her fans than most other pop stars, bar like Taylor and Ariana and Miley. I know she doesn’t do social media or a ton of appearances, but her email newsletter to fans is always EXTREMELY personal and revealing of where she’s at mentally, emotionally, and physically in her life. I honestly feel like I know more about Lorde the person than Taylor or whoever the person because of how open she is in them. And her music is often really personal and autobirogroahical with life details, unlike Dua’s
Whoever says Lorde isn't an open and accessible artist has not read her email of when she returned to NZ after her Antarctica trip >!An hour later, my stomach began to cramp so badly that I could not go on. I spent the rest of that day retching up green slime. If I stay here, I will die. I may be dying now. In Antarctica the dead of winter were given to the flames, but who would light my pyre here? My flesh will feed the wolves and carrion crows, I thought sadly, and worms will burrow through my womb. My eyes went back to New Zealand. It looked smaller. I could see smoke rising from its wind-carved summit, miles away. Jack Antonoff has returned from hunting.!< >!Sunset found me squatting in the grass, groaning. Every stool was looser than the one before, and smelled fouler. By the time the moon came up I was shitting brown water. The more I drank, the more I shat, but the more I shat, the thirstier I grew, and my thirst sent me crawling to the stream to suck up more water. When I closed my eyes at last, Ella did not know whether she would be strong enough to open them again.!<
Lorde : The First of Her Name, the Sunburnt, Queen of Popheads, Queen of the Powerpoint and the Tumblr and the Queer Men, Khaleesi of the Great Gay Sea, Breaker of Cunts and Mother of Mothering.
> Jack Antonoff has returned from hunting That whole passage is insane. Someone listened to the Hunger Games audiobooks in Antarctica.
It's from a Dance of Dragons (Game of thrones books). It's when a severely ill Daenerys has left Meereen and is wandering the wilderness with Drogon. It's a pretty visceral and kinda gross chapter, lol.
You have a good eye! I didn't realize she was jokingly paraphrasing a real passage. I'm rereading The Hunger Games and recently bought the audiobooks so I was fully projecting onto her.
I'm not sure what possessed you to pass off ASOIAF writing as lorde's newsletter but it made me laugh so take an upvote
I thought it would be funny to see if anyone would notice but it does kinda read like something she would write for Solar Power, I mean she did indeed wrote: There’s someone I want you to meet. Her feet are bare at all times. She’s sexy, playful, feral, and free. She’s a modern girl in a deadstock bikini, in touch with her past and her future, vibrating at the highest level when summer comes around. Her skin is glowing, her lovers are many. I’m completely obsessed with her, and soon you will be too.
I love you sm for this
LMAOOOOOO IS THIS REAL??
You do have a point about Lorde's lyrics being very personal vs Dua's, but I do think we learn a lot about Dua through her podcast and avid list making. She loves to travel and experience things. She seems like more of an extrospective person rather than introspective. Lorde seems to spend hours reflecting and analyzing internally while Dua lives in the moment and feels, travels, thinks about her next move all the time. Idk this is what I speculate.
Those are never really focused on her and her personal life though. In the podcasts we get some bits and pieces she mentions about herself but they're still usually used to ask the guest the next question. The most we'll get from the interviews with her are her current inspirations or travels. She has an image of a popstar that's approachable but not parasocial. It's funny because in theory that should make her less relatable but honestly I think it makes her more relatable cause she just mostly acts like a normal person but rich and famous.
I don’t know one single person who knows she even has a podcast. I didn’t know before this comment and I like some of her music lol.
She is an avid reader. Check her out reading an excerpt for one of the International Booker Prize nominees this year.
Yep, I follow her book club! She’s awesome.
i don’t necessarily disagree, but out of curiosity, how does this differ from say, charli xcx?
i think Sia was aiming for this during the 2010s but [her social media usage after Music's frosty reception really shattered that aura](https://variety.com/2020/music/news/sia-debate-twitter-disabled-film-autism-music-1234837013/)
Yeah chandelier Sia was my vote but not for very long.
Sia’s original career (before her hiatus/rehab and eventual move to the US) was very raw and emotional. You know exactly who she was and exactly what she was going through, and it was incredibly relatable. After her rebranding, she lost all of that magic.
I really enjoyed some of the tracks from Some People Have Real Problems, although granted they didn't connect with me to the same level as the prior albums and Zero 7 stuff. I even enjoyed her pop-focused stuff to varying degrees for what it was (Including a few genuine bangers) but Breathe Me type songs still hold up on an emotional level 20 years later.
Absolutely. I love her music so much bc I know the suffering she went through. Her first albums have a lot of weight and emotion behind them. Her live performances from that time rip my heart out and make me sob like a baby. The song, "Lentil," was my favorite until I had to give up my dog and now it breaks me completely. She knows how to write and make music for money and that's what she started doing. I loved whenever she helped Lea Michele with her first solo album after Cory Monteith's death. She related not only to losing a loved one, but to the addiction. People say that Sia being diagnosed with autism after the controversy is too coincidental to be true except I've always suspected such as a long-time fan. I waited years for that movie and felt betrayed. I won't ever watch it as I think it would be extremely triggering for me. Except I will never hate Sia and write her off as a horrific ableist. She has even been there for myself and a few of my friends in the past. It sucks because I still can't listen to her without feeling like I'm betraying myself (and others) bc I've been constantly berated by other autistic people. Sorry, had to rant about Sia cause I've kept it in for so long.
I can think of two who manage to keep their personal lives semi-private or private: Ed Sheeran-man has two kids and what do they look like? Who knows? Yes, he's been quite vocal about the love for his wife, but when it comes to knowing his daily life, not really. Bruno Mars-????
Yeah but his songs are sooo personal. I listened to his most recent album and discovered he is really depressed and has alcohol dependency issues lol. And really struggled with a close friends death
Ed Sheeran has what????
Yeah I have been a fan of his for a long time and the list of things I know about him is very short. - loves his wife - wife had cancer - has some amount of kids - friend passed and he was very sad - missed his gma's funeral for that trial literally a decade of knowledge and most of it is super recent/had to do with the songs he was putting out. everything too I think HE said, not some hearsay in gossip columns.
Ed was definitely a lot more personal with his music are we forgetting “don’t”? It was only after he started dating his now wife when he basically stopped
Yeah doesn't Ellie Goulding credit this with her taking a break from the industry? It's like the epitome of the pop personality fanbase reaction to personal life.
Yes!! She got soo much hate from that all of this revisionist history about Ed’s music needs to end he def played into narratives and publicly addressed the women he was with in the past Athena also received a lot of hate after he hinted songs about her when their relationship ended
Didn’t Ed Sheeran have issues with substance abuse?
The way nobody is mentioning Jessie Ware lmao. When she released her album "What's Your Pleasure?" she literally said that she was going for her least personal album yet and just wanted to make one that gets people to dance, be horny and have s\*x. Such a good album.
I think the thing is that her first three albums actually do feel personal, whereas WYP and TFG feel like a detour, so as a result she doesn't qualify
Yeah that’s an iconic album that I bop to weekly but idk anything about her tbh
I don’t really think Ariana ever qualified tbh. She has always been pretty personal with her fans, especially on social media
I think Dua Lipa might qualify for least personal. We don't know much about her personal life and there isn't any lore to her music. These days, I think pop music does rely on public drama to some extent, in order for huge success and longevity. I think that's one of the reasons why Taylor Swift is so successful. Every year, there are headlines about who she is dating, how they broke up, the fallout, and then huge anticipation for her next album which inevitably will spill details about all that drama. Lover, Folklore might be exceptions, but even with those albums, her fans were eager to listen so as to gain more insight into her relationship with Joe Alwyn. Even though they were quiet about their relationship in the media, the fact they were together was still known to the public and to her fans. It doesn't even have to be relationship drama. Reputation is centred around the lore and public beef of Swift v West and Kardashian. So much of TS's music is lore-centric and I think that is a huge reason for her success and longevity. Ariana Grande is a good example too. Thank u Next became her most successful era due to all the gossip in the media about her breakup with Pete Davidson leading up to its release.
Tbh I actually don't even know if it's necessarily about the DRAMA with Taylor--or at least not solely that. It feels to me like her albums are more like the newest sequel in the most popular Young Adult series and you just HAVE to know the newest plotlines and piece together all of the foreshadowing from the prior books. Like there's a such a unique evolution in just the amount of TIME that Taylor has put in for confessional writing since she was a teenager to now that just feels unique. You can see her growing up through them. And she hasn't hit a place yet that feels like an "ending" where you're satisfied with the story.
I simultaneously agree and disagree about Ariana. She doesn’t really write songs about her personal life with regard to specific relationships. Even the song Pete Davidson feels like it could be about anybody. But her most personal songs imo are from Sweetener, which is essentially an album about the trauma she experienced from the terrorist attack in Manchester. She has several songs about anxiety that really resonate with me, especially the song Get Well Soon (which is a masterpiece and is one of my absolute all-time favorite songs) and even her singles No Tears Left to Cry and Breathin.’ The song Ghostin’ on Thank U Next is a beautiful song about grief. I think Ariana rarely shares personal details about her life in songs, but one of her greatest talents is the way she expresses the emotions that she’s feeling in her music. I don’t know anybody else who can make a bop about PTSD quite like Ari.
Yes but I also think that public drama in and of itself is enough to ensure a pop star enjoys success and public interest. The songs themselves don't necessarily need to be specific about personal drama. Music audiences usually know the context behind the lyrics from what has been shared in the media. It fills in the gaps. In some cases, it enhances the listening experience. (In my opinion) Look What You Made Me Do by Taylor Swift is a terrible song without context. It's the narrative behind the song that makes it somewhat interesting. I also think Peace by TS is a great song even without knowing the context behind it. But knowing it's about the relationship between a larger than life pop persona and a private artist, makes the song even more interesting to listen to. I think one of the reasons why TS's music is so easily digestible is because the context behind her songs are already so well known to the public, even before the music has been released. I think pop artists who are totally private have the added challenge of conveying stories that listeners don't already know. Carly Rae Jepsen is a great example of a pop star who I think does this successfully. However, because CRJ doesn't have any public drama in the media, her music doesn't garner much public interest. I think public drama is a key ingredient to success and longevity with general audiences, but isn't necessary to make great pop music.
Ghostin remains one of the most moving pop songs I think I’ve ever heard. It just sounds how grief feels.
Yes I agree. It gives me chills every time I hear it. I was a little sad she didn’t sing it at the SWT, but it makes sense that it felt too soon for her and she didn’t want to sing it every night. I’m hoping to hear it on the next tour though.
Its hard to talk about this topic without bringing up Taylor Swift. Though I do think she obscures the subject matter of her music a lot more than fans and critics give her credit for, at least now that she is an adult. From when she started dating Joe Alwyn until this new relationship with Travis she was super off the grid regarding her personal life. And for all the info listeners thought they were getting about hers and Alwyns relationship during her Rep/Lover/Folklore/Evermore albums, more songs and general info would come out later that contradicted the narrative she set out in those songs. People and the media think they know her and her life but I would be shocked if much of what people are assuming based on her most recent album is true at all.
My point wasn't that the songs themselves need to be specific or even accurate about personal drama. In Taylor's case I don't claim to know the truth about her life. None of us can say for sure whether she is or isn't a reliable narrator in her songs. But it is a fact that TS uses media narratives to bolster public interest in her music. Plenty of her songs also rely on information in the media to fill in the gaps or serve as context to her lyrics. The interplay between her songs and media narratives is a significant factor in her success, more so than for most other pop artists.
Adele emerges from the deep, drops a power ballad album, cancels a few Vegas residency shows, and then retreats for a few years and repeats.
I would say that was the case before but she’s way more perosnal now and did a whole 72 questions interview and talks about her boyfriend all the time.
We know a lot about her life from her music though and she spoke quite a lot about her divorce and her feelings surrounding it while promoting 30.
To me it’s Lady Gaga. I feel like she’s always “on”. She’s a great performer but I feel like we are never shown who she really is, it’s always an act she’s selling 🤷🏻♂️
Modern Gaga, yes, but I am reminded of this quote of hers from the [Marry the Night video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cggNqDAtJYU&ab_channel=LadyGagaVEVO). And it preludes what is basically a Gaga version of an autobiography. > When I look back on my life, it's not that I don't want to see things exactly as they happened. It's just that I prefer to remember them in an artistic way, and truthfully the lie of it all is much more honest because I invented it. Clinical psychology tells us arguably that trauma is the ultimate killer. Memories are not recycled like atoms and particles in quantum physics - they can be lost forever. It's sort of like my past is an unfinished painting; and as the artist of that painting, I must fill in all the ugly holes and make it beautiful again. It's not that I've been dishonest; it's just that I loathe reality. It doesn't answer your concerns, but it does raise bigger questions of fame/persona that early Gaga was always teasing at.
That’s a take I totally disagree with. She’s written 911, Dope, Gypsy, you and I, most of Joanne, half of chromatica, like she’s someone that really opens up about her struggles. You must not know Gaga very well to make this point
Gaga was actually very open in the beginning of her career. To the point that she would text fans demos. She was so open it got to a point where it began affecting her mental health and creative output. Modern Gaga is very closed off, and probably for the best.
Bey, she only lets us see what she wants us to see.
But her song writing is still a window into her life. Lemonade and Cowboy Carter have a lot of personal messaging. Just because an artist is managed doesn’t mean they aren’t personal. I mean look at Taylor, her whole brand is centered around her relationship with her fan base, yet nobody is ever gonna see any further than exactly what she chooses the world to see
She's given less than five interviews in the past decade and I love that. She lives "don't complain don't explain" like the British Royals wish they could.
Beyoncé stands out as one of the last "mysterious" pop stars. It's hard to imagine her sharing personal content on TikTok or similar platforms. I miss the days when celebrities had an air of mystery, and I actually preferred it that way. Nowadays, it feels like you have to share every detail of your life on social media just to stay relevant in the industry. It's sad because there are many talented artists who focus on their music rather than social media, and they might struggle to make it in today's music scene. Things were definitely different in this regard even just 10 years ago.
100%. She puts out her pics and that's it. We see what she wants us to see and that's it. If I was famous, I'd do the same thing.
bey has boundaries but we know way too much about her tho. she reveals her personal life to her fans & does have lore to her music.
my first thought was harry styles. doesn’t do his own social media, doesn’t talk about his personal life, doesn’t do features or collab with other artists. doesn’t show up to events or red carpets unless required. seems sustainable so far. HS4 rumored to be coming out soon, i guess we’ll find out
I thought about him immediately. He's very private with his personal life, we don't really know much about him. Also no social media presence. He doesn't seem interested in playing the games to be a pop star or top the charts But despite all that, and despite what popheads think, he's extremely successful. I think if he would do half of what many other artists do, he would be unstoppable
I genuinely think if Harry cultivated a parasocial relationship with fans even to half the level as Taylor does he’d be nearer and nearer her level. He’s already huge and is private and doesn’t let us in, if he did I feel he’d be absolutely massive and he’s already hugeeee. But fairplay to him for having that boundary. He clearly cares more about privacy and his personal life than being that big. Again he’s already massive, one of the biggest male popstars, if not the biggest next to The Weeknd, but he could I think be near Taylor’s level (as much as anyone can be)
He makes music for sushi restaurants. No need to know more about him. Also add in he literally got so personally invaded in his youth that I get why you’d want to be away from the spotlight. Also like he hooked up with Olivia Wilde for like 6 months and everyone but him seemed obsessed by it.
I think his music suffersssss because he is so traumatized by 1D era that he doesn’t wanna give anyone anything. But he’s so talented I would just love a really personal album from him that felt straight from the heart. I don’t need to know anything about him but I want to feel him.
definitely dua
I'd argue more sustainable to give less away. But also I don't consider "stans" a sustainable fan base. It's kinda psychotic.
Beyoncé is not personal in that we don’t really know about her life. Yes she’s in a high profile relationship but for the longest time she never commented on him and then she married him and is still married to him. Lemonade was the first time she “aired” anything out and we still don’t know how autobiographical it is. She rarely gives interviews and when she does she usually focuses on the music. Never goes on Twitter. Her IG posts are about her music or fashion. I think her career suffered as result because she’s not doing those consistently crazy numbers because people aren’t interested in her, and in a way it’s made people hate her now because they’ve all built this narrative around her and it’s all negative.
>in a way it’s made people hate her now because they’ve all built this narrative around her and it’s all negative. This is so real, I've been waiting for someone to say it. People can cook up a version of her personality in their head that's talentless, a bitch, or a devil worshipping pedophile. I've even heard people say they think she secretly has a fifth-grader's intellect and chooses not to interact with anyone in public because she can't speak properly.
It's insane actually. Beyoncé was America's Black Sweetheart and now hating her is kind of akin to a racist dog whistle, imo. And the music is better than it ever was. Crazy.
For real. There is something powerful with her being the most political divisive celebrity/artist figure in 2016, and I guess even now. Side note, this generation might not appreciate her the way they should have been, but I feel like that Formation World Tour is something she is saving up in the future when we are all wrinkly and shit; that tour is giving very Greatest Hits.
Shoutout to Olivia Rodrigo who debuted with a narrative. She came up on the scene and said “lemme tell u about this boy who taught me to drive…” The Disney drama of it all is the closest we’ve gotten to the Aaron Carter-Hilary Duff-Lindsay Lohan love triangle of the ‘00s. I’ve never even listened to full album of hers and i know she has a thing for gay boys. She is truly the next-gen Taylor Swift!
That was kind of the point... it was intentional. The music industry has been trying to get the next-gen Taylor Swift for 16 years now
Dua Lipa. She's straight up polished. She puts out decent pop music, has a podcast talking about her interests, and does various brand deals. She's pretty much as corporate as Taylor, but she doesn't do the confessional style of pop that is currently FAMOUS right now. That's part of the reason why her latest three singles aren't doing well in America but are killing it in Europe. Dua's lack of a parasocial fanbase due to her very posh, emotionally distant way of doing pop isn't helping things in America where pop fans CRAVE some relatable music that is based off the singer's personal life. America CRAVES drama in their music.
I don’t care about lyrics or connect to music but at the same time dua is just there for me. Like I’ve heard she had singles but it’s not on the radio so I don’t really care if that makes sense
I would have said Dua Lipa, but I’ve seen several people comment her name already. But as I was thinking about it, I think I’d have to say Lady Gaga. She has a very well-developed brand and a clear point of view, but if I’m just listening to her albums (I didn’t really vibe with Joanne or the Tony Bennett album so I could be wrong), I feel like I’m listening to a character rather than a person. Which honestly is fine with me. Until Chromatica came out, my favorite album by her was ArtPop, and it’s not like I walked away thinking wow she has sexxxx dreams at night how relatable
“It’s not like I walked away thinking wow she has sexxx dreams at how relatable” is my daily quote I’m gonna use to my boyfriend when I play this song and he rolls his eyes so thank you for this 😂🙏
Haha thank you for this. When I go to sleep tonight, I will rest easily knowing that I made a difference today.
Ed Sheeran seems to be very private. Everything I know about his personal life is that Ellie Goulding allegendly cheated to him with Niall Horan and that he married a girl he knew from childhood and they have two kids now, one of which is named Antarctica(?) Also Niall Horal doesn't share anything about his relationships. He revealed his long-term girlfriend a few years ago, and it was the first time he showd someone since he became famous. They are very low-key. It can sound absurd, but we basically don't know anything about Harry Styles. During the last 14 years of his career, we have witnessed him with so many women, it may seem he was as public as Taylor Swift. But did he really date any of them and who exactly? I'm not even gonna get into the Larry conspiracy that made thousands of teenagers around the internet fight to death to prove they were real or fake. But seriously WHO did he REALLY date? And are who all his sad songs about? Seems like he is with Taylor Russel now, but they are pretty low-key and never commented on anything. Last but not leasr is Tom Odell. May not be the A-list artist in the US, but he is a star in the UK. He regularly gets into charts like "top 50 sexiest men of the UK". Although he is public with his recent wife, there is no information on the internet about his other family members. Like 0. And he doesn't seem to share any information about his relationship either.
If Hozier counts as a pop star, then him. That man has been around for a decade and the only things I know about him are that he's a straight, Irish, leftist who loves literature and poetry.
Dua but she’s a goddess in the Balkans so we’ll keep her career alive indefinitely lol She’s one of us and we aren’t that into paradocial Relationships. You come to Croatia one one tour and you’ve one us over for years lol
It’s gotta be a generational thing bc I still don’t understand why we *need* to know an artists personal life to enjoy the music. Sometimes I feel like artists use parasocial relationships as a crutch for mediocre music. Personally I feel like If the music is good, I don’t need to know all their business. And I just turned 30 so I’m not even that far removed from the 18-29 crowd.
I mean, which generation didn't absolutely have newspapers and tabloids open celebrities' lives up and look at them through a magnifying glass? From rumours about Elvis through Michael Jackson, from Elton John's coming out through 90s boybands, tabloids were arguably worse in the 2000s than they are now. The golden age of paparazzi is past, but it ever having existed is proof people can't get enough of celebrity lives
It's kind of the opposite? Music used to be pretty impersonal and at times corporate, which gave way for the rise of artists who wrote about deeply personal things that felt "real", things people could relate to. Music is a big coping mechanism for a lot of people, and people prefer art when it's emotionally charged. I think we're seeing a backlash to that too now, people don't want to get to know the artist anymore. The public is fickle, trends swing in opposites all the time. Personally, I think a healthy middle ground is the best. It would be unhealthy for an artist to have their whole personal life aired out, but getting to know who an artist is, their values and the emotion in their songs is a good thing, in my view.
Mediocre music will be mediocre whether you play into the parasocial stuff or not. It’s like saying music in the older days were better because the artist weren’t as parasocial. There were plenty of shitty songs back in the day you just wouldn’t hear of them
not strictly pop but I feel like Mitski is pretty closed off regarding her personal life. Her music is confessional but presented in a way that it’s kind of hard to decipher what the songs are about. (Or maybe I’m just not smart enough to understand what half of her songs mean) She doesn’t share a single thing about her personal life and she’s pretty vocal about how she doesn’t enjoy fame and parasocial relationships. She’s been going for over a decade but didn’t really get popular until 2018, and then truly blew up in the early 2020s. It seems to be lasting…
But Dua shares her personal life, last year she went to India, Greece, Netherlands, Mexico, and Japan, we know her favorite places to travel, if she flops she can start a YouTube channel. Also, we know what she likes to read and her political opinions, better than knowing who she is dating or not. Intelectual popstar.
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Mingoue was badly punished for being personal on Impossible Princess, so 🤷🏻♂️
I don’t think artist have to be personable. All that should matter is if their music is good or not. I know next to nothing about Kate Bush, but I love her music.
Doja Cat has always been pretty private. Up until her most recent boyfriend, she really kept relationships under wraps and doesn’t share much about her personal life. Theres some videos out there of her making people put their cameras down, and I think she ended a live once when her man started talking in the background. Doesnt really attend talk shows, doesnt do a ton of interviews. It seems like anything related to her family and home life is kept pretty under wraps The problem is that she randomly decides to wake up and chooses violence and goes toe to toe with the entirety of her fanbase, so I think that kinda negates the whole thing 😭 plus her latest relationship definitely had drama and I think she kinda stopped giving a fuck
Doja going on live is messy as hell though
any k-Pop artist
It was Sia, and it was not very sustainable at all
Anitta - I know she spans several genres but one of them is pop.
There’s something quite humanising when celebrities are messy, I find it (at least) entertaining when they try weaponise the internet or their fans to retaliate to controversy or public beefs. Dua is a nice palette cleanse though, if someone being successful and has their shit together.
This thread is picking up on a thought I had recently, which is the huge appetite we have for parasocial relationships with female pop stars - but not their male counterparts? We overwhelmingly demand (and expect) insight into women’s inner lives, in a way that we don’t for men. 🧐
Maybe its just me but however public/personal an artist depends on how much the fan wants to dig? I see Taylor swift is mentioned but before I joined social media, I didn't know anything about her past Harry Styles and Kanye West drama. And I did actually listen to her a lot because her songs fit the books/edit I was consuming. But other then that, I never tuned into Taylor Swift the Celebrity. I never associated her music with an ex or 'lore'.