Surprise, surprise: Millionaire pop stars are disconnected from their audiences

• 
  via @PopTingz

• Styles is arguably the biggest male pop star working today, so naturally, the album is going to sell well. The former One Direction bandmate still has legions of fans. As such, only a fool would not expect this record to debut at number one on the Billboard charts. However, sales aside, the album itself is not dominating the cultural conversation. The music has a divided critical response, and it is not converting new fans to join the Harry Styles standom. Considering that his last album, Harry’s House, won the coveted Grammy Award for Album of the Year, that’s a significant sign of decline for the artist.

  But Harry Styles is not the only musical act to have missed the mark recently. Bruno Mars, who has always been a hitmaker and awards magnet, released his latest album, The Romantic, last month. It debuted at number one on Billboard, but once again, the cultural conversation and critical reception wasn’t very strong. Even Taylor Swift, who is still earning outstanding sales for last fall’s The Life of a Showgirl, seems to have fallen out of favor among general audiences outside of her devoted army of Swifties. 

  All of these artists’ latest albums were essentially commercial plays with half-baked concepts that failed to resonate across a broad cultural landscape. It’s as though our biggest and most reliable pop stars have opted for fan service instead of deepening their artistry. As a result, the music comes across as disconnected from the culture, and at times, the artists even come across as disconnected from themselves. 

• 
  via @AOTY2024

• What Happened to Harry Styles?

  It has been four years since Harry’s House won Album of the Year in a hotly contested race over Beyoncé’s critically acclaimed dance-pop magnum opus, Renaissance. After the release of Harry’s House, Styles took another stab at acting, performing in then girlfriend Olivia Wilde’s critically panned Don’t Worry Darling. Styles’s performance in particular garnered lots of negative press, from his widely memed interviews to the “Spit-gate” debacle at the film’s premiere in Venice. Since then, Styles has been largely out of the public eye, which usually allows for anticipation to build leading up to a pop star’s return to music. Yet somehow, the enthusiasm just isn’t quite there on a broad scale. 

  The lead single from Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, might have been the first sign of the album’s trajectory. Although “Aperture” charted well, its staying power has not been nearly as strong as the lead single off of Harry’s House, “As It Was.” Like the rest of the album, “Aperture” ventures into dance-pop territory, yet Styles himself seems distant on the record. This manifests itself technically, as his vocals are largely overpowered by the production. Even his first live performance of “Aperture” at the BRIT Awards failed to drum up much excitement, aside from social media criticisms regarding the pop star’s dancing abilities.

• 
  via @tyler02020

• Lyrically, Styles does not seem to have much to say on this album. While on his promotional tour, he even went viral for admitting that he’s “not sure what [he’s] adding to the world.” That energy is reflected in the music. Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally is unsure of itself, which makes it difficult for general audiences to connect. Pitchfork characterized the album as having a "noncommittal emptiness” to it. This was not true of Harry’s House. On that album, Styles exuded an infectious, vibrant energy that had broad appeal precisely because he seemed so himself on the record. Pitchfork described Harry’s House as “deftly executed, with a surplus of style and whimsy.” This time, however, the mega pop star’s heart doesn’t seem to be in it as much, and that trademark style and whimsy are absent as well.

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  via @shivlestat

• Can Pop Stars Relate to the Masses Anymore?

  In our contentious times, audiences are increasingly separated by circumstance, algorithms, and generational divides. Uniting people through music feels practically impossible, especially when you are a multimillionaire who tends to play it safe artistically. Harry Styles is not the only pop star who has had trouble speaking to our fractured cultural zeitgeist in his music. 

  Bruno Mars’s The Romantic failed to capture much attention at all. That’s a surprise coming off of two chart-topping duets, “Die with a Smile” and “APT,” which Mars performed with Lady Gaga and Rosé, respectively. Critics and audiences alike largely dismissed The Romantic as “same old, same old” for Mars. The “Uptown Funk” singer has earned a reputation for repeating himself, and he certainly lived up to it on The Romantic. Here, Mars continues to coast on those vibes, catering to the fans who were already going to stream his music without trying something new lyrically or sonically.

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  via @PopCrave

• On The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift has a similar problem (although Bruno Mars is nowhere near as popular as Swift is right now). Swift may have recently earned her second number one hit on this album, a feat she had not achieved since her massively successful record 1989. Still, the enthusiasm has certainly waned outside of Swiftie circles. By venturing into new artistic territory on her 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore, Swift invited new fans to appreciate her work. Those albums felt like bold creative statements that were both cohesive and fresh. However, on The Life of a Showgirl, Swift’s expressed goal of producing mainstream pop hits failed to reach the same heights of critical acclaim. It’s also possible that Swift’s astronomical success following the Eras tour made her life experiences and artistic insights difficult to relate to.

• Artists like multimillionaires Harry Styles, Bruno Mars, and Taylor Swift will likely continue to have trouble connecting with the average audience member who isn’t a part of their devoted fanbase. Trying to connect with that audience member is arguably more important than catering to someone who is going to stream your work endlessly no matter what. If these pop stars truly want to level up in their work and make music that speaks to the cultural moment, they need to challenge themselves by digging deeper into their own identities while responding to the reality outside of their bubbles.

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