OLD ROADS & BAD GUYS : A Year in Weird Pop Music

Ok, so the music industry is changing. It has been for as long as I can remember. But the more it changes, the more it stays the same, and the same way grunge has disrupted charts in the early 90s, and indie has thrown a wrench in the equation of the 00s, this year has seen some pretty weird pop music makes its way to the top of the charts. 

There are interesting parallels to be made between 2 of the most notable chart-toppers of the year, Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road and Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy, Both songs defied the boundaries of pop music’s rigid rules and regulations. Made in bedroom studios, they both represent a weird amalgam of genres that sounds bad on paper, but great in a club. They’re both a huge middle finger at songs written by committees, as is now the norm in the industry. And, of course, they both were helped by co-signs from established artists (once they got traction, that is...).

Old Town Road was engineered as an attention-grabbing mix of country and trap. A song that just begs to become a TikTok meme. Bad Guy is a weird EDM / punk-pop hybrid that would have been at home on MTV in the late 90s, sandwiched somewhere between Marilyn Manson and No Doubt.

Eilish’s anthem features a production that cleverly goes against the grain of a lot of what’s happening in the music world at the moment. Its use of quiet dynamics and it’s hushed vocals make it sound lightyears away from the maximalism that occupies the contemporary airwaves.

Seeing that those songs are 2 of the most listened-to tracks of the year gives me hope for the decade to come. It represents the public ability to recognize authenticity and cleverness when it hears it. It also shows a triumph of creative individuality over the anonymity of a lot of what populates streaming services’ playlists. Charisma and inventiveness will always find their crowd, and that crowd will most likely be huge.

If forward-thinking, genre-bending, idiosyncratic bedroom pop is what is in the cards for us for the decade to come, sign me the fuck up.