I think 2024 is now one of my favourite years in pop #music. I'm gonna ramble, because I'm a nobody with barely coherent writing skills. No one will publish this blather, so here we go!

Some qualifications and considerations: I'm mostly thinking women singers in Western Anglophone pop, albums with songs that sorta went viral on social media. That last aspect usually doesn't bode well, but I think 2024 proves that what goes #viral isn't always shit.

Incidentally: I listen to lot of K-pop (hey, new Nayeon!), but this year isn't so much about new revelations, except for maybe groups like Katseye, who I ended up liking a lot even if the trainee I was rooting for wasn't picked, and also Unis, who have quite the energy, especially with "Curious."

The big release is Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department, a record I was predisposed to like (I've been a fan for a dozen years and also have a degree in creative writing where I specialised in lyric poetry), and I do like it. It's very likeable. Not sure about the timing though with the Eras Tour still ongoing and stuff. In fact, I feel I would be happier if TTPD came out some other time and we got Reputation Taylor's Version instead.

#Beyonce is someone who seems to me incapable of releasing a bad record, and Cowboy Carter wasn't just a good record but a great one. I'm not sure whether I prefer it to Renaissance (and maybe it doesn't matter), but Cowboy Carter isn't just Beyonce doing country music well but doing the album format, too. TTPD has good songs, but I feel it doesn't quite cohere, unlike previous Taylor Swift albums.

The third artist I'm thinking of who belongs in this category of pop singers who deliver consistently good records is #Charlixcx, but I was totally surprised by brat becoming the pop culture phenomenon it became. I was already getting ready to once again defend her, because it feels like so many people just write her off online, like what happened with Crash. I was so shocked to not have to defend her new record. Really beautiful moment there.

This leads me to the surprise I got from singers I've never listened to before, but who were all over social media. All three turned up with very different-sounding records, but each one was so addictive and went on heavy rotation:

#ChappellRoan came out of nowhere (for me), and I wasn't sure how her music sounded, but when I heard it, she blew my socks off. And I know--being a straight dude--that I'm not supposed to listen to her, but I do I do sincerely love her music and personality. (I've only just realised her record came out in 2023, but 2024 is the year of the Happening.)

I haven't listened to the new Normani yet, but just when I was about to, I got recs for #Tinashe, so I listened to the latter instead. Oh, she sang "Nasty," I realised, and then was awestruck by all the other songs on Quantum Baby. That led me backwards to her discography, and I like them all. It's R&B but just so weird in all the right ways. I think of her as an American FKA Twigs. She's so likeable too in interviews and a really confident performer.

And then there's #SabrinaCarpenter. "Espresso" was all over social media, and I liked it a great deal (and initially wondered if it was--hilariously--Camilla Cabello). Sabrina Carpenter is such a familiar name, I thought, and then--OH, it's the older girl referenced in Olivia Rodrigo's "drivers license"! I never bothered listening to her before, because Olivia was probably the last time before this year when a new pop singer wowed me, and I thought Sabrina Carpenter was just an actress, so I just didn't pay attention whatsoever. I didn't realise how many records Carpenter already has, but okay, this new one? It's so good! "Espresso" works even better in an album rather than a hook on social media videos. It's also a hilarious album, and I sometimes think she reminds of REDACTED if REDACTED was actually funny and not annoying. I get it now. Sorry it took me so long, Sabrina Carpenter.

EDIT: In a hilarious twist, three days after posting this, I found out that the blonde American teenage girl singing "Candy Pop" (one of my favourite Japanese songs by my favourite K-pop group Twice) in a video I kept watching obsessively in 2018...was Sabrina Carpenter. Since I knew her way back in 2018, that means I actually knew of Carpenter before Rodrigo!

https://youtu.be/l1SAqe0OSZo?si=zbqloZLazMcwmfxx

Finally, here are the others. #Beabadoobee surprised me with the remarkably "quieter" record This is How Tomorrow Moves. It'll take some getting used to, but I do like these songs. It sort of reminds me of how I felt with #StVincent's Daddy's Home. And I think that, as much as I like Daddy's Home, I love All Born Screaming even more, and if Beabadoobee comes back with another rock record, I would welcome it with open arms.

(Forgive me, but both Beabadoobee and St. Vincent--in very different ways--straddle rock and pop.) I love Beabadoobee a great deal, especially when she's cranking up guitars. Same with St. Vincent.

Hit Me Hard and Soft by #BillieEilish album needs to grow on me more than her previous records, for some reason I can't quite articulate, but again, it's also very likeable. I think repeated listening will reveal more of its delights, just like with Beabadoobee but--unfortunately--maybe not with TTPD. (I did listen to TTPD for weeks after its release.)

I'm out of the loop and don't know what other records are coming out this year, but there are still several 2024 releases I haven't listened to. #Normani's Dopamine, for one. #DuaLipa's Radical Optimism I would like to listen to, but Future Nostalgia was so strong that I'm worried the new one may be a letdown. Finally, I find it shocking to realise I've never listened to an #ArianaGrande record before, so maybe now it's time.

p.s. #Clairo and #GracieAbrams --while not dance-pop like most of the ones I mentioned here--also have records this year I need to listen to. And #KaceyMusgraves too. (Oh, there's a Musgraves and Carpenter performance of "This Boots are Made for Walking"!)

@music@a.gup.pe