There’s something about music at the moment and its pulse-quickening sounds, addictive melodies and captivating imagery (think: Chappell in the Apple) that might have you itching to return to the sweat-soaked darkness of a club dance floor.
From Charli xcx to Addison Rae, the current album cycle has produced an eclectic but impeccable range of pop music and its styles and themes has seen many music fans take to TikTok to proclaim that “recession is here.”
As user @goodfraud said in their now viral TikTok: “you can tell we’re spiralling into another recession because of how good pop music is getting again.”
For the uninitiated, recession pop was coined to describe the music produced in the wake of 2008 Global Financial Crash, encompassing a variety of music from early Lady Gaga to California Girls-era Katy Perry, Black Eyed Peas and Pitbull. Some anthems of the era also include a slew of one-hit wonders like Like A G6, Dirty Talk and Good Girls Gone Bad. In short, it’s the music that’s sure to win you a round of cheers if you blast it on the aux.
This music genre preaches a pretty thematically empty message. Emotive ballads and honest songwriting seemed like an endangered genre during this time as impersonal party tracks reigned supreme. Cultural commentator Akhil Vaidya categorises the themes of recession pop as: “consumerist anthems, sexless songs about sex… and vague empowerment chants.”
While most of us can agree that the music of this era isn’t necessarily a pillar of high culture (lest we forget uncle-son duo LMFAO), there is something fabulously nostalgic and satisfying about it. Vaidya argues that these fun-filled takes on pop render the era’s music as primarily pleasure-centric “even if (or maybe especially when) the music itself isn’t particularly groundbreaking or good.”
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Do it all again (do it all)
Recession pop might seem like a new fad of internet vernacular but the phenomenon it refers to existed well before the GFC of 08. In the wake of the Great Depression, the 1930s would go on to see the rise of swing and big band music. By 1935, jazz music was at its peak and the music’s steady eighth notes evolved into ‘swinging’ eighth notes, paired with a dominant walking bass line which gave jazz a palpable “groove.” Many music historians have argued that as the effects of the depression worsened, music got faster and bolder. Beats per minute rose and romantic ballads were swapped for chorales of collective joy.
This evolution of music’s composition and themes reflects the role it plays in our daily lives, informing our wellbeing and perspectives. Media serves as our cultural storytellers and music plays a key role in framing the cultural narrative. In the post-Occupy era, music connected with the feelings of malaise and channelled them into an age of fun-fuelled hedonism. Everyday hardships were just a consequence of the apolitical, absolute and abstract idea of “life”, which you can escape but only if you don’t stop dancing.
In this context, music’s utility is well and truly proven. Pop provided its listeners with a well-deserved source of respite and artists felt compelled to create just that. As Black Eyed Pea member Apl.de.ap explained when discussing the inspiration behind I Gotta Feeling: "[it’s a] college anthem for people looking forward to escaping life's pressures by going out and having a ball."
Today, 08-era recession pop dominates your feel-good playlists because it was produced to do exactly that – make us feel really good, and against the dark force of unprecedented economic uncertainty, no less.
Put your hands up and dance
The current age’s early revival of recession pop can be seen in recent releases like brat, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess and Kesha’s Joyride, as well as the music of A.G. Cook, Rina Sawayama and The Dare.
Just like in the 30s, music is once again getting faster, having reached the fastest it has been since 2009. Although plenty of recent releases are still honest and real (like Chappell Roan’s Good Luck, Babe!), the chart-topping hits are concerned with wealth, partying and being hot. This time, it’s fortunately getting filtered through our more modern lens on gender, sexuality and mental health.
Beyond the themes, pop is also getting more brash and bold, with Chappell Roan earning plenty of comparisons to early-era Gaga. From Chappell’s white faced makeup to Addison Rae’s sexy-absurdist music video for Diet Pepsi, we’re hungering for a sense of fantasy over authenticity in our music – even if it’s just for the night. This comes after spending several years decoding the confessions embedded within Taylor Swift’s music and gasping at Kendrick’s latest swing at Drake.
Despite its hedonistic themes, the style of recession-era music, from the indie-sleaze club scene to swing bands, tends to be best enjoyed with company. You can experience the full potential of the shoegazing-esc music of folklore or Billie Eilish with just your headphones.
The recent wave of pop music, however, begs to be heard in mass. Charli even relied on her Boiler Room club nights to market her new album, triggering a sense of FOMO for her sweaty smoke-filled dancefloors.
Simple dance moves have returned to usher in this club-culture revival, with the HOT TO GO! dance providing a 2020s version of Gaga's Fame Monster claw hands or The Village People’s YMCA (the release of which followed the 1978 oil shock). Easy to learn and easy to replicate, these types of dances are a departure from the thirst-trapping and highly polished moves of viral TikTok dances like WAP. Instead, they’re designed to be democratic, joyfully cheesy and most effective when done in unison.
The rise of sold-out brat club nights across Wellington, Auckland and beyond reveal a yearning for these collective experiences of music. As live venues continue to close, festivals get canned and major international acts continue to give our cities a miss, local music is on life support and this new-wave recession pop feels like it could be what we need to revive it.
The flocks of music fans hitting local venues and selling out themed nights points to a craving for togetherness when it comes to music. Arguably, that’s the key ingredient we need to unlock recession pop’s true power and make it through these tough times.
When the party’s over
Despite brat’s white tanks, speed-dealer glasses and neon green feeling omnipresent, Taylor Swift’s recent album The Tortured Poets Department has reached unprecedented success. Billboard even just confirmed the success of this album is not maintained by the digital variants the songstress continues to strategically release. Somewhat critically panned yet heart-wrenching, the album sheds light onto life’s shittiness once that ‘best night ever’ that recession pop promised is over.
Ironically, the sales charts post-GFC also reveal a similar tension between our cultural memory and the lived reality. In 2009, the top-selling album was Susan Boyle’s I Have a Dream, hinting at something not quite as cool or sexy as recession pop. Although the record-breaking sales of this album might reflect a cultural ‘bit’, Susan and her success provided an urgently needed moment of raw authenticity amidst the doom and gloom of 2009. The following year, Susan would re-enter the charts with her album The Gift joining major cultural touchstones like Vampire Weekend’s self-titled album, Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and the over-earnest music of Glee.
Recession pop might inject a sense of joy and frivolousness into our playlists and nights out but the diversity of the album charts during 2009–2010 prove that it wasn’t a monoculture. Nor is today.
While it might not be “so 3008”, “D.J., blow my speakers up” and “live your life” all the time, the range in the charts during these times prove that hardship produces a litany of everlasting art. From happy hyper-pop to heart-warming show tune covers and cultural masterpieces, recession pop and all the music in between confirm that in times of upheaval, art in all its multitudes will still prevail.
