Paula’s Pop Week: What we still need to clarify in 2025

Like so many years before, 2024 was an absolute political catastrophe. The more you throw yourself into pop culture, bury yourself in it, entrench yourself behind it, distract yourself with it, use it for catharsis, as an outlet and as a means to turn things around on this wonderful planet. Unfortunately, I still hold on to the belief that pop can be progressive, that we will still have pop even after capitalism and that it is worth fighting over. But that’s only possible if you keep looking at where culture is capitalized and where artists and fans are exploited. Or, in the words of the most streamed song of 2024: Pop, “I’ll love you ‘til the day that I die.”

… the thing with the algorithms

The completely rigid march of trends from TikTok to the daily news must stop. In the past, people used to be ignorant of hyped pop culture with their egg-grabbing poses, but today even the coolest culture people are desperately running after the frequently clicked phenomena. TikTok has been confused with subculture for a while now, but what’s happening there is of course far from being a natural youth movement. There is not only organic development there, but also financial support, as was the case on the big radios or at VIVA back then. That everyone can do it, that everyone can become a star – one look at the most streamed artists is enough to see that that doesn’t work. The myth that everyone can make it through the platforms has been around since MySpace and ensures that everyone willingly gives their stuff and the platform grows and grows.

Of course, many things are better than before, artists have more creative options, and the music landscape has become more diverse. It’s actually all the less necessary to let algorithms dictate your own tastes; you just have to search a little more actively, but you’ll find what you’re looking for much more quickly than you did 20 years ago. In 2025, I definitely no longer want hundreds of media outlets to explain the “Swift phenomenon” to you (which is probably what we’re facing with Chappell Roan), I don’t want everything to have to be obsessively “BRAT,” I don’t want you to suddenly think of everything If you read about musicals because you were misled by the “Wicked” promo, you don’t want to read any more self-experience reports about Stanley Cups.

Just chill. You don’t have to like what you’re supposed to like. Like more what you really want to like, don’t run after pop, let it catch you.

Oh, and the only ones that made it onto MySpace and TikTok are these. I don’t know if this is so cool:

…the thing about aging

In the film “The Substance” there is this scene in which the younger Elisabeth brutally beats her older self again and again – that’s what being on Instagram has felt like for a long time. In addition to anti-aging product advertisements, you can also see how celebrities – especially female ones – always receive a lot of applause for supposedly looking totally young. What is ignored is not only the fact that these celebrities naturally use filters (on photos and moving images) and have had all sorts of procedures done, but also that our relationship to aging is now completely messed up. Women in their 30s are told that they age like “fine wine” because people seem to have forgotten what women in their 30s look like – still young, of course, because that’s what they are. In this way, people attack aging with every means possible – including their own.

But: We won’t win the fight against aging, but we might win the fight against misogyny. For this we need (also prominent) comrades-in-arms with whom we can encourage each other not to fall for the madness and to be able to let women’s bodies be bodies. Of course, you won’t be able to protect any individual from this so quickly, but the first thing you have to do is get rid of these filters over women’s faces, which you have seen in recent years in Hollywood series and films (“Grace and Frankie”, “The Morning Show “, “The Idea Of You”) can see. If that doesn’t happen, at least I’ll have to go back to the illegal, pixelated streaming sites soon because I can’t stand it. Is that what you want, film industry?

… about the demands on stars’ private lives

I recently saw the biopic about Amy Winehouse and was reminded once again how much she was besieged by paparazzi and fans, how much people believed they had a right to a piece of her. Then I thought of Chappell Roan, who almost goes overboard with her reprimands of people who annoy her, and then I was very reassured by how much had happened there. Many things have become better thanks to social media and the opportunity for stars to express themselves and present themselves when and how they want. Control has moved a lot further to the artists. The demand from fans to be able to find out everything has not gotten any better.

You can constantly come into contact with the star, at least indirectly – and if the group that has something to say to the star is large enough, maybe he will respond. So there is shitstorming and tagging and flooding. It is particularly important for fans to be able to classify their star as accurately as possible, especially in matters of love and sex. It’s not only important to know who the person is currently dating and how things are going, but also to know what makes them TICK in general, keyword sexuality, keyword drawers, keyword coming out. In the past, too many stars have been forced to make a public statement.

George Michael is a famous example, who was literally hunted until people knew about it. In 2023, people accused then-18-year-old Kit Connor of “queerbaiting” (really one of the stupidest accusations directed at real people) over his role in “Heartstopper” until he felt compelled to come out as bisexual. And now the label craze has struck again – Khalid came out over a month ago, also under pressure from fans.

Stop this shit. You won’t get together with the person anyway, so who cares.

…the one with Sabrina Carpenter

I’m sorry, but I just have to address this now. It also has to do with the first point (algorithms). I’ve been silent for a long time, but now I’d like to finally speak out – about the big Sabrina Carpenter conspiracy. It started two or three years ago when I suddenly started “listening” to Sabrina Carpenter. Shockingly often, annoyingly often, I found their songs cheated into playlists and autoplays and mixes. Sometimes I clicked them away, sometimes I was too slow, sometimes too weak, one day I gave up. I now know all of their songs, some even by heart, even though I haven’t selected them myself once, never. The thing is, I have nothing against Sabrina Carpenter, but I also have nothing for her. I don’t hate their songs, but I don’t like them either. Her promotions take advantage of this loophole because it just keeps getting in the way of people like me. We could actually live alongside each other just fine, Sabrina Carpenter and I, she wouldn’t bother or upset me at all.

But the fact that it keeps playing in my living room is just suspicious, I didn’t invite it. Which leads me to suspect that perhaps more people feel this way, that perhaps a lot of people have been systematically made to not only accept Sabrina Carpenter, but to accept that she should now be such a big star without that you have actively decided to be their fan. Recently there was an appearance at Tiny Desk, of course, and we just clicked in, were clicked in… Do we really want that? Is it even bad? Will this just continue like this forever? I think so. But it doesn’t matter.

… the one with Ticketmaster

…we’re smashing it this year, right? Because concerts should be for everyone and maybe we’ll go to ten to twenty small ones again. And it’s nice together, not as a status symbol, but because it’s just fun.

Or, to say it again with the words of the most streamed song of 2024: “Birds of a feather, we should stick together”.

What happened so far? Here is an overview of all the pop column texts.