Julia Friese explains in her new column why mass taste does not mean inferior.
1. women in (perimeno) pop
Editorial recommendations
In May 2024, “On All Fours,” a novel by the artist Miranda July, was published, which, in hindsight, must go down in the annals as an agenda-setting sensation. July talked about the separation from her husband and child’s father in her forties, as well as the desire during the so-called perimenopause – the transition phase into menopause. Until then, knowledge about this “Perimeno” phase was niche. But since May and July, search queries have been increasing on the Google trends chart. Perimeno is pop. The writer Stefanie de Velasco started her “FAZ” column “Midlife Crisis” – in which she writes, among other things, about perimeno symptoms. In the “Stern” a 40-year-old columnist asks “Is this already perimenopause – or is social media just telling me that?” Because Perimeno is currently one of the most popular online self-diagnoses. And so Sophie Ellis-Bextor asked on Instagram in May 2025: “Why pause when you can pop?” to then announce their album PERIMENO POP.
2. a glittery beige pudding
Meanwhile, two women gave each other the click rate handle: Caroline Wahl and Taylor Swift. Both artists have a few things in common: First of all, that they are very successful, mainstream and business-minded. In the sense that despite millions in advance on the one hand and billions on the other, they are not holding back on publishing: Since 2023, Wahl has published three novels, her first was released in cinemas this year.
Swift has released five albums since 2020, in various – probably too many – versions, and in between she also went on a world tour. But: “Why pause when you can pop?” Wahl writes genre novels (Love, Everyday Life and Pudding) and Swift writes pop (Love, Gucci, High School Feud). Both have mastered their art without being avant-garde. Both evoke a kind of glittery, beige pudding feel-goodness for the suburban girl all in one.
Both are uncool. The older Swift (*1989) is aware of the latent kitschiness of her work and now even sings about it in a way that overrides criticism (Actually Romantic). The younger Caro Wahl (*1995) said in a podcast that she wanted to be both “the best” and “the most famous German author”. As if the former in particular were an achievable and measurable category. She later proudly represents this publicity-grabbing request as a neoliberal feminism move, ignoring the fact that the unpleasantness of this statement is the painless revelation of a certain narrowness of horizons, which also goes hand in hand with – shall we say – a presumably rather short reading list. Sure, McDonald’s has repeatedly tried to frame itself as healthy. But excessive misplacement is more likely to be seen as clever marketing when it comes from companies, while artists are still read more as people.
3. you got the money? you better pay some respect
Either way, great success comes with external stimuli. And an incomprehensible eagerness to ask: How can it be that Wahl and Swift are so successful? The fire of discourse burns precisely because misogynistic accelerant is repeatedly ignited in its context: Not like that, girls! “You girl-bossed too close to the sun.”
Taylor Swift appropriates this Candace Owens review in CANCELLED! self-defensive. Just because Swift’s and Wahl’s works have girly connotations, they should not be understood as inferior. The inner educated man definitely needs to be strangled at this point. Then he says, choking, THAT THERE ARE ENOUGH PERFORMERS WHOSE FAFFS ARE FAR AWAY FROM FPARKLY BEIGE PUDDING! Always this narrowing of discourse through mass taste!
Wahl, currently the most famous contemporary German author? Fair! But the BEST? Lisa Kränzler and Enis Maci and Cemile Sahin and Judith Schalansky and Heike Geißler and Uljana Wolf and Maren Kames and (Did she actually mean the best GERMAN – or rather GERMAN SPEAKING?) Ann Cotten and Ariane Koch and Dorothee Elmiger and Marlene Streeruwitz and Helena Adler and ELFRIEDE JELINEK … But, the show must go on …
This column first appeared in Musikexpress issue 12/2025.