ARE STEREOTYPES IN MUSIC OVER?

When I say 'stereotypes' I am referring to the association of an artist to a specific genre or style :An artist is consider pop and remains pop til the end of his/her career. The industry and the public classify an artist and make you expect he or she is going to always drop the same type of music.

In the early 2000s there was an explosion of new artists and some of them were what we later  used to consider pop queens like Beyoncé, Rihanna and Lady Gaga.

Despite Beyonce started in Destiny chid,(R&B) during her debut she mixed both R&B and pop ('Irrepleazable' and 'Crazy In Love') .She went totally pop with her 2008 album 'I'm Sasha fierce'. With songs like 'Halo', 'If I Were A Boy' and 'Single Ladies' she became played in every pop radio station. Her pop side was confirmed with her 2011 album '4' and her self titled album (songs like 'Pretty Hurts' or 'Love On Top'). But in her 2016 surprising project, 'Lemonade', Beyoncé went back to R&B with the exception of her song 'Daddy Lessons' , which sounded country and created great controversy because it was said that The Recording Academy considered to nominate her for a country award. Even Dierks Bentley was asked if he thought the song was country or not! This is a great example of stereotypes in music: The Academy does not like when artists pick a genre they were not classified into and its answer is always a snub, instead of considering if the song was a good country song or  not.

She dropped 'Lemonade' and she succeeded .It got to number one in The States ,but in Europe the album was not played in radio stations and they have not accepted her since then, The Carters record and The Lion King:The Gift have not been played.

Let's talk about Rihanna. She started in the early 2000s with 'Pon de replay', with reggae influences but then she went bad and turned pop, really pop with albums like 'Loud' and her smash hits 'We found love' or 'Only girl in the world'. Even in 'Unapologetic', she had 'Diamonds' ,which was played a lot in the radio and songs like 'Pour it up', more urban and R&B. Later ,in 2016 ,after some time away from the music industry, she returned with 'ANTI'. It was difficult to get it platinum certified and the lead single, 'Work' ft Drake, went number 1 in Billboard hot 100 but not in its first week. People criticised the record for not being what Rihanna use to release despite having great, critically acclaimed songs like 'Higher' or the wonderful 'Love On The Brain'. (this one even got to number 5 on Billboard Hot 100)

The world was not prepared for that change and we will see if it is for her reggae album

Lady gaga started being pop, really pop with EDM influences. A first change was noticed when she released her album with Tony Bennett covering classic pop songs and the Academy accepted it, taking a Grammy for it. Then, she decided to come back to pop with 'ARTPOP' but it was not the same and her album 'Joanne' just stated it. It was released the same year that was 'ANTI' and it did not please most of her pop fans. 'Perfect illusion', the first single did not succeed commercially and 'Million Reasons', was a great piano ballad but it was closer to the 'A Star Is Born' soundtrack , which was, however, really accepted on the charts . Her return to edm-pop this year with 'Chromatica' was more or less accepted. On the one hand, there is  this incredible pop song with Ariana Grande and on the other one, some edm songs loved by the fans but not by the radio. 

Lady gaga is an incredible songwriter, she can play and write almost every genre of music and do it in an amazing way. Her change is part of her evolution as a person and musician . But the world does not accept it (at least commercially) and that change should be allowed by the industry  because it is part of an artist's growth. 

Rihanna was not that considered with anti. Remember that grammy snub,similar to Miguel's 'Wildheart', where he connected rock and R&B. And now The Weeknd is not too. The Academy awards him only when he does R&B but not when he does pop excellently. He seems untagged and the Academy does not like that. 

Another example is Taylor Swift, the good American country girl who reigned pop with '1989'. The world loved her pop spin and then, when she went bad ('Reputation'), the Recording Academy did not consider her album as it did with her previous records (that scene from her Netflix documentary where she cries because she was not nominated). After going bad she returned with 'Lover', which was what the world has asked her to do in 'Reputation' but it did not hit that way. It was bubbly, pink, pop as eating a marshmallow and maybe it was too pop for a moment when trapbeats reigned. However, she has succeeded with 'folklore', maybe not that much on single charts, where 'cardigan' is going down .

In all of these female pop artists the industry did not know where to place them where they decided they were not going to do commercial pop . 

There are still artists which have remained the same like Ariana Grande or Justin Bieber. They want to do R&B, but they remain pop (maybe is because trapbeats are the new pop). Adele's pop seems to remain steady as Lewis Capaldi, despite his short career. 

In contrast, James Arthur or James Bay have not success commercially since they left  ballads or sad songs. Jame Arthur released last year a song called 'Treehouse' (ft.Ty Dolla Sign and Sofía Reyes), which was so different from the rest of his music. Now he is charting on the UK chart thanks to a 2016 song, pushed by TikTok. James Bay's second album hid great songs , like 'Pink Lemonade'. 

 

In conclusion, are these stereotypes over? The examples show that an artist respect her/his assignment until they can take control of their own careers and decide its direction. This allocation is a limit to creativity, which involves award-success, without considering music quality .