FEATURE:
Not So Good Ones
IN THIS PHOTO: Charli XCX
Do Labels Truly Allow Artists to Be Themselves?
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SOMETHING interesting…
PHOTO CREDIT: Nadine Fraczkowski/The Guardian
came out of a recent interview with Charli XCX. Before getting to that. You can pre-order her new album, brat, which comes out on Friday (7th June). Here is an artist who has not been welcomed into and embraced by the mainstream like some of her contemporaries. Maybe her style of music and persona is not considered to be as radio-friendly or accessible. I think most Pop artists today are sanitised. I think that they are expected to be a certain way. Maybe not talk out of terms of say anything that could divide fans or cause a storm. Not to say they are manipulated or, as part of their contract, told to dress, speak and act in a particular way. I feel there is a divide and difference between women and men. Less control and independence for female artists. This takes us to Charli XCX. Her new album comes out on the Asylum label. Not to say she is honed in and limited by the label. Some aspects of the interview with The Guardian gave pause. Maybe still seen as an outsider in Pop, I do feel that there is still a desire personality type or artist model that means anyone who has a bit of an edge or does not want to be like anyone else is seen as an outsider. As such, they do not really get the same critical plaudit and visibility as other artists:
“You used to get one shot in the music business: the wrong marketing, the wrong song and you’d never be heard from again. This was not the case for Charlotte Aitchison, better known as Charli XCX, who posted tracks on Myspace so long ago she invited comparisons to Kate Nash. Still just 31, and living between London and LA, she has written countless hits for other people – Icona Pop’s shouty I Love It, the slinky Señorita, sung by Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes – as well as carving out a niche in experimental pop. Her songs can be brash and bombastic (you might know Boom Clap) but her personal vibe is dry and knowing. Her last record, 2022’s Crash, was a concept album about becoming a mainstream pop star: when it went to No 1, and she scored a song (Speed Drive) on the Barbie soundtrack, it seemed that she’d made it for real.
While most people under 30 know very well who she is, much of the world doesn’t, and this strange state of “famous but not quite” inspired one of the songs on her new album, Brat.
“The industry’s changed a lot,” she says. “I’ve been told for so long that I’m an outsider and I never really felt accepted into the British music scene. The press has perpetuated that narrative of me. I’m this girl who straddles the underground and pop music, and that, for some reason, is really difficult for some people to wrap their heads around.”
“More than ever now, people are rewarding the niche,” says Aitchison. “Finally, it seems fine that I’m just myself, and suddenly people like it. It’s good to finally be accepted. I’m happy with the winding path I’ve taken, and with my status as more of an outsider, because sometimes I feel a bit awkward being in the club. I’m at peace with it all. It’s all cool.”
She now lives in the Hollywood Hills, in a house formerly owned by Scottish DJ-producer Calvin Harris, and is engaged to George Daniel, drummer of the 1975. In a music world ruled by one or two artists who barely speak to the press, Aitchison’s directness is invaluable. “I hate the traditional LA approach to songwriting,” she says. “Having a kind of therapy session at the beginning, talking about what is going on in your life, then turning a sentence or two of that into a song – that’s my nightmare way of writing,” she says. “It produces very flaccid songs in my opinion.”
“We’ve got past the point of the media always pitting women against one another,” she continues. “In the mid to late 00s, it literally sold magazines and papers: ‘Britney versus Christina’, ‘Paris versus Lindsay’. Then feminism became a popular marketing tool. In the music industry, it was distilled into this idea that if you support women, and you like other women, then you’re a good feminist. The reverse of that is, if you don’t like all other women who exist and breathe on this Earth then you’re a bad feminist. If you’re not a girl’s girl then you’re a bad woman.
“That’s just such an unrealistic expectation of women,” she says. “Relationships between women are super-complex and multi-layered. You can like someone and dislike them at the same time; you can feel jealous of somebody but they can still be your friend; you can have the best time of your life on a night out with someone but not be that close to them at all. You can pose with your arms around a person at an awards show, but in reality you’re feeling not worthy, or small – or really cocky, or confident, or a huge multitude of different emotions. One day you can feel completely on top of the world; the next day, you can feel like your career’s over. The song is saying, sometimes it’s really confusing to be a girl, and that’s fine.”
“Persona is intrinsic to the modern-day artist, unless you completely reject it and do something alien-like and cold... I can’t wait for somebody to do that, actually. I can’t wait for someone to be really cold and mean and icy. But we’re not in a place where any major artist could do that. I hope someone dares”.
It is true that one does not hear Charli XCX on various radio stations. I think she is someone that the industry is overlooking. I am not sure whether brat will change that in that sense. Her Pop music is forward-thinking and progressive. It is very different to everything out there. It is clear that labels want their artists to be liked and admired. It is far less risky for them. I guess that makes some commercial sense. In some ways, this often comes at the expense of any form of free expression or a personality and sound that steps away from the desired and more accessible. I am sure Charli XCX would like to be more embraced and respected by the industry. That she is allowed to be true to herself and find the same sort of success and focus as many Pop peers around. I am not sure whether a cold or icy Pop artist would be overly successful. It would be interesting. There does seem to be this correlation between being nice, smiling and saying all the right things and success. In an Internet age, labels do very much mould artists to almost look and sound the same way. One might say that Pop artists should be bright and happy. That they should fall into line. That may be naïve of me. I was struck by what Charli XCX said. Here is an artist who is inspiring and nice. Watching and reading interviews with her, she is very real and honest. There is not the same sheen and energy as other Pop artists. In some ways, she is more genuine and honest than most of her contemporaries. The fact that female artists particularly might be expected to be very happy and energised all the time. As she has said, women are pitted against other women. Female relationships are complex. It seems quite discriminatory and intimidating for artists coming through. Many simply might not have the personality or preference to be likeable in a rather inane or pointless way. They can be seen as more serious or sullen and still get huge acclaim and popularity. It doesn’t really happen.
I wonder whether women especially in Pop and further afield have any chance of being authentic and choosing their own approach and personality and will be accepted and not prohibited from the mainstream. I do think that there is a nervousness from labels. Artists are not going to be deliberately offensive or angry, but there is fear of anything different or alternative. It is phenomenally hard being an artist now. With the Internet and social media adding so much difficulty and complexity, it is hard to navigate. Fans can be so divided and capricious. There is this fickleness and changing demand. If you are experimental or different then people will take against you. If you are more commercial then you are seen as a sell-out or attacked. It is impossible. Charli XCX has released phenomenal and successful albums. Even so, she is under-exposed and under-played. It is good that Charli XCX does seem to be at peace with being an ‘outsider’. That being herself is accepted. Her reservations about artists now having to live through the internet and there not being barriers between artists and fans. That the currency and commodity of niceness – in all its meaninglessness – is still sought-after from labels. Will artists ever be able to be more authentic and themselves and have the label promote them as fervently and widely as others on their roster?! Will labels always favour and demand that artists be…
THE ‘good’ ones?