2010s

Sunrise (a morning breakfast program here in Australia) had an exclusive interview with Camila Cabello this morning. I may not be a fan of her music, but i'll give her credit for her artistic intent and ambitions for the future. She wasn't superficial in any way, unlike a lot of current pop stars in the music industry. I think she will enjoy a successful long-term career.

Yeah I've just looked and she doesn't seem like a very nice person, which is a shame becasue I really liked "Finesse (Remix)".

Everyone at my school really liked migos last year, it was a bit annoying.

I guess you guys are right, it looks like Migos really aren't very popular outside of North America. I was just under the impression more people knew about them because their influence is so overwhelmingly prevalent in music today, even in non-trap songs like Liam Payne's "Bedroom Floor." Whatever the case, you guys are really lucky to not have Migos dominating your charts. I'd happily trade in all the absurd chart success Cardi B and Migos are achieving in America for more hit songs by Little Mix, Clean Bandit, and Dua Lipa, none of which are that big in the US. Dua Lipa finally had a real hit in the US with "New Rules," but her followup, "IDGAF," is so far flopping badly. I think I still slightly prefer Camila Cabello, who's been doing excellently in the British Isles, but music particular to the US today puts me in such a bad mood, it's almost like 2005-2008 all over again, so more Dua Lipa would be very much welcome in the US.

On another note, I can't believe Drake's new song, "God's Plan," is still at #1 in the UK. There are a decent slew of pretty nice tracks on the charts there – the 50 Shades duet between Liam Payne and Rita Ora currently at #18 caught be especially off guard, considering the history of 50 Shades-related songs up to this point – and yet it's the same monotone gobbledegook that most people want to listen to, even in a country with far better taste in music than America? Ugh. The lyrics are adequate, I guess, but the track has absolutely no passion or vibrancy in its execution whatsoever, so none of that really matters, anyway. It's just more of the same crap for a musician who, nowadays, keeps wasting all the talent he proved early in his career. Can't we get something more like "Find Your Love," instead?

"New Rules" isn't even Dua Lipa's greatest song, it just has a novel premise for its lyrics, which makes it pretty fun in spite of its fairly standard mid-late 2010s EDM production. "Be the One" is fantastic and probably my favourite hit song of 2016, but tragically, it's yet another soccer hit that Americans idiotically passed up, as it missed the Hot 100 and only reached the bottom slot of the Mainstream Top 40, although it did hit #1 on the Dance Club Songs chart. I still think Lipa is one of the better artists currently working, and I really hope she doesn't end up just being a one-hit wonder in the United States.

I'm glad that Camila Cabello is at least still doing pretty well. I was terrified her career would die out completely after she released her debut album because of how awful the current generation's taste in music is, but so far she's proven to have solid staying power, especially depending on where you look. "Never Be the Same" may not be quite the monster hit that "Havana" was, but it has still done excellently in a fair number of countries already, has not disappeared after a single week like Justin Timberlake's "Filthy," and is even doing respectably in the US, enough to currently sit at #18 on the Mainstream Top 40. I still hope it gets a little higher than #30 on the Hot 100, though.

On another note, has anybody else noticed how quickly the latin pop craze of 2017 died out? It's still sort of ongoing in Mainland Europe, where "Échame la Culpa" became an enormous hit, but on the other hand, that song flopped badly in America, the British Isles, Australia, and New Zealand, despite the major star power of both of its leads last year. The 2010s latin pop craze was practically to 2017 what Pokémon Go was to 2016.

For a brief time following the success of "Despacito (Remix)," it was indeed a craze. In the few months after that song's international conquest, the world saw the success of "Mi Gente," "Havana," "Reggaetón Lento (Remix)," and "Wild Thoughts." There may not have been too many of these Latin pop hits, but all of them, in addition to "Despacito (Remix)" were huge successes, although "Reggaetón Lento (Remix)" never reached the US due to Little Mix being the artist and British girl groups being the same abomination to the American public that trap hacks are to me. These songs all stood out pretty distinctly compared to what had shown up in the few years prior to "Despacito (Remix)," so I think it's fair enough to call them part of a mini-movement.Well, you're certainly not breaking any hearts with that statement. Though actually, EDM is the dominant form of music everywhere right now; America currently stands out in its atrociousness specifically due to how enormous trap music is there. Like I said, Migos are inescapable, and Cardi B is also much more popular here than she is elsewhere, but artists with actual talent like Dua Lipa (except for "New Rules") and Little Mix are passed up due to being...er, too cutesy? Foreign? Not from a Disney Channel show? Whatever bullshit reasons that caused Atomic Kitten, Sugababes, Steps, Pixie Lott, Mika, etc., to never be popular here, I suppose.