Mainstream Pop Girls of Fall 2023

'Tis the spooky season, Our main conversation on mainstream pop radio are two girls: Olivia Rodrigo and Doja Cat. Olivia released her album Guts September 8th, 2023. Doja Cat released her Scarlet on September 22nd, 2023. Both were before the spooky season, but after the Pumpkin Spice announcement. The end of summer and the beginning of fall. Everyone is setting up their Halloween decorations in their lawn, and the first leaf of fall has fallen on the damp grass in the morning. It's the season of sweater weather in the morning and tank tops in the afternoon. Most importantly, two pop girls who grab our attention with pop releases during the summer have finally released their albums, Within the albums the content has underlying themes of vampires and demons in effort to respond audiences interacting with the pop stars. Each pop girl has a different creative way to intertwine the spooky themes of the season.

"As you sink your teeth into me

bloodsucker, famefucker

bleeding me dry like a god damn vampire"

Olivia Rodrigo's album GUTS the single Vampire was released as a pop single in the traditional way before the album release. The song picks up more instruments and tempo through time, starting off on a soft note then finishing with a fast paced anthemic crescendo. Vampire is a bold single to introduce the album because it has three parts with the chorus being bold, "bloodsucker, famefucker." Olivia's self-awareness writing, while having the power of influence, still resonates with victimhood of being used by a man in her life. She suffers from emotional drainage from a man that does nothing for her other than make her feel numb and dead inside. This song is her awakening, utilizing the power of song to make herself feel better after the facts explained in the song. To me, that's why the song picks up tempo through time.

Once the album was released in early September, the audience including myself have had time to reflect on the album. It's a stunner! A pop-punk album at its core. Her influences of early two-thousands warped tour bands like Paramore, she captivates us with this loose narrative of being the focus of sexual desire, a victim as a young women, and hyper self-awareness through the eyes of men. Yet, she stays positive through her songwriting. It's a therapeutic exercise that questions therapy necessities by her audience. The discourse of therapy needs to stop. The creative world of being the center of attention in pop has recently established an unhealthy discourse causing a sense of self-awareness within songwriting. It's powerful and it relates to the mass audience. Does she need therapy? Do we need to tell her she needs therapy? No. Will she get therapy; probably already has it. Why say that in conversation or discourse on reddit? It's almost unnecessary, she establishes she is aware of her own problems even through execution. She chooses to go through these problems by not being afraid of them and being aware. This is not a problem. This is called learning through experiences. She'll be able to write about them after and we will be gifted with dark songwriting tones that evoke emotional parallels. In the anthemic chorus of bad idea right she adds an off-beat adlib "biggest lie I ever said," in which she know how this is perceived by her fanbase only to go through the hardships of the relationship. It works beautifully on the track because of the chant-like chorus.

"bitch i said what i said

i'd rather be famous instead

i let it all get to my head

i don't care, i paint the town red"

Doja Cat's Scarlet album was released a few weeks later, and her single Paint the Town Red was performed at the VMA's in a medley. The song plays over a high-hat drum beat, with some finger snaps to keep on beat. It's a solid track. One of the best pop/rap songs of the year that can be explicit deleted language for mainstream. Doja Cat has a different approach than Olivia using dark and vulgar language. Doja Cat angles herself as a hardboiled modern gangster, who is willing to take out the enemies which are people who talk shit about her. I don't know anyone who doesn't like Doja Cat as a character. She makes great pop music, something new with a villain edge and appeals to mass characters. The other two tracks were released before the VMA's: Attention and Demons. Each of these tracks were designed in the medley to have red lighting. When under red lighting, this evokes a drastic response of lust, violence, and anger. Her performance during the medley during these two songs were evocative, sexy, and demonic. The backup dancers for Doja Cat were all painted red standing stoically at all the exits. This menacing stand transitioned into moving in front of the camera to narrow the focus on the camera is something you would see out of a horror film from the iconic point-of-view angle. Historically, point-of-view film shots were established as the spooky shot. Doja Cat establishes this effectively for her performance with blocking for the camera. In the finale phase of the medley, Demons, brings it all together with a huge dance number. The demons are the backup dancers painted red and papers flying in a circle around them; a tricky technique. The demon dancing is a feral a-synchronized dancing like their her minions or her own demons showcasing themselves to the world.

Her choice of spooky characteristics are demons, greed, and the color red. Doja Cat is flaunting her lifestyle as a wealthy, sexy pop star like it's demonic of her to have materialistic possessions. Even to have sexual desires. Her responding to the hating fanbase being wealthy and sexual is a such a good power move on her part. People that hate Doja Cat don't deserve her and shouldn't listen to her music. But no response is worse than a negative one. The negative response is always good for attention and polarizing an audience. Doja Cat is abundantly aware of this. Her music within the mainstream is going to separate the true fans that enjoy her music, her style, and her attitude from the people who don't like her.