Summer 2024- some would call the second wave of pop. Each and every one of us knows about the pop landscape, whether you regularly listen to pop or just glance at it once in a while. Brat summer took over, full of “brat” green and the party-girl aesthetic of Charli XCX. The bright, campy summer sunsets of blasting “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” by Chappell Roan joined the green. Even an Espresso summer for those energetic mornings on the water, as Sabrina Carpenter took over the pop landscape. The unique impact of each of these extremely talented women makes me think, what will the aesthetic and whole energy of this summer be? Well, don’t fret because some of the most special and extremely talented pop girlies are back to rock our summers.
Each summer has this magic that only so few acknowledge. Throughout this artist’s whole discography, the romanticism of summer is a common theme. The one the only Lana Del Rey is coming back to once again make history in her melancholic ethereal-filled world. Lana announced her tenth studio album back in January, titled “The Right Person Will Stay.” A lot of Lana’s fan base remembers Del Rey talking about a country album titled Lasso, but Lana had different plans for the layout of this album. On April 11th, 2025, Lana dropped her first single titled “Henry Come On.” This song, which was the spark of this era, is a hauntingly beautiful track with Lana exploring her vocal range while delivering this melancholic breakup song. Lana herself came onto Instagram in a short video saying that the title of the album and the release date have changed, but she also said that she has so much more to come our way throughout this new Southern Gothic era.
It is the story of a preacher’s daughter, her story through three stages of lovers, her upbringing, and sadly, her death. Of course, I am talking about the cinematic masterpiece Preacher’s Daughter by Ethel Cain. Though that story is, in fact, fiction, the album is a cherished piece of art, and the mastermind behind the emotional story is Hayden Anhedönia, aka Ethel Cain. Not to get too personal, but Preacher’s Daughter is my favorite album/piece of art of all time, so I highly recommend getting caught in this dark but beautiful story. Very recently, during the week of April 13, Preacher’s Daughter hit number 10 on the Billboard Top 200. This album was released in 2022, and music listeners are finally noticing this truly amazing album. Her fans, known as “The Daughters of Cain,” have been eager to know more about the lore of the Preacher’s Daughter story, so Ethel gave the fans what they wanted. Just this past March, Hayden took to Instagram and announced a prequel album titled “Willoughby Tucker, I Will Always Love You,” set to be released this August. Willoughby Tucker is a fictional character in the Preacher Daughter story, and he is first introduced in the third track of Preacher’s Daughter titled “House in Nebraska” which dives into the tragic story of true love and tremendous loss and the effect that comes with forever losing the only lover that ever showed you devotion. The song expresses that Willoughby left or even died, and Ethel feels that his leaving is her fault, but why did he leave, and why is Ethel carrying the burden of Willoughby’s leaving across the edge of town? Well, we will soon find out this August.
Creating an album based on the concept of characters is such a creative way to promote and add an even deeper layer to the story and campaign of an album. Character-based albums may not be super popular, but they are slowly growing in the pop world. A visionary artist who paved the way for conceptual character albums is the very confident woman MARINA. Formally known as Marina and the Diamonds, she glistened under the spotlights in 2010 with her debut album titled Family Jewels. The album tells the story of love, family, and newfound fame. She proceeded to dive even deeper into those themes and introduced her forever-loved character Electra Heart. These characters are like alter egos that the artists embody during their new era. MARINA transformed herself into this platinum blond bubble gum pink character who embodies a curious girl with a dark past who wants to see the bright lights of Hollywood to chase her dreams. Marina’s alter ego, Electra Heart, is also the title of the album that was released in April of 2012, which blew up the alternative Tumblr scene. After the vast success of the persona and album “Electra Heart”, Marina continued to create albums, but they were somewhat far from the dark pop aesthetic that her fans once loved. Now in 2025, Marina hatched out of her cocoon, and her beauty returned new, colorful, and stronger than ever. The sassy and electric personality of her early music has returned with three smash singles titled Butterfly, Cupid’s Girl, and C***ISSIMO. Each song feels like a call back to her animated roots of the character she used to embody. She is set to release her long-awaited pure pop album titled Princes Of Power, June 6th, 2025. Sounds like a powerful summer is ahead as Marina packs a punch with her synth-heavy singles.
“You may know that I’m kind of obsessed with summer, something comes over me this time of year. I write almost every song in summer because there is something about the season where you are a little more undefended.” The top legend Lorde stated her admiration for summer on her Solar Power tour in 2021. Lorde has been on hiatus for about 4 years after her legendary three-album run. Her first album, Pure Heroine, made history with her song Royals, and her debut album made it on Apple Music’s list of 100 best albums of all time. What makes her debut album breathtaking is the poetic lyrics she wrote at the age of just 14, and when she received a Grammy for Song of the Year for “Royals” in 2014. Four years later, Lorde led her fans on a euphoric journey with an eleven-track, anthem-filled album titled Melodrama. Melodrama is a fan favorite album, many other pop music listeners consider it one of the greatest pieces of modern art. From the production, Lorde’s vocals, and even the captivating cover art, Melodrama is a true gem in the 21st century. Four years after Melodrama, we arrive at a whole new place. This new sound of Lorde was let loose in 2021 with her single Solar Power along with it being the title of her album. Solar Power was a true stepping stone for Lorde; she left all the aggressive synth-pop anthems behind and stepped into a down-to-earth, mellow, and altogether warm sound. Solar Power is the epitome of summer. This era represents the calm waves on the New Zealand coast and the sun rays that dance on your skin. Lastly, we arrived in 2025, after Solar Power Lorde disappeared for almost five years. Many of her fans called it “The Lorde drought”, as she cleared and deleted all of her social media platforms. Just this past summer, with Charli XCX’s record-breaking Grammy-nominated album, Lorde fans got a taste of the Lorde we have all been waiting for on a remix song from Charli herself. Lorde has appeared onstage with her close friend Charli XCX after the major success of “Girl SO Confusing remix ft Lorde” with the song’s message being their past feuds and comparisons coming to an end. There was still no sign of new music from her until Lorde herself spoke on April 9th. She opened all of her social media platforms and shared a snippet of a new song. Her song titled “What Was That” came out this past April 24th, along with a powerful yet mysterious music video of her wandering through the city to deliver her new music for those who have been eagerly waiting. A few weeks later the followers of Lorde received a message from her saying that her album Virgin would be released on June 27th, 2025. The renaissance of Lorde is finally arriving.
I interviewed an amazing teacher, and role model for our school, Mr. Ossman. He runs our Talisman club and has worked so hard to help create the amazing West Newspaper we have today. The first thing I brought up in our interview was that Mr. Ossman brought up his roots in music from when we were in high school. Mrs. Ossman explains “When I was younger, in high school, grunge was the main scene. I further started to get into Fall Out Boy and see their transition from alternative pop, and they did it brilliantly.” As Mr. Ossman explains, genres and artists can change dramatically; this change happens for many reasons.
Personally I love to know how pop music moves people, so I proceeded to ask Mr. Ossman, “What in pop music moves you, and causes you to be affected by it?” Mr. Ossmann started to explain, “A good hook is the part of a pop song that gets stuck in your head. One that has the ability to burrow into your brain.” Mr Ossman dove deep into his individual emotional experience with pop music, and he used The 1” by Taylor Swift to demonstrate the power of music. The song is about yearning for a loss with a tone of regret, and Mr. Ossmann noticed the impact it had on people in 2020. He continued by saying “ I am curious to see where music will end up this summer because of the political stage that is set…I don’t think we are going to have another brat by Charli XCX summer.
To get an even more personal look at Mr. Ossman’s musical identity, I asked him what music caused him “frisson.” The definition of frisson is “shiver” or “chills,” referring to the sudden rush of emotion and physical sensation like goosebumps experienced when listening to emotionally moving music or other artistic expressions.” Ossman paints a picture going back to the pandemic reflecting once again on the song The 1 by Taylor Swift stating “I was feeling isolated in my suburban living trying to teach online and I will never forget waking in 2020 and listening to this song for the first time. I experienced this acoustic sound that reflected what life felt like at that moment…I got literal chills.”
Pop music is endlessly evolving and turning in exciting new directions. This summer carries such unpredictability in the music landscape, but whatever it is, all of us as listeners will find our place in the music. The impact of music can change the entire energy of a summer. The music scene might be different one second than what it was prior, but I am confident that because of these artists whatever happens this summer, pop music will be changed forever.
