The resurgence of the iconic Pop Girl
By Jamie Shovelin
Olivia Rodrigo performing at iHeartRadio’s Jingle Ball 2023
The recent popularity of musicians such as Sabrina Carpenter, Madison Beer, and Oliva Rodrigo, has the internet in a frenzy over the return of the iconic Pop Girl.
The term refers to the early 2000s and the popularity of singers such as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Gwen Stefani, just to name a few. So many of their songs are still as popular as they were when they were first released. For example, Toxic, Genie in a Bottle and Hollaback Girl are still listened to and played regularly.
Their music is not the only thing that made them iconic. The scandal that surrounded and followed them just added to their persona. Famous feuds like Christina Aguilera and Eminem, Scandals like Britney Spears public breakdown in 2007, 2000s paparazzi and gossip culture and religious hate, created a legacy that would last a lifetime.
The return of the term started when Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter had a rumoured love triangle with artists Joshua Basset. From there many songs (Driver’s license and All Because I Liked a Boy) where released that left fans theorising that they were about the love triangle. Since then both artists have gained major popularity with Sabrina Carpenter now the support act for the new leg of Taylor Swifts tour and Olvia Rodrigo starting her own world tour. Although the girls have been grouped together, this has not stopped them from having their own scandal. Most recently Carpenter has been accused of defacing the church and support satanism.
She recently released the music video for her hit song ‘Feather’, in the video carpenter is seen to be singing and dancing in a church in a short dress. This caused scandal and outrage in the church community saying it was disrespectful to the church and in the end resulted in the Vicar of the church to be removed from his position due to him allowing it to happen.
The look of a Pop Girl is also very essential to the overall image. The outfit from Britney Spears ‘Baby One More Time’ music video released in 1998 is still a very popular Halloween costume 14 years later, Christina Aguilera’s 2002 VMAS awards outfit (where she famously dissed Eminem live on stage) has been labelled as one of her best outfits. The popularity of the outfits may be due to Y2K fashion making a comeback in the trend cycle.
Today’s Pop icons are not new to this. Sabrina Carpenter is known for her short skirts and Corsets with a heart cut out, Madison Beer is known for her streetstyle and sharp eyebrows, etc. These looks have made them easily recognisable.
Many people are welcoming this resurgence, to get away from the current trends in music. In the past few year’s apps like TikTok have had full control over what songs do well and what don’t, influencing artists to change how they make their songs. Artists are more likely to create songs with short segments that they know will do well in short videos on TikTok, with many creating the small trending part of the song then building around it. This has made many songs in the charts to sound the same or lack depth.
With 2000’s trends like Reality TV, Juicy Couture tracksuits and low-rise jeans, making a major comeback. Fans of other genres are waiting for a resurgence of their genre with many people claiming that the 2000’s were the peak of music and celebrity culture.