Pop artists challenging this year’s chart summit with new records, debut breakthroughs
A group of feisty music artists is challenging Taylor Swift’s reign at the top of music charts in Australia and across the world.
Music
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It’s not all about Taylor Swift on the global charts and streaming playlists with a clutch of pop queens staging a takeover of the top 10 in recent weeks.
Feisty, fabulous and brutally honest alt-pop artists have swept into the upper echelons of the Australian, US and UK charts including with both much-anticipated new records and shock debut breakthroughs.
And upcoming new releases from pop powerhouses Katy Perry and Kylie Minogue will keep female artists at the top in the coming weeks.
Perry, one of the biggest challengers to Swift’s iron-clad hold on the chart summit in 2024, announced she will release her first record in four years, titled 143, in September.
The record, whose title was text shorthand for I Love You back in the 90s when pagers were a thing, was introduced by the first single Woman’s World on Friday and Perry is rumoured to be this year’s AFL Grand final entertainer.
Kylie Minogue continues her renaissance era with two other chart stars, American Bebe Rexha and Swedish hitmaker Tove Lo, with their collaboration My On My released on Friday.
The biggest disrupter to Swift’s ubiquitous presence at the top this year has been Billie Eilish with her third record Hit Me Hard and Soft.
It gave her the biggest debut week of her career with 500 million album streams and spent four weeks at No. 1 on the ARIA charts.
Two artists who have opened on Swift’s Eras Tour have enjoyed big bumps in their chart fortunes. Sabrina Carpenter made a giant leap from former Disney star status to bona fide pop queen with two smash hit singles Please Please Please and Espresso.
Her sixth studio record Short ‘n’ Sweet is predicted to debut at No. 1 when it drops next month – unless her former tour buddy pulls a swifty and announces another The Tortured Poets Department variant or the long-awaited Reputation (Taylor’s Version).
Another star anointed by Swift, pop princess Gracie Abrams, enjoyed a No. 1 debut on the ARIA charts for her second album The Secret of Us two weeks ago.
The overnight success of queer alt-pop artist Chappell Roan and her first record The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess, which was released almost a year ago, caught the music industry napping.
Roan’s reputation as a brilliant live performer started to build her fanbase but when she opened for another female pop queen Olivia Rodrigo on her GUTS world tour earlier this year, her single Good Luck, Babe! blew up on Spotify and TikTok.
Artists including Rodrigo, Charli XCX, Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande, SZA, Camila Cabello and Lana Del Rey have also maintained a constant presence in the top 50 with latest singles or fan favourite records.
In a recent podcast, the rise of “girly, bratty and even nasty” songs up the charts from emerging female artists was attributed by American National Public Radio music editor Hazel Cills to the “escapist” and “fantasy” nature of their music, and TikTok’s power to build niche audiences.
“I think it’s that fantasy aspect, sort of escapist element to their music, but it’s also platforms like TikTok, you know, where artists can kind of build these really hyperspecific niche audiences, and that can kind of catapult these songs into the charts in a way that’s a little unprecedented,” Cill said.
“It really gives, you know, smaller artists a chance to have these big, viral moments … like Chappell Roan and her song “Good Luck, Babe!”
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