The pop girlies are sad

0:00Noel King:Some people have been arguing for a while now that the song of the summer is no longer a thing. Monoculture is dead. There are many songs of the summer. It depends on who you hang out with. It depends on your Spotify. In the summer of 2026, people are still making that argument, but it is a little harder this year because of Ella Langley. I don't know that his mind wasn't ever going to change because his heart still belongs to the Lone Star State. Her Choose in Texas is breaking records, racking up Mariah and Whitney-type numbers, although you might never have heard this song. Maybe instead you're listening to Charlie or Gracie or Ariana or Kim.

0:42Noel King:But eagle-eared music fans have noticed something. A lot of this summer's biggest albums, biggest songs are, like Choose in Texas, kind of gloomy, a little grim, a bit sad. What is going on? And coming up on Today Explained from Vox, the pop girlies, sad, sad summer. Support for Today Explained comes from Anthropic, the team behind Claude. Anthropic is a public benefit corporation founded on a hard question. That question is, how do we make sure AI goes well for people? They're working on it, publishing what they find, even when it's uncomfortable. There's hope in hard questions. Ask your hard question at Claude.ai.

1:21Noel King:slash today explained. That's C-L-A-U-D-E dot A-I slash today explained. This episode is brought to you by Facebook. So you were scrolling on Marketplace and there it was, the bike you'd been searching for. You sent a message and it turned out the seller was super chatty, kind of funny, and an avid cyclist. The next thing you know, you're in a cycling crew, well, a community cycling group. The thing about Facebook, you might find more than what you're looking for. From a browse to a bike ride, this summer, find more on Facebook.

2:00Noel King:You're listening to Today It's Played, your home for country music. Wait, is that right? Yep.

2:12Noel King:I'm Noelle King with Marissa Moss. She's a senior writer at Rolling Stone, writes a lot about country. All right, Marissa, tell me about Choosing Texas. Choose in Texas is a song about a woman who is essentially losing her man in real time. So she goes to a bar, a honky tonk in Texas. She's from Tennessee. Just when I thought I got him to fall in love with Tennessee. She suddenly realizes that he sees his, I guess, his ex who's from Texas and drifts away from her to this woman. She's from Texas, I can tell by the way He's two stepping round the room So it's that feeling of kind of knowing when you see it in someone's face that they're going to be leaving you.

3:00It doesn't take a crystal ball to see A cowboy always finds a way to leave

3:08Noel King:And you're figuring out whether it's worth it to hold on or you just kind of have to let go. He's choosing Texas, I can tell How big is this song exactly? It is huge. It is up there right now in competition with Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You.

3:30Noel King:Which owns the record for the most amount of weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with 22 weeks. So right now, Ella Langley, as we speak, has 18 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. Dang. Her only competition above that is Shaboozy.

3:49Noel King:And Lil Nas X.

3:54Noel King:Which are also, you know, you should say, kind of country-ish, country-adjacent songs. But she really could blow by Mariah Carey. Of course, you get a boost every time Christmas comes around. But we're a little ways off from Mariah Carey declaring once and for all that it's Christmas season. So I think Ella has plenty of time to catch up. And it could be the biggest song of all time, which is crazy. You're a music writer and you're based in Nashville. And Nashville is the beating heart of country in this country. How big a deal is Ella Langley in a place like Nashville and in the country industry?

4:30Noel King:She's a big deal.

4:35Noel King:And it's exciting because she's a relatively newish artist in terms of how long she's been putting out music. You know, she's been in the grind for years and years like most artists have by the time they have their breakthrough. She only released her debut album in 2024 called Hungover. And it's really exciting because as a lot of people know, or maybe they don't know, it can be really hard for a woman to make it in Nashville. They're usually played, you know, one woman's song an hour on country radio. If that, if you're lucky. Usually under 10 % of songs on country radio were by women. Wow. So having someone like her out there and having so much country radio airplay and presence on the Hot 100 and breaking all these records, you really hope that it's going to help influence people in Nashville to sign more women, platform more women, do all of those things to try to sort of flip this longstanding sexism that has existed in Nashville.

5:37Noel King:Not to put all of our hopes and dreams on one woman because it's not up to her to do this. It's up to the industry to respond. But, you know, you sure have to hope so. Was it a surprise that Choosing Texas became such a big hit? To me, and I am totally fine to admit this, I would have never predicted this. I loved the song when I heard it, but I don't think I ever thought that something in this country could be this popular. And yes, country music is becoming so much more popular nationwide, worldwide, but it is also country music in a lot of ways that is a little bit more pop-leaning. Morgan Wallen is extremely popular, but he's not putting out super twangy, you know, tears in your beers kind of country music songs.

6:27Noel King:Choose in Texas. Yes, I know it's kind of sad, but more than sad, I think it's relatable. it taps into this feeling that a lot of people have and I guess especially in the summer if you're thinking about a summer romance or something like that of losing something that you once have of letting go, of nostalgia I think that's something that we really want to feel right now and despite the lyrical content which may be a little bit of a bummer the song does just feel so good and it's like a little bit of like a brain weed gummy The second it comes on and you hear, you know, that little guitar lick, it relaxes you.

7:08Noel King:It sort of gives you that summer feel of like just airy and fresh. And a lot of people want to feel that way right now. But I mean, there's been remixes of the song at the club.

7:25Noel King:You've said she's not a person who shares a ton about herself. Probably smart in this day and age. But country music often does get politicized, and I've seen that happening a bit around her and around this song. Tell me about the way she is being slotted into certain perspectives in the U.S., whether she wants to be or not. So one thing I've seen is a lot of people from the far right wanting to use her as an example of a return to sort of this anti-girl boss era. Ella is MAGA, American flag emoji, American flag emoji, true country patriot princess who I will forever support and I would die for.

8:10Noel King:Ella Langley wrote a wholesome anti-woke country song, and it's about to beat the record for longest time spent as number one on the Hot 100. America is healing. They like to take the fact that she speaks about her faith on stage and sort of warp that into that being sort of her overriding agenda and that she wants this return to traditional values. and then on the left I've seen some people sort of play with the same I personally think you could easily just as easily make a case that she's a feminist who had Miranda Lambert you know produce her album and writes with women and takes all these women on tour we're just talking about women right now it takes women like Lainey Miranda and me and all these artists that are coming up to stand up and be like oh we're not going to put up with this you know so many people want this moment to serve their own narrative and want Ella Lingley to stand for something on every side.

9:11Noel King:And if you don't give people little, they're gonna go wild. But maybe that's better than putting your personal views out there and having them ripped apart. So can't say I really blame her, to be honest. This is a sad song. And I get you. I'm like, it's a very chill vibe. And it definitely does ease the brain in some ways. But when you think about it, it's like, my fella fell in love with someone else. And so here's a theory I've heard. The summer of 2026 has a lot of sad girl music coming out. And this just sort of fits into a broader trend for some reason this summer of sad music. What do you think about that?

9:58Noel King:Yeah, I think that's fair. Obviously, sad is a universal emotion. But I think when people hear this song, they recognize themselves in it. And I don't know if it conjures so much sadness as much as like a communal experience. Like this sense of, oh, okay, I'm not alone. Other people have experienced the same thing.

10:27Noel King:And I don't know if people are putting it on and crying, you know, into their lap the same way that people are for other sort of sad girl summer records. Maybe if your partner just left you for someone in Texas, you might cry. But, you know, I don't know if it elicits that kind of visceral reaction. I think it's more of like a gut feeling, a vibe kind of situation.

11:05Noel King:That was Rolling Stone's Marissa Moss. Marissa wrote a book. It's called Her Country, How Women in Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be. When we come back, the pop stars are sad this summer. What's bothering them?

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13:27Noel King:They make it interesting, genuinely. Follow NPR's Planet Money podcast and understand how money shapes the world. This episode is brought to you by Facebook. So you were scrolling on Marketplace, and there it was, the bike you'd been searching for. You sent a message, and it turned out the seller was super chatty, kind of funny, and an avid cyclist. The next thing you know, you're in a cycling crew. Well, a community cycling group. The thing about Facebook, you might find more than what you're looking for. From a browse to a bike ride, this summer, find more on Facebook.

14:09Noel King:Today Explained. We are back with Alex Frank. Alex writes for Vogue. Alex, we've been told that this is the summer of the Sad Girl song and the Sad Girl album. which of the girls have been sad this summer? Sure. Well, Olivia Rodrigo would be a good place to start because she literally has the word sad in the title of her album. It was just something that my producer Dan said to me. We were having a conversation about just stuff in my life and he's like, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. And when he said it, we were both like, that's it. That's the title. We've been searching for it for so long.

14:37It's also my favorite album of the summer so far. It's an album about whatever is the opposite of carefree love. Anthems for Anxious Attachment is sort of how I've been thinking about them. So these are not late fun nights of June and July where the dance music is bumping. This is being in your room worried about what the other person thinks of you and whether or not you're happy in the relationship. I mean, it's sort of about the beginning of a relationship when, yes, things are great and you're feeling the spark and the chemistry and the excitement, but you're also worried about where it's gonna go.

15:12Like you have a voice in your head that's telling you, maybe this isn't right, maybe this isn't real love, Maybe he doesn't like you the way that you think. There's a couple ballads on the record, one called Begged, one called Less, that are absolutely heartbreaking. Nothing's quite enough when I know that to get it I beg. I wish, I wish, I wish you loved me less. But even the up songs like Maggots for Brains, which I think has become a fan favorite, is sort of about becoming almost zombified by love and sort of what it does to you, how it transforms you and almost makes you a Frankenstein figure.

16:04so it's a really interesting thing for a young woman to be exploring on a summer record you know love we think of as happy or maybe we think of as breakup but this is somewhere in between where you're in love but you're not feeling super sure about it

16:28Noel King:hmm phoebe bridgers album tell me about that one it's got a song called kill me on it so i mean you don't get you don't get bleaker than that this is gonna kill me

16:42Wait Phoebe Bridgers is famous for making sad music. You know, it's interesting because she's balancing on the record sort of like the larger realities of sort of like the sadness of the culture and the country, but also like in her own personal life, some good things are also happening. She's singing about weddings, but she's also singing about the state of the world and how bad things seem at any given moment.

17:07Noel King:And the government isn't trying to kill you. They just don't care if they kill you. I've been listening to Ariana Grande's record, and she's having a bit of a rough summer herself and sort of like leaning into a certain kind of misery with the industry, with her fandom. The opening single was Hate That I Made You Love Me, which is, again, And having hate in the title is a pretty good indication that we're not in La La Land right now. And I can see right through, hoo-hoo, like shadows on the moon when I saw bad news. But the rest of the record is sort of gets even bleaker. The joy of Ariana so often is in a karaoke moment when you can try to hit those exuberant notes along with her.

18:01Her voice has an exuberance to it. And she's always had a little bit of sadness, too. She's always walked that line. But here, there's really not much exuberance at all. We're just getting the sad Ariana. Trying to feel some real to cry again.

18:19Noel King:They say the artist needs tears to ride again. I was listening to the new Charlie XCX with producer Peter Bell and on Rosen recently. And I did not think of that as a sad album, but I was listening with half an ear. I noticed that it is on the list of people's sad summer albums. Tell me what's going on there. I think that you're right in the sense that it's a little bit more complicated than sad, but, you know, very different than Brat and Mood. Spring, summer 26, which I love. And the lyrics are, I mean, these are some serious lyrics.

19:07Feels like a very different direction for her, considering the sort of exuberance of Brat Summer, which was just a few short summers ago.

19:17Noel King:So what is actually going on here? Like, is this a coincidence or is this a sad time, a sad culture, a sad country? What's what's the deal? I don't think it's a coincidence. I mean, I think there's a couple of things going on. One, I think we've been sort of moving in this direction for a while. I mean, I think when we think back about 15 years ago, the kind of pop that was on the radio was exuberant pop like Katy Perry. And then Lana Del Rey had a song called Summertime Sadness that came out around then. Sort of like changed the paradigm a little bit for what a pop star can be. And I think what we're seeing now is a generation of young female songwriters who have sort of grown up in Lana's wake.

20:01And they're dealing with weighty issues the way that Lana does. They're dealing with the darker side of life the way that Lana does. And I don't want to give Lana all the credit, but I do think she has caused a big sea change in how record labels can imagine young female singer-songwriters to market themselves. The other thing I think is there's sort of two panics that I think might be related to this. One is the panic over AI and AI's role in music. At a moment in which we're sort of concerned about sort of like perfection created by AI and by like a digital force, that we would sort of cling to songs that are a bit messier and sadder, very emotional.

20:48You know, they're not sort of perfectly constructed, engineered pop marvels. Marvels, they're a bit more soft and broken and, dare I say, human. And the other is the panic over Gen Z sexlessness, which this has certainly become a cultural panic. Right. And and I again, I don't know what's going on with Gen Z. But if you looked at the charts right now, this is not a sexy summer. Like you would find some evidence that people are not having a good time, let's say. And so I think, like, there's a lot of things coalescing that sort of make it the perfect moment for sad songs. And I think it'd be really hard to sort of operate in the year 2026 and create music that has a sort of pure joyfulness.

21:36Noel King:You wrote for Vogue that the best summer song is a sad one. That is a hard case to make. Can you make it? I think some of the most powerful summer songs ever are really, really sad. If you're going through a rough time, it feels so much more amplified, in my opinion, in summer. And when I was writing the piece, there were just so many songs that I remembered from my youth and from younger days that really evoked sort of like the harder sides of summer. I love one that I don't think many people would construe as sort of like a modern summer song. But to me, it is an incredible summer anthem, which is Joni Mitchell's Woodstock.