A lot of people are losing their minds over Lorde’s new album Solar Power. I haven’t listened to it yet, so I can’t pass judgement on whether people are justified in their reactions, but I sure as hell can pass judgement on those people in general. Specifically, I judge them because I resent them. I haven’t listened to Solar Power yet because I don’t want to be one of those people caught up in the headlong rush of a new release (here’s looking at my friend, Carlisle, who posts elaborate aesthetic collages to her Instagram story about Lorde’s albums). 

Part of my resentment is the comical sentiment of “Wait, I liked them first.” It’s the classic trope of fighting for originality and insisting that you’re the cool one, unlike all those other dweebs. But a lot of that has now transformed into a resentment founded in “Wait, I see them as more than just their music/a surface-level celebrity.” 

I used to always be anti-popular music. In middle school and high school, I prided myself on not knowing any of the songs on the radio. In retrospect, it was yet another avenue in which I sought to differentiate myself from my peers in order to hold myself up as better and more sophisticated than the common masses.

Now, I’m a little older and more appreciative of the fact that not all popular artists are brainless and artless (though, in my book, it’s still the exception, not the rule). I remain intrigued by Lorde’s album Melodrama, I actually really enjoy the sound of Bastille, and I even have a tattoo inspired in part by a Mumford and Sons album… But I’m still deeply annoyed that so many still do not seem to realise there’s more to music than, well, the music—there’s more to Croatian-Irish-New Zealander Ella Yelich-O’Connor than the author-functionship of Lorde. Conversely, I still don’t like Taylor Swift, the musician—I would never listen to her on my own time for enjoyment—but I respect her discrete personhood as Taylor Swift, the other-than-musician, and accept why others hold her in such high esteem.

Even now, I still find myself affronted when my artists become popular and their sound starts changing for the worse as demand grows and they inevitably sign with a new label. I didn’t ask to be stuck with all these other fans who don’t get the artist the same way I do and now I can’t publicly say “I like X” because then I’ll be equated with all those other people, and that’s just unacceptable. 

Maybe I should make myself listen to Solar Power today and try to simply enjoy it without the complicated strings of judgement and prejudice attached.

Anna Jeffries

Anna graduated in 2020 with a degree in mathematics and English literature. Originally from Asheville, North Carolina, she now lives in Washington, D.C. An expert in British murder mysteries and Frasier, Anna likes to read about interesting stuff, jump between hobbies, and rank all the different museum gift shops.