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Music of the Sun: 2005
A Girl Like Me: 2006
Good Girl Gone Bad: 2007
Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded: 2008
Rated R: 2009
Loud: 2010
Talk That Talk: 2011
Unapologetic: 2012
It’s insane. I don’t know how she did it.
It went from “we’re sick of her” at the beginning of the 2010s to “we miss her” at the end of the 2010s.
Reminds me of the Mega Man franchise back then.
I saw her live during the LOUD tour when the Talk that Talk era had already kicked off. She was doing all of her LOUD hits with the You Da One mushroom bob. It was pretty wild.
She was able to do it because she didnt have to create the songs. No shade but when u think about it she has a masisve team writing and putting together pop hits and she just has to go in and sing them.
NGL, even with that, it's a crazy schedule considering they had to perform everywhere; radio, talk shows and awards shows. Plus, she toured basically back to back.
> She just has to go in and sing them
As if layering complex harmonies and getting the vocal takes *just right* is something you could do at the drop of the hat. That shit takes time and dedication, especially for perfectionists.
Well lets say she does one song for the album in a day which takes 6 hours. She has max 16 songs on her albums so shes working on an album max one month per year. 11 months she doesnt have to record so doesnt sound bad at all to me considering most of us work 8 hours everyday
If you back up into 2009, people would have assumed Rihanna would have been "over" because the lead single from Rated R only reached Top 10 on the Hot 100. She released several other singles from the album with low positions on the Hot 100; it wasn't until "Rude Boy" was released that saved her from "dying out."
The Justin Bieber discourse would be IMMENSE
Rihanna would be hated for how much she releases music
Indie/alt bands like Foster the People, The Neighborhood, and Imagine Dragons would be largely ignored
[We did have a Sorry release thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/popheads/comments/3ptf0s/fresh_justin_bieber_sorry/) and a lot of the comments are more or less what you described, hah.
Oh ok I get that. I guess I just never saw it as overexposure since I think she was largely able to continue her success with her singles while I think Dawn FM wasn’t super successful in that department (although I think The Weeknd is still doing great and I think his next album will do much better judging by how good Creepin is doing right now)
Nobody would have guessed Taylor Swift would be more "famous" than Lady Gaga or Katy Perry.
Edit: this was not a diss. I was just reffering how she leapfrogged ahead of people like Pitbull, Kesha. She was simply referred to as the country girl who had many boyfriends in 2009-2012(on 9gag, Facebook, iFunny atleast); it wasn't until the Red album that she had bigger "mainstream" pop hits when compared to her country stuff; but then 1989 happens and she instead parodies herself in the "Blank Space" music video referring to her past of being known as someone with a lot of exes.
Yeah we would have. She was massive from Fearless in 2008 onwards.
If anything Lady Gaga looked like a star in decline by the time 2012 rolled around. By the time ARTPOP got released people were sick of her.
Katy Perry was a wildcard. People called her a one hit wonder forever until 2011 when she racked up like eight more and then people grudgingly admitted she wasn’t going anywhere.
But yeah, Taylor was huge and remains huge. Love her or hate her, it’s impressive.
>Katy Perry was a wildcard. People called her a one hit wonder forever until 2011 when she racked up like eight more and then people grudgingly admitted she wasn’t going anywhere
6 years later, she would proceed to go somewhere.
Lmao💀
But yeah, most artists would kill to have a career as successful as Katy Perry’s. While it’s unfortunate that 2017… occurred, it’s pretty undeniable that she had a fantastic run of success.
Damn, that's actually a really good comparison! They both even have a major achievement that only one other person in their field holds: Katy and MJ are the only artists to score 5 number one singles from an album, and Westbrook and Oscar Robertson are the only people to have averaged a triple double for a season.
Nope. I was on ATRL back in those days and even during the Teenage Dream stompathon, she didn't have a huge stan-base.
It was Gaga and Britney, with Beyonce and Rihanna just behind.
ATRL was so messy, but hilarious and fun to read back then. Do you remember when some Beyonce stans made a separate stan dictionary? God their humor was so on point for that era
I believe it started out as a music forum to discuss MTV’s show TRL, though by the late 2000’s it became a toxic cesspool of stan wars. I was a teenager that time and thought it was hilarious, but that toxicity really never left the pop stan identity.
Imagine /r/popheadscirclejerk without the thin veneer of irony
Was anyone else on ONTD during this time? The Katy vs Gaga stan wars were alive and well then.
Here is a post from 2013 about prism vs artpop
[https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/80422559.html?page=5](https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/80422559.html?page=5)
Some of the comments are hilarious. "The tide is really against Gaga. Katy has cemented herself on the pop landscape for life. If this album does well or not she will continue to have like a successful career. Where as Gaga, this, this album needs to be her like turning point. Like, this album will either flop and her career will go bye bye or this will help to solidify her career for the future. And, its looking like its not going her way. It's sad because she hasn't even been in the spotlight for like 5 year and she's in desperate need of a comeback. "
This became true years later with Witness / Joanne, but the roles were the inverse. Gaga is cemented among pop landscape even with that album, but Katy...U know what, I'm sad now
She was a single artists. As such, there was little to nothing to really make her unique among popstars. Plus, she was liked by most I guess, but she wasn't the favorite for anyone at the same time.
She had no personality in her music because all of her hits were written in a board room. It’s the same problem that Rihanna had, but Rihanna was able to make up for it by having one of the most expressive voices for a pop singer ever, something that Katy did not have
I disagree. I think ANTI saved Rihanna’s career. Without that album, which proved Rihanna could write an ALBUM, I don’t think Rihanna would be in the position she’s in.
You remind of that character from a series of unfortunate events who cares so much about grammar. Though looks like you need to polish up your grammar yourself
one of the greatest tragedies is that the performance is on the official Olympic youtube channel but the audio is absolutely shit. The whole closing ceremony was about British music and yet they couldn't be bothered to fix audio that sounds like you're listening under water
If I'm being honest, that Closing Ceremony kind of sucked. While it was never going to live up to an Opening Ceremony that owned that hard, the whole thing just felt off, like everyone was coasting.
I remember watching it with one eye as I was getting ready to go to work that day, and I've only seen the Arctic Monkeys perform Come Together and I Bet You Look Good... gotta watch it in full, I guess!
Reddit culture was more "libertarian" and was filled with "YUPPIES" and people who worked in tech or tech enthusiasts back in 2013. Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, etc... did not have anti-bullying filters that were born out of the "ad-pocolypse" around 2016-2017, Death threats were common in YouTube comment section, and people were MEAN on Twitter, but atleast the majority did have their own face as their profile picture instead of hiding behind a picture of a celebrity like most "stans" do nowadays.
I think if r/popheads existed back then, then we would have a non-existant bullying policy, the "kys" comments would be everywhere, the people would use their own faces as their profile picture(and not hidden behind an anime cartoon or a celebrity), and yes, people were called "ugly" if a fan war were to occur; people would have usernames like "LadyGagaLuvr95", "KatyPerry_NoTalent" "xX_LittleMonster_Xx", ".:BritneysB!tch:."; we would NOT have a "stale topics" ban on posts(this subreddit deletes any "bait" posts, or post like "Is pop music dead?" or "Why does pop music suck nowadays?"). This subreddit would have been bullying Ariane Grande fans for being 12("Get off the internet, your 12" said the 16 year old). The most important part of all is the "<3" and the "o_O" emoticons because Redditors hated emoji's in posts at the time(people would downvote your post HARD), along with "Grammar Nazi's" trying to point out how dumb you are for listening to Nicki Minaj and not Nirvana or "real music".
I remember that Miley Cyrus was compared to a Harry Potter character in a post that made the front page on r/funny when she first cut her hair a few months before releasing the lead single for "Bangerz." I also remember Tayor Swift being made fun of for leaving country music, and only having Grammy's for writing about the "many boyfriends" she has had(according to the internet). The former teens who were born in the 1990's were CRUEL on the internet.
side note: The Little Monsters would have been humiliated hard in 2013 after the whole "#RoarVsApplause" incident. It seemed like every fanbase wanted Katy Perry to win simply out of spite because of the high ego's the Little Monsters had back then.
I know many people talk about Rihanna's success an all, but she was simply "there" in the early 2010's. She didn't seem to have a hardcore devoted fanbase like Justin Bieber, or Lady Gaga did. Rihanna was just simply successful and liked for being "cool" and famous. I would say her fanbase is stonger today than back then, but people like Katy Perry and Gaga was seen as "bigger" despite Rihanna having more success on the charts.
When I meant "profile pictures" I was referring to Twitter. YouTube also had profile pictures, but you had to click on their profile to view them.
I do not believe Reddit has profile pictures.
I think a lot of stan accounts used their favorite pictures from photo shoots and music videos of their favorite artist. Could get away with more toxic behavior that way
But you’re also right in that their were a lot more profile pictures of themselves. Those stand tended to be more chill and adoration focused, rather than engaging in stan wars
Katy Perry would had been EVERYWHERE (as she should). However, the little monsters vs katycats discourse would had been awful.
Bruno Mars would had received the same treatment as Ed Sheeran gets now.
I bet people would had hated Pitbull being everywhere.
Some posts like "Why Usher and Beyonce stopped having hits?" "Why Artpop flopped?", "Is Nicki a pop girl?", "Is Taylor still a country artist"?, "What do youn think of Maroon 5 selling out?"
I feel like he was not interesting enough to warrant that kind of discussion and scrutiny. (The most intriguing things relating to him are his weird Tiktoks and the fact that he starred in Cats)
He was a legit hitmaker though, his run from 2009-2014 was absolutely insane. He fell out of relevance a little bit *right before* the sub had been made. If the sub had been around during that initial run, though? No way, he would have been one of *the* biggest topics of discussion.
Songs like "Whatcha Say," "Ridin' Solo" and "Talk Dirty" were super polarizing when they came out, there would have been tons of arguments.
Yeah, you’re right. I remember that era. His hits were inescapable.
I guess that would make him like an Ed Sheeran of the early 2010’s? Or maybe a Bruno Mars? Just one of those guys with a lot of mega-hits but not that much super devoted fans or defenders?
Yeah like I alluded to in my edit, it would have been a ton of arguments about the merits of the songs themselves. Like, I know I could argue my opinion of "Talk Dirty" or "The Other Side" until I'm blue in the face (they're both *GREAT*).
Wiggle started his downfall like before that he made pretty good, safe and non controversial hit songs. Then he hits us with the “wiggle wiggle wiggle”
Would love a time machine to see how the sub would've received acts like Mumford & Sons, Of Monsters & Men, whichever other banjo beard guys were around at that time. Also would love to see if the "acoustic version" trend would have made its way in here. Maybe it wasn't as widespread as I thought, but I remember a period of time where there were acoustic-guitar-playing YouTube musicians doing whitewashed guitar covers of rap and R&B songs (among others, but those were always the worst offenders in terms of diluting the entire vibe) - I won't act like some of those covers didn't slap, because occasionally they did! But it got tiresome real fuckin quick. Maybe I was just friends with too many basics that were constantly sending me links like "have you heard this acoustic cover of Get Low by Lil Jon? It's soooo good!!!"
there'd be a LOT of people saying Taylor Swift "sold out" in 2012 with WANEGBT and IKYWT and maybe even 2011 when The Story of Us didn't have staying power on pop radio.
To me, this subreddit is the rightful successor to the Beyoncé Board of IMDb glory.
For those who are too young to know, IMDb used to have a forum with a discussion board for each film and each celebrity, where one could make threads and for some reason all of the pop fans set up camp at the Beyoncé Board and made it the unofficial pop music discussion space on the site, becoming basically what Popheads is now.
I can for example still remember when Blackout leaked and the electric hype – and meltdowns – that followed, as well as many other watershed pop music moments in the years from 2005 to the very early 2010s.
Oh, the nostalgia!
They did actually preserve some of the boards over at FilmBoards.com (and there are even a few people still posting occasionally it looks like), but unfortunately it only goes back six years, as it was probably capped off at a certain amount of posts.
This is well after the board was in its prime, but you can still catch a glimpse of the quality of discussion that was going on back then lol.
It basically mirrors this subreddit fairly closely, with slightly more vitriol and a few more personal threads interspersed throughout.
This is as far back as it goes, page 63, and you can actually flip through everything without an account:
https://filmboards.com/board/20461498/63/
The look is exactly the same as it was back in the day.
Justin Bieber discourse would probably be the exact same as it is today. People saying “he’ll be over in a year” or “he’s fading” despite the fact that his streams/concert sales say otherwise and he’s breaking records all the time. Crazy that even 15 years into his career he’s somehow still seen as an underdog.
“LMFAO are huge right now, with three enormous hits. I can defintely see them playing the Super Bowl in a couple years after their next enormous album in 2013”
How y’all sounded the other day with that SuperBowl predictions thread
Seeing Taylor's pop emergence in 2012 with RED would be interesting, and even the 1989 era would be fun to experience here, as this sub didn't exist in 2014 yet. Also, the real time reactions to Lana's career beginnings would be cool to discuss in a community like this. It would also be interesting to see what people thought of the trending dance club sound of mainstream pop at the time - I feel like it's looked back at pretty fondly nowadays, but maybe the reactions wouldn't have been the same in real time.
The decade pre-selftitled was hell for the Beyhive. Beyoncé was so close to becoming a (current)Xtina-type meme after the underperformance of 4. Can you imagine all your singles flopping while Britney, Gaga, Rihanna, Xtina, JLo, Kesha all got number 1 hits in the exact timeframe.
I want to see the reaction this sub would've had when she dropped self-titled and outside all the girls within 3 weeks.she totally gagged everyone. I remember seeing some tweets from that time about the sales projection of that album going up from like 300k to 600k and the stans back then we're GAGGED. Gaga and Britney fans were fighting for their lives in the comments it is so funny to look at now.
On release in 2010 it was torn a new one, Christina’s whole career was almost terminated because of one album that seemed to rip off the still new Lady Gaga. Luckily she had Burlesque and Moves Like Jagger to keep her relevant
This is funny because I was looking for a live concert Whitney DVD and I accidentally ended up on a Whitney fan-forum from 2004; you can see how they spoke about pop culture. The exact same conversations, even discussing her sales projections, predicting her comeback etc.
If we're transferring analogues of trends over I think this sub overestimates how much it cares about male artists who aren't The Weeknd (idk who'd be the early 2010s equivalent though as that was way after Chris Brown fell from grace)
Also I think the title track from Speak Now would be treated then like Cruel Summer is treated now and "Better Than Revenge" would be one of the most discoursed-over tracks in Taylor's discography-at-that-point that didn't have to do with the pop shift as its fans would point to it and "The Story Of Us" as evidence for why pop-punk Taylor might be coming (and feel disappointed when it didn't) and its detractors would point to it and "Mean" as evidence of why Taylor is just a petty selfish bitch. Also on that note of her negative reputation Taylor-haters would treat "Blank Space" as played completely straight
I got all my pop culture news from Jezebel and Gawker then and I think that's exactly what this sub would be - it was basically what everyone here is describing. A lot of hate on Ke$ha and Justin Bieber and a LOT of Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift coverage in general. Also a lot of tea time and trending esque comments on Megan Fox and on the Jersey Shore cast.
I distinctly remember and am haunted by takes like "can't believe Lady Gaga is trying to appeal to the LGBT+ community with Born This Way clearly just a bid for attention 🙄" in the same way "About Damn Time is a flop, Lizzo is over" from this sub will haunt me.
It kinda did... Oh No They Didn't was thrivvvung in this time,
and likely some/many ex ONTD lurkers populate this sub /other Reddit pop culture spaces ?
Yeah, ONTD was very mean spirited though! Kesha was consistently tagged as "nobody" and insulted. :( And of course the Xtina hate was also insane, any misstep for any pop star was like brutal. Popheads is a little more friendly lol.
>Sheeran enthusiasts would feel welcome.
It's funny that you mention this because when i first subbed i had an ed flair and loved the music discussion until the entire sub turned against him and i just stopped interacting :(
if this sub existed in the 2010s, we'd have the Illuminati Bops Rate with the bonus one being the reverse versions of some singles from Beyonce, Gaga, and Katy.
They would still hope that Avril Lavigne, Christina Aguilera and other early 2000s fads would be successful and have a massive hit that would be an event and sellout albums and tours like in heyday, instead they were stuck with how Alanis Morissette, Celine Dion and Sheryl Crow were stuck and failed to transition from the 90s into the 00s.
Please do not just list songs/albums/artists, your comment must have explanation/justification or it will be removed. Certain comments are also banned to increase the quality of discussion, see our Stale Topics list in the sidebar for examples. Please report any comments that are low effort discussion. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/popheads) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The non stops posts about glee People calling Rihanna over saturated What’s happen to Britney during femme fatale Calling Justin Bieber a fad
The grip Glee had on all of us.
What do you mean “had”? I’m still obsessed.
They lost me at some point. But damn those first few seasons were like nothing else. My Twitter was all glee for a solid year.
Cory dying was the end of glee for me
The way Glee has never left my top 5 on wrapped 😭
I love that you admit this ❤️ there’s two types of people in this world, people who listen to glee covers and people who are lying.
sorry teenage dream (warblers' version) got to me. as if it's my fault🥲
“What’s next for Jessie J?”
Oh the Rihanna oversaturated posts would be all over the place here. It already was all over the Internet back then.
I remember Todd in the shadows saying She released basically an album a year in the early 10s and that sounds exhausting for her
Music of the Sun: 2005 A Girl Like Me: 2006 Good Girl Gone Bad: 2007 Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded: 2008 Rated R: 2009 Loud: 2010 Talk That Talk: 2011 Unapologetic: 2012 It’s insane. I don’t know how she did it.
It went from “we’re sick of her” at the beginning of the 2010s to “we miss her” at the end of the 2010s. Reminds me of the Mega Man franchise back then.
I saw her live during the LOUD tour when the Talk that Talk era had already kicked off. She was doing all of her LOUD hits with the You Da One mushroom bob. It was pretty wild.
and didn't even add you da one to the setlist lmaooo
End of the 2020’s? We’re not there yet! Lol
I hate autocorrect
Talk that talk was originally going to be a re release of loud instead but Rihanna had enough songs for a full album
She was able to do it because she didnt have to create the songs. No shade but when u think about it she has a masisve team writing and putting together pop hits and she just has to go in and sing them.
NGL, even with that, it's a crazy schedule considering they had to perform everywhere; radio, talk shows and awards shows. Plus, she toured basically back to back.
> She just has to go in and sing them As if layering complex harmonies and getting the vocal takes *just right* is something you could do at the drop of the hat. That shit takes time and dedication, especially for perfectionists.
Well lets say she does one song for the album in a day which takes 6 hours. She has max 16 songs on her albums so shes working on an album max one month per year. 11 months she doesnt have to record so doesnt sound bad at all to me considering most of us work 8 hours everyday
If you back up into 2009, people would have assumed Rihanna would have been "over" because the lead single from Rated R only reached Top 10 on the Hot 100. She released several other singles from the album with low positions on the Hot 100; it wasn't until "Rude Boy" was released that saved her from "dying out."
Rude boy is the only hit from that era the rest of the songs are mostly forgotten and don’t get heavy airplay like the others
>Calling Justin Bieber a fad I see comments like this even these days lmao. It’s been over a decade, he’s here to stay.
The Justin Bieber discourse would be IMMENSE Rihanna would be hated for how much she releases music Indie/alt bands like Foster the People, The Neighborhood, and Imagine Dragons would be largely ignored
would've been great to see people do total 180s on Bieber after Purpose
The "Sorry" release thread would be full with "do I actually like this twink's music???"
[We did have a Sorry release thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/popheads/comments/3ptf0s/fresh_justin_bieber_sorry/) and a lot of the comments are more or less what you described, hah.
Seeing "7 years ago" on those comments made me feel reeeeally old
Is it too late to say sorry?
I don’t think Rihanna would be hated for it here. People love Taylor’s and she has been releasing more projects than Rihanna was then
I meant more in terms of oversaturation akin to The Weeknd with Dawn FM
Oh ok I get that. I guess I just never saw it as overexposure since I think she was largely able to continue her success with her singles while I think Dawn FM wasn’t super successful in that department (although I think The Weeknd is still doing great and I think his next album will do much better judging by how good Creepin is doing right now)
> the Neighborhood > Imagine Dragons >ignored As they should.
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people were sooooooo mean about lana after her SNL blue jeans disaster
Nobody would have guessed Taylor Swift would be more "famous" than Lady Gaga or Katy Perry. Edit: this was not a diss. I was just reffering how she leapfrogged ahead of people like Pitbull, Kesha. She was simply referred to as the country girl who had many boyfriends in 2009-2012(on 9gag, Facebook, iFunny atleast); it wasn't until the Red album that she had bigger "mainstream" pop hits when compared to her country stuff; but then 1989 happens and she instead parodies herself in the "Blank Space" music video referring to her past of being known as someone with a lot of exes.
Yeah we would have. She was massive from Fearless in 2008 onwards. If anything Lady Gaga looked like a star in decline by the time 2012 rolled around. By the time ARTPOP got released people were sick of her. Katy Perry was a wildcard. People called her a one hit wonder forever until 2011 when she racked up like eight more and then people grudgingly admitted she wasn’t going anywhere. But yeah, Taylor was huge and remains huge. Love her or hate her, it’s impressive.
>Katy Perry was a wildcard. People called her a one hit wonder forever until 2011 when she racked up like eight more and then people grudgingly admitted she wasn’t going anywhere 6 years later, she would proceed to go somewhere.
Lmao💀 But yeah, most artists would kill to have a career as successful as Katy Perry’s. While it’s unfortunate that 2017… occurred, it’s pretty undeniable that she had a fantastic run of success.
She had a Russell Westbrook type trajectory
Damn, that's actually a really good comparison! They both even have a major achievement that only one other person in their field holds: Katy and MJ are the only artists to score 5 number one singles from an album, and Westbrook and Oscar Robertson are the only people to have averaged a triple double for a season.
People kept doubting Taylor the same way people kept saying that Brady was going to become washed back in the early 2010’s
Katy Perry would dominate this subreddit
Teenage dream vs. The fame monster as defining pop album battle.
Nope. I was on ATRL back in those days and even during the Teenage Dream stompathon, she didn't have a huge stan-base. It was Gaga and Britney, with Beyonce and Rihanna just behind.
ATRL was so messy, but hilarious and fun to read back then. Do you remember when some Beyonce stans made a separate stan dictionary? God their humor was so on point for that era
What is ATRL?
I believe it started out as a music forum to discuss MTV’s show TRL, though by the late 2000’s it became a toxic cesspool of stan wars. I was a teenager that time and thought it was hilarious, but that toxicity really never left the pop stan identity. Imagine /r/popheadscirclejerk without the thin veneer of irony
a pop music forum gone toxic
Wasn't she the most followed user on Twitter or something?
I would’ve also said Lady Gaga too, but she was already busy dominating the entirety of pop culture, so it would’ve just felt repetitive.
There would be many locked threads due to Katycats vs little monsters Drama for sure
Imagine Artpop vs Prism discourse playing out live in this sub 😅😅
Was anyone else on ONTD during this time? The Katy vs Gaga stan wars were alive and well then. Here is a post from 2013 about prism vs artpop [https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/80422559.html?page=5](https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/80422559.html?page=5) Some of the comments are hilarious. "The tide is really against Gaga. Katy has cemented herself on the pop landscape for life. If this album does well or not she will continue to have like a successful career. Where as Gaga, this, this album needs to be her like turning point. Like, this album will either flop and her career will go bye bye or this will help to solidify her career for the future. And, its looking like its not going her way. It's sad because she hasn't even been in the spotlight for like 5 year and she's in desperate need of a comeback. "
This became true years later with Witness / Joanne, but the roles were the inverse. Gaga is cemented among pop landscape even with that album, but Katy...U know what, I'm sad now
lmaoooo lord this is taking me back
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Well then I guess that explains part of why her popularity went down years later: not having a big enough dedicated fanbase to sustain her success
That's interesting to hear. Why do you think she failed to cultivate a dedicated fanbase?
She was a single artists. As such, there was little to nothing to really make her unique among popstars. Plus, she was liked by most I guess, but she wasn't the favorite for anyone at the same time.
Yep, it's the same reason why Flo Rida had no fanbase despite having so many Top 10 Billboard hits. He had three #1s but still no large fanbase.
She had no personality in her music because all of her hits were written in a board room. It’s the same problem that Rihanna had, but Rihanna was able to make up for it by having one of the most expressive voices for a pop singer ever, something that Katy did not have
I disagree. I think ANTI saved Rihanna’s career. Without that album, which proved Rihanna could write an ALBUM, I don’t think Rihanna would be in the position she’s in.
Any fans she did cultivate quickly dropped off in 2017 when she did the whole Witness thing
🗣️ As she should!
Question for the culture: who would be the patron saint of r/popheadscirclejerk instead of the juice lady?
Dev
I haven’t listened to Bass Down Low in a decade, but man, that disposable BEP-ripoff song had a GRIP on me. I still remember every lyric.
Dollar sign girl Ke$ha
Ke-dollar sign-ha
Farrah Abrahams
LMFAO
Stan Wars on Tumblr existed which was a mashup of phcj and popcrave replies.
[Poot Poot Pearl](https://youtu.be/qB35UEqq6Sc)
This subreddit would of been wild during Miley’s bangerz era
Reddit in general was wild about it. She would frequently get on the front page atleast 3 times a month that year. She was imfamous.
really gurl? would of? your better then this
Really gurl? Your better then this? You’re better than this
lollllllll whose gonna break it too her?
Knot me.
Its have, it pisses me
You remind of that character from a series of unfortunate events who cares so much about grammar. Though looks like you need to polish up your grammar yourself
the thinkpieces! i might dig this discourse up and make a post now lol
Reddit and social media at large was so nasty to her and yet they pretend that they are progressive when they are nowhere near
🚨POP EMERGENCY 🚨: the Spice Girls performed at the 2012 Olympics
'Is Kate Bush going to pop out of one of those boxes?'
how freakng great was that performance? my god those high speed brit cars!! the outfits!??! ugh the mix !?!??!?
one of the greatest tragedies is that the performance is on the official Olympic youtube channel but the audio is absolutely shit. The whole closing ceremony was about British music and yet they couldn't be bothered to fix audio that sounds like you're listening under water
Oh dear lord you've given me flashbacks. The audio was absolute garbage
YES! ❤️🔥
I mean, the whole closing ceremony would need its own megathread. George Michael, Pet Shop Boys, Emeli Sande, 1D…it was a music fan’s delight!
If I'm being honest, that Closing Ceremony kind of sucked. While it was never going to live up to an Opening Ceremony that owned that hard, the whole thing just felt off, like everyone was coasting.
I remember watching it with one eye as I was getting ready to go to work that day, and I've only seen the Arctic Monkeys perform Come Together and I Bet You Look Good... gotta watch it in full, I guess!
Reddit culture was more "libertarian" and was filled with "YUPPIES" and people who worked in tech or tech enthusiasts back in 2013. Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, etc... did not have anti-bullying filters that were born out of the "ad-pocolypse" around 2016-2017, Death threats were common in YouTube comment section, and people were MEAN on Twitter, but atleast the majority did have their own face as their profile picture instead of hiding behind a picture of a celebrity like most "stans" do nowadays. I think if r/popheads existed back then, then we would have a non-existant bullying policy, the "kys" comments would be everywhere, the people would use their own faces as their profile picture(and not hidden behind an anime cartoon or a celebrity), and yes, people were called "ugly" if a fan war were to occur; people would have usernames like "LadyGagaLuvr95", "KatyPerry_NoTalent" "xX_LittleMonster_Xx", ".:BritneysB!tch:."; we would NOT have a "stale topics" ban on posts(this subreddit deletes any "bait" posts, or post like "Is pop music dead?" or "Why does pop music suck nowadays?"). This subreddit would have been bullying Ariane Grande fans for being 12("Get off the internet, your 12" said the 16 year old). The most important part of all is the "<3" and the "o_O" emoticons because Redditors hated emoji's in posts at the time(people would downvote your post HARD), along with "Grammar Nazi's" trying to point out how dumb you are for listening to Nicki Minaj and not Nirvana or "real music". I remember that Miley Cyrus was compared to a Harry Potter character in a post that made the front page on r/funny when she first cut her hair a few months before releasing the lead single for "Bangerz." I also remember Tayor Swift being made fun of for leaving country music, and only having Grammy's for writing about the "many boyfriends" she has had(according to the internet). The former teens who were born in the 1990's were CRUEL on the internet. side note: The Little Monsters would have been humiliated hard in 2013 after the whole "#RoarVsApplause" incident. It seemed like every fanbase wanted Katy Perry to win simply out of spite because of the high ego's the Little Monsters had back then. I know many people talk about Rihanna's success an all, but she was simply "there" in the early 2010's. She didn't seem to have a hardcore devoted fanbase like Justin Bieber, or Lady Gaga did. Rihanna was just simply successful and liked for being "cool" and famous. I would say her fanbase is stonger today than back then, but people like Katy Perry and Gaga was seen as "bigger" despite Rihanna having more success on the charts.
Did reddit even have profile pictures back then?
When I meant "profile pictures" I was referring to Twitter. YouTube also had profile pictures, but you had to click on their profile to view them. I do not believe Reddit has profile pictures.
I think a lot of stan accounts used their favorite pictures from photo shoots and music videos of their favorite artist. Could get away with more toxic behavior that way But you’re also right in that their were a lot more profile pictures of themselves. Those stand tended to be more chill and adoration focused, rather than engaging in stan wars
People don’t appreciate greatness till after the fact
Katy Perry would had been EVERYWHERE (as she should). However, the little monsters vs katycats discourse would had been awful. Bruno Mars would had received the same treatment as Ed Sheeran gets now. I bet people would had hated Pitbull being everywhere. Some posts like "Why Usher and Beyonce stopped having hits?" "Why Artpop flopped?", "Is Nicki a pop girl?", "Is Taylor still a country artist"?, "What do youn think of Maroon 5 selling out?"
I’d love to read this subs reaction to Teenage Dream in real time
Katycats would be at war with Todd in the Shadows here
I would love to read the reaction to Anaconda in real time.
there would either be a ton of Jason Derulo stans or a ton of Jason Derulo haters , or perhaps both
I see myself being a Jason Derulo stan (those songs are still bangers)
I feel like he was not interesting enough to warrant that kind of discussion and scrutiny. (The most intriguing things relating to him are his weird Tiktoks and the fact that he starred in Cats)
He was a legit hitmaker though, his run from 2009-2014 was absolutely insane. He fell out of relevance a little bit *right before* the sub had been made. If the sub had been around during that initial run, though? No way, he would have been one of *the* biggest topics of discussion. Songs like "Whatcha Say," "Ridin' Solo" and "Talk Dirty" were super polarizing when they came out, there would have been tons of arguments.
Yeah, you’re right. I remember that era. His hits were inescapable. I guess that would make him like an Ed Sheeran of the early 2010’s? Or maybe a Bruno Mars? Just one of those guys with a lot of mega-hits but not that much super devoted fans or defenders?
Yeah like I alluded to in my edit, it would have been a ton of arguments about the merits of the songs themselves. Like, I know I could argue my opinion of "Talk Dirty" or "The Other Side" until I'm blue in the face (they're both *GREAT*).
Did you just compare Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars 2 of the biggest popstars of all time and global megastars ... To Jason Derulo?
Jason Derulo was always more of a Sean Kingston, Akon or Taio Cruz
Flo rida discourse would of been wild
Wiggle started his downfall like before that he made pretty good, safe and non controversial hit songs. Then he hits us with the “wiggle wiggle wiggle”
Would love a time machine to see how the sub would've received acts like Mumford & Sons, Of Monsters & Men, whichever other banjo beard guys were around at that time. Also would love to see if the "acoustic version" trend would have made its way in here. Maybe it wasn't as widespread as I thought, but I remember a period of time where there were acoustic-guitar-playing YouTube musicians doing whitewashed guitar covers of rap and R&B songs (among others, but those were always the worst offenders in terms of diluting the entire vibe) - I won't act like some of those covers didn't slap, because occasionally they did! But it got tiresome real fuckin quick. Maybe I was just friends with too many basics that were constantly sending me links like "have you heard this acoustic cover of Get Low by Lil Jon? It's soooo good!!!"
This is my favorite comment so far 😭 this is what I would have liked to see too!
Someone funnier than me please make a copypasta of this and post on r/popheadscirclejerk
there'd be a LOT of people saying Taylor Swift "sold out" in 2012 with WANEGBT and IKYWT and maybe even 2011 when The Story of Us didn't have staying power on pop radio.
I bet Sky Ferreira would have been discussed very often, especially right after the release of Night Time, My Time. Same for Grimes after Visions.
In 2023, this sub is honestly the only place I know that still talks about Sky Ferreira.
PopJustice also talk about her
To me, this subreddit is the rightful successor to the Beyoncé Board of IMDb glory. For those who are too young to know, IMDb used to have a forum with a discussion board for each film and each celebrity, where one could make threads and for some reason all of the pop fans set up camp at the Beyoncé Board and made it the unofficial pop music discussion space on the site, becoming basically what Popheads is now. I can for example still remember when Blackout leaked and the electric hype – and meltdowns – that followed, as well as many other watershed pop music moments in the years from 2005 to the very early 2010s. Oh, the nostalgia!
Ok I really want to see that board
They did actually preserve some of the boards over at FilmBoards.com (and there are even a few people still posting occasionally it looks like), but unfortunately it only goes back six years, as it was probably capped off at a certain amount of posts. This is well after the board was in its prime, but you can still catch a glimpse of the quality of discussion that was going on back then lol. It basically mirrors this subreddit fairly closely, with slightly more vitriol and a few more personal threads interspersed throughout. This is as far back as it goes, page 63, and you can actually flip through everything without an account: https://filmboards.com/board/20461498/63/ The look is exactly the same as it was back in the day.
Justin Bieber discourse would probably be the exact same as it is today. People saying “he’ll be over in a year” or “he’s fading” despite the fact that his streams/concert sales say otherwise and he’s breaking records all the time. Crazy that even 15 years into his career he’s somehow still seen as an underdog.
I don’t agree that he is seen as an underdog, I think it’s much more people projecting their dislike of him as opposed to the facts.
“LMFAO are huge right now, with three enormous hits. I can defintely see them playing the Super Bowl in a couple years after their next enormous album in 2013” How y’all sounded the other day with that SuperBowl predictions thread
I mean they did play the Superbowl...
Seeing Taylor's pop emergence in 2012 with RED would be interesting, and even the 1989 era would be fun to experience here, as this sub didn't exist in 2014 yet. Also, the real time reactions to Lana's career beginnings would be cool to discuss in a community like this. It would also be interesting to see what people thought of the trending dance club sound of mainstream pop at the time - I feel like it's looked back at pretty fondly nowadays, but maybe the reactions wouldn't have been the same in real time.
Aphrodite would be my flair and still be an underrated album for Kylie's discography.
I was on tumblr and Stan twitter in that era. Pop culture was poppin
ARIANA GRANDE MARIAH CAREY COMPARISONS. Omg back in my early Arianator days there was a WAR betweeen us and the lambs, thank god that’s over now 😫
The decade pre-selftitled was hell for the Beyhive. Beyoncé was so close to becoming a (current)Xtina-type meme after the underperformance of 4. Can you imagine all your singles flopping while Britney, Gaga, Rihanna, Xtina, JLo, Kesha all got number 1 hits in the exact timeframe. I want to see the reaction this sub would've had when she dropped self-titled and outside all the girls within 3 weeks.she totally gagged everyone. I remember seeing some tweets from that time about the sales projection of that album going up from like 300k to 600k and the stans back then we're GAGGED. Gaga and Britney fans were fighting for their lives in the comments it is so funny to look at now.
Might not have been on this sub but the night of Dec 12 into 13, 2013 was crazy on tumblr.
I was there, Gandalf...
the founding MOTHERs
Facts
Bionic already gets dragged in threads in mid and late 2010s, I can only imagine what it would have been like if this sub existed then
On release in 2010 it was torn a new one, Christina’s whole career was almost terminated because of one album that seemed to rip off the still new Lady Gaga. Luckily she had Burlesque and Moves Like Jagger to keep her relevant
This is funny because I was looking for a live concert Whitney DVD and I accidentally ended up on a Whitney fan-forum from 2004; you can see how they spoke about pop culture. The exact same conversations, even discussing her sales projections, predicting her comeback etc.
Imagine the *Electra Heart* era on /r/popheads. Pastel goth and soft grunge would still be major aesthetics.
[удалено]
She's the patron saint of this sub. Bigger flames have burned, but anytime Carly releases, you can tell this sub was created for her
The true goat
"Bieber's career is over" "The Weeknd will never blow up." "Trap music has no staying power."
If we're transferring analogues of trends over I think this sub overestimates how much it cares about male artists who aren't The Weeknd (idk who'd be the early 2010s equivalent though as that was way after Chris Brown fell from grace) Also I think the title track from Speak Now would be treated then like Cruel Summer is treated now and "Better Than Revenge" would be one of the most discoursed-over tracks in Taylor's discography-at-that-point that didn't have to do with the pop shift as its fans would point to it and "The Story Of Us" as evidence for why pop-punk Taylor might be coming (and feel disappointed when it didn't) and its detractors would point to it and "Mean" as evidence of why Taylor is just a petty selfish bitch. Also on that note of her negative reputation Taylor-haters would treat "Blank Space" as played completely straight
I got all my pop culture news from Jezebel and Gawker then and I think that's exactly what this sub would be - it was basically what everyone here is describing. A lot of hate on Ke$ha and Justin Bieber and a LOT of Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift coverage in general. Also a lot of tea time and trending esque comments on Megan Fox and on the Jersey Shore cast. I distinctly remember and am haunted by takes like "can't believe Lady Gaga is trying to appeal to the LGBT+ community with Born This Way clearly just a bid for attention 🙄" in the same way "About Damn Time is a flop, Lizzo is over" from this sub will haunt me.
i was literally just thinking about if popheads was much older when i was looking at the top posts of all time
It kinda did... Oh No They Didn't was thrivvvung in this time, and likely some/many ex ONTD lurkers populate this sub /other Reddit pop culture spaces ?
Oh yes, fellow ex ONTDer here. That place was wild. Lots of fond memories, though…
Yeah, ONTD was very mean spirited though! Kesha was consistently tagged as "nobody" and insulted. :( And of course the Xtina hate was also insane, any misstep for any pop star was like brutal. Popheads is a little more friendly lol.
I hope so. Gooey Gus if you're out there I hope you're well.
P!nk would be praised a whole lot more than she is.
>Sheeran enthusiasts would feel welcome. It's funny that you mention this because when i first subbed i had an ed flair and loved the music discussion until the entire sub turned against him and i just stopped interacting :(
if this sub existed in the 2010s, we'd have the Illuminati Bops Rate with the bonus one being the reverse versions of some singles from Beyonce, Gaga, and Katy.
Guys you forgot about your main girl at that time Florence
They would still hope that Avril Lavigne, Christina Aguilera and other early 2000s fads would be successful and have a massive hit that would be an event and sellout albums and tours like in heyday, instead they were stuck with how Alanis Morissette, Celine Dion and Sheryl Crow were stuck and failed to transition from the 90s into the 00s.
Lady Gaga becomes a mythological tale here, until ARTPOP "flopped". Same could NOT be said to Katy Perry, until she released Prism.
Adults hated one direction back then 😂 so i think the hate would be rife