I’ve had a long held theory about the next generation of musicians, a generation that is fast becoming the current generation of musicians, that they will exist in a world that is post genre. For much of commercial music history, genre has served as a marketing tool to sell certain sounds to communities who have decided that they identify with that sound. Depending on the genre, the term can be exceptionally broad (rock) or incredibly insular (post-metal), in any case genre was so important because at one point in time you either had to hear a song on the radio, or you had to buy the record.
These days music is non-committal. With the rise of streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, there’s no real reason for people to divide themselves along the lines of genre. Nearly everything outside of the most underground of music is effortlessly at the fingertips of anyone with a computer.
With so much accessibility to music, artists no longer need to be crate digging madmen like Kanye West, No ID, Madlib or Radiohead to subvert genre conventions. In fact, given the output of artists like Lil Peep, Billie Eilish and Poppy, genre doesn’t even seem to be something they’re actively thinking about. But of all three aforementioned artists, Poppy is the one who pushes the envelope the farthest.
Beginning as a PC music artist/Youtube sensation, Poppy leveraged her strange alter ego into a musical movement. Recently her trajectory has seen itself steered into the realm of pop metal and dark electronic with her ep X and the closing moments of Am I A Girl? Her recent singles have indicated a more severe turn into that direction, and tracks like “I Disagree” show a shocking amount of promise.
Genre was always a crutch for most bands. In a post genre world we can look forward to seeing innovative combinations of sounds that most of us thought would never blend. Give the future a shot by seeing Poppy at the Fonda on February 21st.
Location: The Fonda
Address: 6126 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028
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