21st Century Girl: A Pop Music Crash Course in Nine Divas

[Trollheart]

I've never been one for pop music. Perhaps that's rooted in the memory that the first music I could hear was restricted to the radio, and I don't mean popular radio either. If you're Irish, you'll know what I mean. It was a long time before we had any sort of pirate/commercial radio, and the things you would hear on national radio, well, I wouldn't wish them on anyone. So when I got my own record player and could buy my own albums, I went down the prog rock and heavy metal route, and left pop music where I found it. It continued to permeate my life through the weekly chart show, Top of the Pops and later when I was a late-night radio DJ, but overall I had no real use for it.

However, I'm the sort of guy who doesn't like to dismiss something out of hand without trying it (what's that you say? Hydrochloric acid? Well, we'll just see how lethal it is to drink that!) - okay, with some obvious exceptions. It's also somewhat embarrassing to know nothing about the pop hits of the day that everyone else is discussing. Since the pop music scene appears, to me anyway, to be pretty much dominated by female artists, that's how I'm going to approach this.

Looking at the so-called divas popular today, I've selected nine who fulfill my criteria, which are:
* They only became active/popular in this century
* They're still releasing albums
* I've never heard anything by them, or very little
* They have had chart hits in the last ten years or so

Some of these could apply to ones I'm not featuring, such as Beyonce, Madonna etc, but there's a good reason for that. Those ladies I'm somewhat familiar with, and have heard some of their albums. They're also ones who became famous prior to the 21st century, and while I may feature an album or two as sort of "guest divas", they don't really form part of the project I want to undertake.

In that spirit then, the divas I've selected are, in alphabetical order:

Billie Eilish
Lady Gaga
Ariana Grande
Dua Lipa
Katy Perry
Lana del Rey
Rihanna
Taylor Swift
Charli XCX

My intention is to listen to the first album by one diva, then the first by the next and so on, and when I've listened to nine albums to go back then and take the second, and so on till I have, hopefully, listened to all albums released by all nine divas. Reviews will be short (yeah) and bite-sized, with each rated both on its own merits and also against the album released by the other divas at the time. Eventually I guess I'll rank them and see which impressed me the most. Look, don't expect any revelations or epiphanies here: it's pop music after all, and I don't see myself being suddenly converted into a fan of Taylor Swift or Rihanna or whoever, but at least I'll have a slightly better idea of what I'm talking about, if I ever do.

The next nine albums up then are:

[Trollheart]

Artist: Billie Eilish
Nationality: American (California)
Age (at time of writing): 24
Albums released (at time of writing): 3
Most recent album (at time of writing): Hit Me Hard and Soft (2024)
Wiki tells me: Although American, she is of Irish and Scottish descent, this being most illustrated by the fact that her name was supposed to have been Eilish, her surname is O'Connell, and for some reason she has "Pirate" as her third name (Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell) and she comes from an acting and musical background, both of her parents being actors.


Album title: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
Artist: Billie Eilish
Year: 2019
Chronology: 1 of 3
Comments: So there you are: I finally know where that sample comes from. Yes, got a lot of catching up to do. Her voice is very sort of moody and downbeat, in contrast to the music which is uptempo and bouncy. Not so on "Xanny", which I presume is Xanax, much slower and almost funereal in tone, nice backing vocals, sort of bluesy, reminds me of Lana del Rey and Amy Winehouse, the little I've heard from both. I must say, I like it so far: very understated and downbeat, nothing I would imagine people would be shaking various parts of their anatomy to on the dance floor.  It's pretty dark overall, with titles like "My Strange Addiction", "Bury a Friend" and the disturbing but effective "All Good Girls Go to Hell". I'd definitely put this apart from what I assume to be the more dancy, happy pop divas such as Katy Perry and Ke$ha and so on, and more in the mature camp, a singer and songwriter with something to say.

Nice sort of live sounds on "Wish You Were Gay" and the ukulele, which she began playing at age six, makes an appearance in the jaunty "8", while "My Strange Addiction" is the one that comes closest, so far, to me anyway, as a dance/pop number, though still retaining the stark, sparse nature of the album, so that you never really get the impression Eilish is going to advise you to dance the night away or go to parties. I mean, I'm sure she does, but this album isn't what you could call a party album, let's say. Okay I know "Bury a Friend" (which also features the album's title; there's no title track) as it featured in a TV show I watched. Now what was it? To the Wikimobile! Ah yes: True Detective: Night Country. I will say, when I heard that originally it didn't make me want to seek out more of her music, but I am enjoying this so far. "Listen Before I Go" is a real highlight of what has been a pretty damn fine album, sort of distilling the essence of who Billie Eilish is into one heartbreaking song.  It's been a while since I've listened to something and thought I need to get more of that artist's music. This isn't one of those times, but neither is it a case of regret that I listened. Different, certainly, and I can see why she's so highly rated on this, her debut album.

It's funny how the music business refuses to adapt to the modern world any more than it absolutely has to. Yes, you can be discovered playing music in your bedroom uploaded to your Soundcloud or YouTube account, as she did, but in order to really hit the big time the muscle and clout (and financial backing) of a big label is still needed. Suppose it will always be that way; the only way to reach the arena audiences and break the charts is to continue to follow the path to fame that has been laid down now since the 1960s or before. You can start on your own, but you can't make it to the top on your own. Glad she made it though, whatever route she had to take to get there.

Anything good? Pretty much everything really.
Rating:

[Trollheart]

Artist: Lady Gaga
Nationality: American (New York)
Age (at time of writing): 39
Does she write her own music? Yes
Albums released (at time of writing): 6 (plus 1 reissue, 2 collaborations and 4 film soundtracks)
Most recent album (at time of writing): Mayhem (2025)
Wiki tells me: That her real name is Stefani Germanotta, and that she became famous in a different way to Billie Eilish, the old way, putting bands together and gigging, and then discovered by a talent scout who put her in touch with a music producer. She went to music school and is another who was playing music at an early age, even younger than Eilish, playing piano at a staggering three years of age! Sadly, she has PTSD from an incident of rape which I neither wish to read about nor highlight too much, as nobody wants to be framed as a victim (even if they are one) and the most important aspect of Lady Gaga is her music.


Album title: The Fame
Artist: Lady Gaga
Year: 2008
Chronology: 1 of 6
Comments: More like what I would expect from a pop diva: very punchy and synthy with dance rhythms, catchy airplay-worthy songs but they do seem to have something to say. Raps and the use of autotune  and vocoders brings this much more into the mainstream pop area, drawing a clear line between Billie Eilish's music and that of Lady Gaga. "Paparazzi" is pretty good, "Eh Eh (Nothing More I Can Say") lets her play with her Italian heritage in a tongue-in-cheek way, and of course you all know "Poker Face" but I don't. It's pretty great but it does remind me of something in the basic melody. Sort of a basic Stones vibe to the title track, could live without "Money Honey" or "Starstruck", and I think all that can be said about "Boys Boys Boys" was said by Sinitta in the 1980s. The one ballad, "Brown Eyes", is nice but derivative of Bowie and Queen (I see it's meant to be, at least of the latter) and "I Like it Rough" has a nice sort of 80s new-wave feel to it. Meh, a good album to be sure, but it's not going to make me a fan of her. Just yet. You're right: what do I know?

Anything good? "Paparazzi", "Poker Face", "Eh Eh (Nothing More I Can Say)", "Brown Eyes", "I Like it Rough"
Rating:

[Trollheart]

Artist: Ariana Grande
Nationality: American (Florida)
Age (at time of writing): 32
Does she write her own music? Meh, I'd have to say no. Based on her debut, she is involved in writing 5 of the 12 tracks (and there are a slew of other songwriters on each song, one with as many as seven, not including her) and nothing - on this album anyway - written by her solo.
Albums released (at time of writing): 7 (plus one soundtrack album)
Most recent album (at time of writing): Eternal Sunshine (2024)
Wiki tells me: She was born into wealth and privilege, her mother the CEO of some big company, her father a graphic design company owner, her parents splitting up when she was young. Another who uploaded covers of songs she sang to YouTube, she was then discovered when a record label CEO happened to see them (how do these things happen? Nobody ever happens to be browsing forums and sees my writing, turning me into a multi-millionaire author!) but before that she was acting in a sort of Miley Cyrus way in some soap or other on Nickelodeon. It surprises me how, when given a recording contract, she said she wanted to "make an R&B album", which would make you think that she was a songwriter, but as I say above, she seems to have handed songwriting duties over to a sort of committee, so I don't know how much of her music she can claim to be her own.


Album title: Yours Truly
Artist: Ariana Grande
Year: 2013
Chronology: 1 of 7
Comments: The orchestral opening is nice, and gives me hope this might be an album of slightly more substance than I had expected. I read there's a lot of throwback to the seventies with motown and doo-wop, and I can hear that alright, very powerful voice for a twenty-year old. Certainly not what I was expecting. Takes something of a sharp dip after that though. "Right There" is like something you'd hear from the Spice Girls, and has far too much Big Sean in it. "Tattooed Heart" gets things back on track, with a finger-clickin' doo-wop inspired piano track, and gives her a chance to really exercise the pipes, but how can it take ten fucking people to write a song like "Lovin' it" and still make it shit? She's not involved in the writing there, so that's something, but then she was a co-songwriter on "Right There", so I can't even point to the songs she has no input to and say they're the ones I consider bad. This is fucking awful, generic crap.

"Piano" is not without its charm, but it will take a lot for me to see the album returning to the promise of its opening track. Perhaps "Daydreamin'" will do it? Yeah this is a whole lot better.  Love the sharp piano line running through it, but I don't think much of "The Way", with added Mac Miller, "You'll Never Know" continues what for me is the downward trend into mediocrity as the album staggers on, relieved here and there by decent tracks then devolving into generic pop tunes, to make it almost seem as if I'm listening to two separate albums. Honestly, I wouldn't care if it was all consistently shite, but it's annoying that it occasionally rises above itself with a track or two, like "Almost is Never Enough", then nosedives back to the general run-of-the-mill pop she's putting out. Too many duets and collaborations too for a debut album. "Popular Song" is quite endearing, to be fair, but yeah, really not for me, a few tracks aside.

Anything good? "Honeymoon Avenue", "Tattooed Heart", "Daydreamin'", "Almost is Never Enough", "Popular Song"
Rating:

[Trollheart]

Artist: Dua Lipa
Nationality: English/Albanian
Age (at time of writing): 30
Does she write her own music? Yes
Albums released (at time of writing): 3
Most recent album (at time of writing): Radical Optimism (2024)
Wiki tells me: First of all, to my surprise, that's her name. I assumed it was some stage name (imagining it meant "two lips") but no; that's her family name, Lipa, and she was christened Dua. She's also been a model and became the first major female artist to sign for Warner Bros, began singing at age five but had to go to singing school to learn to sing properly. Her father was in a band back in Kosovo, and though she's not a product of X Factor she did feature in an advertisement for it, but we won't hold that against her.


Album title: Dua Lipa
Artist: Dua Lipa
Year: 2017
Chronology: 1 of 3
Comments: Nothing really of interest until "Be The One", which grabs my attention, not quite sure, but there's something about it. I also like the sort of marching and protest tone in "IDGAF" (no idea what that stands for) with some pretty cool chanting/backing vocals. After what I consider a fairly bland start, is this album taking an upswing? I will again though whine about people who can't write songs on their own; again here Lipa uses armies of songsmiths either to back up her ideas, or to add hers to, not sure which. I always feel those who write music should do it themselves. If you want to sing someone else's songs, fair enough, but if not then write your own, don't do it by committee. Okay, shutting up now and getting back to the actual album. "Blow Your Mind (Mwah)" is a cool little funky slice of pop, "Garden", the first ballad, has a sense of orchestral bombast about it, and really showcases Dua's vocals, while "No Goodbyes" seems to be a sort of power ballad, which unfortunately uses that thing that really annoys me, the high-pitched echo voice in the chorus, but I do like the track, and yeah, as I had hoped, it's keeping the quality high.

You know, it's my own fault as I'm used to working in other arenas, but I kept looking to see if any of these ladies play instruments, but of course they don't. Well, yes they do, but that's not their forte. These are singers (and some, songwriters) who use a band to interpret their music. They sing, that's what they do, but I'm an interloper and an ignoramus in the world of pop divas, so a change of attitude towards reviewing is needed. Give Dua Lipa credit, not all the songs have a telephone-box's worth of songwriters; two are composed by just her and one other person and another two use only three writers including her, so I'd  say she has more input into her songs than any of the three that have gone before. "Thinking 'Bout You" is a little short on ideas though, and I can't say I think much of "New Rules" personally, so the album is ending weakly for me, though in fairness she has no input into the songwriting on this track. Oh but no, the last two tracks pulled it back on course. Nice.

Anything good? "Be the One", "IDGAF", "Blow Your Mind (Mwah)", "Garden", "No Goodbyes", "Begging", "Homesick"
Rating:

[Trollheart]

Artist: Katy Perry
Nationality: American (California)
Age (at time of writing): 41
Does she write her own music? Yes
Albums released (at time of writing): 7
Most recent album (at time of writing): 143 (2024)
Wiki tells me: A totally different upbringing than the other divas I've looked at so far, Perry (real name Hudson) had strictly religious parents and was part of their ministry, learning to write songs in Nashville and originally playing Christian music, which apparently influences her debut album. That kind of knocks my plans out, but I don't want to avoid it, as it will be a good metric of how much she changed her musical style, perhaps in the same way Taylor Swift began as a country artist.

Album title: Katy Hudson
Artist: Katy Hudson (Katy Perry)
Year: 2001
Chronology: 1 of 7
Comments: I've made no secret before of my non-contempt for some Christian Contemporary Music, mostly discovered through my Wiki's List of Albums for 2017 thread; if the lyrics don't try to hammer home how great God is and why we should all be worshipping him, if they stick to basic tenets like love, respect, peace, friendship and exterminating the unbelievers, I'm good. Okay, maybe not the last one. But as Eric Cartman once unforgettably remarked: you can make any song a Christian one if you just replace "baby" with "Jesus". So I may not mock this as much as you might expect. Of course, I may. It all depends on how it's handled. Seems the album sold a staggering 200 units before the label went out of business. Guess God was not on their side after all. Sorry. On we go. Well, talk about bombastic! As Ariana Grande's album opened with a powerful orchestra intro, so does this, and it's very effective, very Christian rock. Okay, being CCM there is a full orchestra here; it's not all made on synth. A real wall of sound in terms of production, but unlike other people, that doesn't bother me. I quite like this. It's a god start. Sorry, I mean a good start.

Had she stayed at this and not moved into pop music, it seems she could have had a real career in this genre. Mind you, there's no money in Christian Contemp - oh. Wait. Well anyway she decided her future lay in other directions, and no matter how lucrative a career singing for God might have been, it couldn't match the cash she's raked in singing for a more troubled rebel angel. She certainly has the kind of voice for this music, very powerful and emotional, very soulful and sultry, and anyone listening to this must have known she was going to be a star. Yeah, they did: the few magazines and newspapers that reviewed it were all very impressed. Little could they guess their little angel would sell her soul, oh mercy no!

After a strong start this has just got better as it goes along, with "Search Me" one of the highlights so far. It's good to see how versatile Perry is, that she could switch from singing (and writing) soulful rock songs and move to commercial chart pop songs. "Last Call" (the first song she writes on this solo) is probably the closest she comes to the kind of pop/rock she would pursue after this, though to be honest it's a little bit of a mess; probably too early to be writing songs on her own. Well, there are three other solo efforts from her so we'll see if this is just a blip, but it's the first track I haven't liked. "Growing Pains" has a lot of Supertramp and ELO in it, driven mostly on piano and organ, and restores the quality that had dipped, also has a kind of cabaret/lounge feeling about it, bringing the orchestra in again. Actually, you know, the more it goes on the less I like it. Gets very wearing after a while. "My Own Monster", another of her solo-penned efforts, is very dense and claustrophobic, but quite effective, maybe a little overwrought.

The use of vocoders and walls of synth on "Faith Won't Fail" reminds me of Asia's "Aqua Part II" but then it develops into a fairly standard rock song with a decent hook, but some of these songs are definitely too long, and I would assume that by the time she made the transition to the pop world, where long songs are frowned upon, she had learned either to write shorter, snappier tunes, or to employ or work with those who could. This album could lose ten minutes and not suffer for it. From its initial starting promise, it's turned into something of an overblown and slightly indulgent behemoth, something I assume I won't be saying about her later albums.

Anything good? "Trust in Me", "Search Me", "Faith Won't Fail", "When There's Nothing Left to Give"
Rating:

[Trollheart]

Artist: Lana Del Rey
Nationality: American (New York)
Age (at time of writing): 40
Does she write her own music? Yes
Albums released (at time of writing): 10
Most recent album (at time of writing): The Right Person Will Stay (2025)
Wiki tells me: Her real name is Elizabeth Grant, she was born on Midsummer's Day, and both her parents worked at the same marketing company, which I find interesting. She began singing in a choir, and struggled with substance abuse in her teenage years. She was also obsessed with death and the idea of mortality, which I believe comes through in her songwriting. Unlike most of the others so far (possibly with the exception of Katy Perry) she had various albums and EPs released under other names, but again seems to have got her break through the now tried-and-tested method of uploading songs to YouTube. There must be labels whose A&R people do little else than scan YouTube looking for the next big thing Whereas talent scouts used to go to gigs to see who they would or could sign, now online seems to be the way they do it. Anyhow, she got signed and the rest is music history.


Album title: Lana Del Rey
Artist: Lana del Rey
Year: 2010
Chronology: 1 of 10
Comments: Nice relaxed sort of lounge/blues feel to this, certainly not pop in the mould of Lady Gaga or Ariana Grande. She has one of those sultry, sulky voices that suits this kind of music very well, laconic and morose at times. "Gramma (Blue Ribbon Sparkler Trailer Heaven)" bumps the tempo up a little, still fairly low-key, almost R&B in its way, and there's some sort of clarinet or oboe or something in "For K, Pt 2" (not sure where part 1 went but anyway) then "Jump" lives up to its title and kicks the tempo up again, though not too much: seems this album doesn't tend to rise above a leisurely stroll throughout its length. I'm not familiar with her, but I imagine Del Rey's music might be similar to that of Amy Winehouse? Maybe not. There's definitely a certain bleak beauty about it, like a fragile rose growing in a minefield or something, or a daisy struggling to survive and thrive in a stinking marsh.

"Raise Me Up (Mississippi South)" has some interesting echo and reverb effects on it, and is a more insistent, almost rock song. I find myself wondering if the chorus - "Rai-rai-rai-raise me up" is her playing on her new name, hoping (Del) Rey will indeed raise her to new heights as a performer? Which of course it did. Could be just my weird interpretation of course. "Brite Lites" is the first time there's any sort of pop/dance vibe to the album, with a sort of darkwave vocal. "Smarty" lifts things up briefly into the realm of the whimsical with another silly pop song, but the album ends as it has mostly progressed, with a dark, sombre ballad. Very impressed.

Anything good? Everything
Rating:

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[Trollheart]

Artist: Rihanna
Nationality: Barbadian
Age (at time of writing): 38
Does she write her own music? No
Albums released (at time of writing): 8
Most recent album (at time of writing): Anti 2016
Wiki tells me: Her real name is Robyn Fenty (doesn't quite have the same ring, does it?) and she did not have the rich and/or idyllic childhood that some of the others did. Her father struggled with a crack cocaine habit, and was known to beat her mother, so not what you'd call a happy home life. Rihanna used to help her father sell clothes in a market in Bridgetown, and suffered terrible headaches - which were thought to be the result of a brain tumour - until her parents divorced, whereafter her health improved. Her path to fame was a little more straight forward: she put together a girl group, auditioned for a music producer and ended up signing for Def Jam Records, where she met Jay-Z. After that she relocated to the States.


Album title: Music of the Sun
Artist: Rihanna
Year: 2005
Chronology: 1 of 8
Comments: I guess you're going to have a lot of "the music of the islands", basically reggae and that sort of thing, very Caribbean, and that's kind of what you get. I know that song "No, No, No (You Don't Love Me Anymore)" and to be honest she doesn't add anything much to it in my opinion. "The Last Time", the first ballad, is nice, with a sweet Spanish guitar and some good backing vocals, possibly a string section too? "Willing to Wait" samples Deniece Williams' "Free", which I remember from my long-vanished youth, and is kind of a second ballad in a row, which gives me a welcome break from the reggae and R&B, which isn't really my thing at all. It's a slow return though, as the title track is a sort of half-ballad with some nice acoustic guitar. Nice orchestrally-driven piano ballad ends the album, but not really for me, I have to say.

Anything good? "The Last Time", "Willing to Wait", "Music of the Sun"."Now I Know"
Rating:

[Trollheart]

Artist: Taylor Swift
Nationality: American (Pennsylvania)
Age (at time of writing): 36
Does she write her own music? Yes
Albums released (at time of writing): 11 (plus 4 re-releases)
Most recent album (at time of writing): The Tortured Poets Department (2025)
Wiki tells me: Another one with richo parents, one a stockbroker and one a marketing executive (I can see how that must have come in handy when their little girl hit it big), Taylor seems to have been into music from an early age, and performing and writing songs too. She went to vocal and acting lessons, and decided she wanted to pursue a career in country music, so naturally went to Nashville, where her demos were immediately.... rejected by all labels. Hmm. Don't they feel foolish now? Looks like her parents were supportive of/managed her early career, and the family all moved to Nashville, which now no doubt Taylor could purchase for them if they wanted.

Album title: Taylor Swift
Artist: Taylor Swift
Year: 2006
Chronology: 1 of 11
Comments: As expected, it's very country and the acoustic opener "Tim McGraw" is not too surprising a theme, given her fascination with Faith Hill. I wonder does the country star value his elevation to legend through being the first song on the first album by the world's richest pop star? It's a good start, for sure, and then the next one "Picture to Burn" kicks up the tempo in a real good-ole-boy (or, I guess I should say, good-ole-girl) country rocker. It's an interesting (or was, I guess, at the time) take on country, not quite bro country (sis country?) but sort of melding the well-used traditions and tropes from country with the better areas of pop music, and also opening the genre up to young women and girls at a time when country has been, mostly, about male artists, with the few female ones really struggling to make their mark.

Overall, a very decent country album, with a lot of heart and some important messages, though I must admit I don't at this point see how she became as world-famous as she is today. This album would not have set the world on fire. Maybe her next one did. Possibly just the jumping-off point for a career that was about to rise into the stratosphere.

Anything good? Pretty much everything
Rating:

[Trollheart]

Artist: Charli XCX
Nationality: English
Age (at time of writing): 33
Does she write her own music? Yes
Albums released (at time of writing): 6
Most recent album (at time of writing): Brat (2024)
Wiki tells me: Real name Charlotte Aitchison, she's only the second English diva in my chosen nine, she has Indian and Scottish heritage, and began writing songs at age 14. She followed the social media route too, putting her songs up on MySpace but seems to have gained fame through singing on other people's records initially. Unlike the others, who all seemed to have very firm career paths laid out, Charli did not like pop music, wanted to be a rap artist and really was not sure what direction she wanted to go in. She got involved with illegal raves and then was signed to a record label while still at school. Eventually things settled down, and she's now a big pop star.


Album title: True Romance
Artist: Charli XCX
Year: 2013
Chronology: 1 of 6
Comments: Certainly more of a dark, gothic sound mixed with new-wave and pop, a different type of diva perhaps; puts me in mind of a sort of female version of Depeche Mode or maybe The Sisters of Mercy, with her original desire to be a rap artist evidenced in the many spoken parts in the songs. "You (Ha Ha Ha)" is a much slower song than the opener, sort of slouching along moodily flipping the bird to her past, while "Take My Hand" is very upbeat, sort of Prince-like in ways. But I find "Stay Away" very dense and muddy. "Grins" is just a total mess, hate it. A lot of this album is too overproduced for me and it makes it hard to appreciate the songs. Maybe that's down to the rave thing but it does nothing for me. Some good songs but overall not something I'd be coming back to.

Anything good? "Set Me Free (Feel My Pain)", "Black Roses", "You're the One"
Rating:

[Trollheart]

So despite my contention or belief that these divas were all the same, it's clear they're far from that. Lana del Rey is much moodier and mature, dealing with darker themes and not really (on her debut anyway) venturing into pop territory, certainly not dance or club; Lady Gaga is more in the vein of the latter but with some pretty sharp lyrics in her songs. Taylor Swift's debut is pure country pop, while Rihanna is best described as maybe R&B-lite with reggae overtones? How did the debuts stack up then? Here's how they're ranked.