Dancing Through the Pain: Recession Pop throughout History

Everyone who has lived through the last five years can agree that things are bleak, but you wouldn’t know it from the music.

Socioeconomic developments have always influenced sonic trends, but has become more prominent in the past half-century. Most notably, punk rock was a literal manifestation of the pessimism that characterized youth culture in the mid-1970s as a result of a similarly dark socioeconomic climate.

On the flip side, however, music has also contrasted hard times, serving as a form of hopeful escapism instead of a reflection of negativity. In fact, a surge of music with joyful tones, fast tempos, and optimistic lyrics has often been a symptom of life getting harder.

For example, Madonna’s self-titled debut album, released in July 1983. Filled back-to-back with disco-influenced and synth-laden songs about love and hedonism, Madonna is often retrospectively credited with beginning a new wave of pop sometimes referred to as dance-pop (think Janet Jackson, Kylie Minogue, and the ilk).

Just seven months before Madonna’s release, the unemployment rate in the United States peaked at close to 11 percent —the highest it had been since the end of World War II nearly four decades prior. This link between economic climate and musical trends became especially pronounced with the rise of clubbing and the subculture that came with it in the 1980s. The worse things get, the poppier music seems to become.

The term “recession pop” is often used to refer to the music that followed The Great Recession of 2007-2008. The housing bubble burst, and electronic, dance-poppy music exploded along with it. Arguably, the Mount Rushmore of this subgenre were Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Beyoncé, and Rihanna (with honorable mentions going to Kesha, Britney Spears, and the Black Eyed Peas.

The recession pop era gave us hit song after hit song that didn’t take itself too seriously. A lot of them encouraged us to forget our problems (“Just dance / Gonna be okay,” Lady Gaga reminded us on “Just Dance” in 2008) or to dance them away, literally (“Keep on dancin' 'til the world ends,” Britney Spears instructed us on “Till The World Ends” in 2011).

Katy Perry’s two recession-era albums, One of the Boys (2008) and Teenage Dream (2010), were distinguished by a fantastical, bubblegum-pink aesthetic that was exemplified by her 2012 “California Dreams” tour costumes and set design.

In other words, music between 2007 and 2013 was the opposite of how everyone felt. Whether consciously or not, the people didn’t want music that begat introspection or turmoil. The people wanted fun.

After several years of relative economic calm and a more downtempo musical era to match,
recession pop” returned with a vengeance in mid-2020. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the “worst economic downturn since the Great Depression,” according to the International Monetary Fund, with a US unemployment rate close to 15 percent in May 2020.

The number-one song of 2021 was Dua Lipa’s “Levitating,” an infectiously poppy and joyful song laden with space-themed metaphors about falling in love. The song is, quite literally, an escape from the woes of planet Earth.

Hyperpop also exploded in the COVID era; with the help of TikTok, artists like 100 gecs, Charli XCX, and A.G. Cook made songs that were so sonically stimulating that they drowned out the existential dread that 2020 and 2021 brought.

The post-2008 financial crisis “recession pop” era only lasted about six years; today, musical trends move more quickly than ever seen before. Yet, the pop renaissance of the 2020s does not seem to be going anywhere.

An impending recession always seems to loom around the corner these days, and the possibility of economic devastation is always frightening. But, history promises us that at least we’ll have fun music to dance through the tears.

Written By Leina Gabra

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