The Rise of the Female Pop Star in 2014 By: Delaney Auth

It’s Been a Pretty Great Year For Female Pop Artists

By: Delaney Auth

            There’s a pretty stark difference in the Billboard Charts from last year to now. The charts for 2014 have been packed with the songs of female pop artists, which is a lot different than it was only a year ago. According to Billboard the top 10 songs from the whole year of 2013 looked like this:
1)      Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke feat. T.I. and Pharrell
2)      Locked Out Of Heaven by Bruno Mars
3)      I Knew You Were Trouble by Taylor Swift
4)      Can’t Hold Us by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis feat. Ray Dalton
5)      Clarity by Zedd feat. Foxes
6)      Mirrors by Justin Timberlake
7)      Radioactive by Imagine Dragons
8)      Don’t You Worry Child by Swedish House Mafia feat. John Martin
9)      Thrift Shop by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis feat. Wanz
10)  Daylight by Maroon 5
Now, while most of these are pretty great songs (I say most because of the obvious issues with number one. Robin Thicke can go.), there is so little representation of female artists here. Only Taylor Swift and Foxes made it to the top ten and only Swift’s single is solo. As if women’s representation wasn’t rough enough, the number one spot is taken by a sexist song with a catchy beat that treats women as nothing more than voiceless sex objects. Ugh. The most recent top ten list from this year, however, is looking a whole lot better for our most loved female pop stars. Here’s the most recent Billboard top ten.
1)      All About That Bass by Meghan Trainor
2)      Shake It Off by Taylor Swift
3)      Habits by Tove Lo
4)      Bang Bang by Jessie J, Ariana Grande, and Nicki Minaj
5)      Animals by Maroon 5
6)      Black Widow by Iggy Azalea feat. Rita Ora
7)      Don’t Tell ‘Em by Jeremih feat. YG
8)      Hot Boy by Bobby Schmurda
9)      Take Me To Church by Hozier
10)  Stay With Me by Sam Smith
This week’s top ten is half women. And for the most part, the singles these female artists got onto the list are feel good songs focused on empowerment. Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” is all about dismissing the haters and just doing you, “Bang Bang” expresses female sexuality in a healthy fashion, along with being catchy and wonderful, and with “Black Widow” Iggy and Rita drive home the point that you had better watch who you mess with. While there are definitely many valid feminist complaints concerning Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass, it’s certainly new to hear a song about girls with curvy bodies occupying the top slot. But this is only the top ten from this week and female artists have been killing it all year. Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX dominated with “Fancy”, Charli XCX’s song “Boom Clap” occupied top ten charts for a few weeks, and Nicki Minaj expressed her sexuality quite openly with “Anaconda”. Ariana Grande encouraged her audiences to ditch that lying ex with “Break Free” and her single “Problem” featuring Iggy Azalea took over the radio for weeks. Katy Perry, Lorde, Rihanna, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez and many more fantastic ladies of pop had their moments to slay this year. Even female cartoon characters got their songs played. Frozen’s “Let It Go” was a huge hit and won the Academy Award for best original song. If we’re talking albums, Taylor Swift’s album 1989, which was released October 28^th, is estimated to sell 1.1 million copies by the end of it’s first week alone, which would make it the first platinum album released this year, as well as the first album to go platinum in a week since Swift’s last album, Red. Ariana Grande’s My Everything has been a success for her, snatching up the number one slot the week it was released with 138,000 copies sold in just the first seven days. Iggy Azalea’s The New Classic was also a hit, selling over 52,000 copies in the first week as well as landing the number 3 spot on the Billboard Hot 200. It is the highest charting album by a female rapper since Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded released in 2012. Speaking of Nicki, she has dropped the first hints about her own upcoming album, which, judging by the success of Anaconda, is sure to be big seller.
And I promise all of you I didn’t forget the Queen of the Music Industry, just saved her for last. All hail the mighty Beyoncé, who was awarded the Video Vanguard Award at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards, after a spectacularly mind-blowing performance of a medley of the songs from her most recent album, Beyoncé, during which she stood proudly in the middle of the stage as the word “FEMINIST” flashed up behind her in glorious white. While, technically the album was released in December of 2013, we have most definitely felt its influence this year. The songs “Drunk in Love” featuring her husband, Jay-Z, “Pretty Hurts”, “Partition”, and, of course, “***Flawless”, which featured a clip from a Ted Talk given by the Nigerian feminist author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, along with the other songs from Beyoncé, became almost immediate hits, which will almost certainly be recognized as classics of our time. Her tour with her husband Jay-Z, On the Run, was given an HBO special. The tour grossed $100 million for the first nineteen shows alone. The North American leg of the tour sold 850,000 tickets, while the two shows in Paris sold 90,000 tickets within two hours of the tickets going on sale.
 Clearly, it’s been a fantastic year for the women of pop music. And, while this is only one year, it’s definitely setting the tone for good years to come. Just keep supporting the female artists you love, in all genres of music and forms of art! Then we’ll get to see more great years like this!