Tove Lo and Slayyyter Drive Trash‑Pop Surge
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- Tove Lo released the lead single 'I’m Your Girl Right' from her new album Estrus, featuring the lyric 'We fuck all night on Ritalin‑lin‑lin‑lin', exemplifying the hedonistic, trash‑pop style.
- Slayyyter self‑describes as a 'too drunk, trashy St Louis girl … looking kinda crazy', and after signing with Columbia, headlined Coachella this year, marking her rise as a prominent figure in the movement.
- Charli XCX’s album Brat is credited by critics like Ione Gamble of sparking the current wave of 'trash‑pop' by re‑energising pop with hedonistic club energy.
- Kesha’s 2009 debut single 'Tik Tok' is identified as an early exemplar of the genre’s post‑financial‑crisis nihilism, influencing newer artists such as Slayyyter and Cobrah.
- Cobrah collaborated with Demi Lovato on the new song 'Fantasy', highlighting the genre’s crossover into mainstream pop and its appeal to LGBTQ+ audiences.
- Columbia Records signed Slayyyter after her SoundCloud success, while Korean singer Heyoon released the EP Seriously Unserious to tap the lucrative South Korean market with the trash‑pop sound.
Why it matters: Major labels and streaming platforms gain new revenue streams as the trash‑pop sound attracts both mainstream listeners and LGBTQ+ fans, while traditional pop artists who adhere to polished, respectable images risk losing relevance in a market now rewarding raw, hedonistic expression.
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