You Seem Pretty Sad for the Song of the Summer

The pop girls are sad, the summer anthems are melancholy, and somehow we’ve all ended up in our feelings. Sadie and Stauney unpack the strange emotional shift happening in pop this year, from hints of Taylor Swift’s cryptic new era to the “song of the summer” debate, Olivia Rodrigo’s breakup album, Gracie Abrams’ Daughter from Hell, and the long-awaited return of Phoebe Bridgers.

But beneath all the sad songs is a bigger question: why does pop feel so much more human right now? Is the melancholy just a summer mood, or is it a reaction to an increasingly polished, algorithm-driven, AI-filled music landscape? Sadie and Stauney get into why artists seem to be leaning into messier, more vulnerable music, and whether all of this sadness might actually be pointing to a bigger shift in pop.

Basically, why does everything sound a little sadder right now? And are we entering a new era of pop? Probably. Maybe. We’ll see.

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