Harry styles is trying to make cool quirky genuine ‘indie, rock n roll’ and his fans want top 40,swiftie, pop production shows and that’s the disconnect.
Okay let me preface this with the fact I am not a harry styles fan… not a hater it’s just fine background music , to me inoffensive.
I have two points to make here. Okay so first it’s really apparent to me that even young people who ‘look cool/indie/alternative’ are directly getting most of their music from what’s current and trending on tiktok. I’m 29 and grew up loving bands like my bloody valentine, Joy division, pixies etc etc. that were actually well before my time. I also grew up loving Rihanna, ASAP Rocky, Lana Del Rey ( tumblr era girl of course ) so this isn’t snobbery about any one type of music be better than the other but I do find that younger people now aren’t generally deep diving into inspirations of current artists and what’s come before them ( this is not an absolute of course there’s exceptions). I had a younger coworker that was obsessed with Harry styles and when I gave a listen to what she was listening to I was like you know if you like this there’s a whole world of music this is directly derived from I can give you some recs.
ANYWAY this leads me on to my second point - I’m seeing everyone complaining about his show, ‘why’s there no dancers?’ ‘ where’s my money being spent’ ‘ why did the show just end?’ ‘ where’s the outfit changes’?
The disconnect is I strongly suspect Harry is wanting to take himself seriously and I imagine HIS fave artists could be Iggy Pop, the Rolling Stones, James Brown, Elton John, Simply Red, New Order, Jamiroquai. But his fans other faves are Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor swift… and this leads to this disconnect, when you go and see other indie artist and rock bands etc . even at a stadium on a larger scale for example Arctic Monkeys you’d never be expecting an outfit change or dancers ? I think there’s a major disconnect on the artist he wants to be and who actually buys the music and are fans etc. I also think it’s a shame that many younger people just don’t seem to be listening to older music or deviating from the mainstream. Seeking out different bands doesn’t seem cool anymore even for ‘cool kids’. I think if they had this bit more musical knowledge and context they’d get what he was going for a bit more and then wouldn’t be expecting sparkly razzle dazzle dancers!
Interested to see what anyone else thinks about this especially anyone who’s seen the constant disappointment I’ve mentioned across social media platforms!