Arguably, we are currently living in a post-modern society. One such manifestation of this is in the polarizing discourse of popular culture. Some celebrate celebrities, others critique them on the basis of the growing divide between luxury and poverty. The lifestyles of the rich and the famous are equally something people aspire to, and a symbolic element of a dystopian society, one some have compared to the Hunger Games. Here’s a look at these themes as portrayed by some of pop music.
Defining “Post-Modernism”
Tate, the British art institution, defines “Post-Modernism” in the historical context of its formulation. Rejecting the notions of utopian idealism brought by Modernist art, Tate defines post-modern art as “born of skepticism and a suspicion of reason.” In the context of post-modern society, nearly everything we see and interact with is rife with debate.
Post-modern art “collapsed the distinction between high culture and mass or popular culture, between art and everyday life — Often funny, tongue-in-cheek or ludicrous; it can be confrontational and controversial.” The visual and lyrical themes of pop music may be the most innocent example of this. It is, however, worthy of discussion how these themes capture the trajectory we are following, given the vulnerability of consumers to follow celebrity trends.
A pattern you will notice across these music videos is the visual blend of lingerie, expensive clothes & jewelry, and, most notably, an element of filth. There is a contrast of glamour with dark, cold, grey, brutalist-styled backgrounds. Pop is pairing bold, vibrant, and sophisticated fashion with the rough and dirty environments we see in daily life. Across the latest releases of 2025, themes of sexuality and messy luxury have dominated pop music.
Glamour & Grime – “Striptease” & “High Fashion” Music Videos
Addison Rae and FKA Twigs are two of pop music’s leading women. Both re-invent the familiar sounds of 2000s dance-pop to sound fresh. Despite the similarities between them, these two have very different backgrounds. Rae rose to fame as a controversial & cringe-worthy TikTok star, recently rebranding as a fashionista pop star. Twigs built a reputation as a unique and versatile artist. Across her 11-year studio album discography, she switches from electronic music to operatic ballads.
Yet, both artists have released visuals and music that somehow reflect each other. Seemingly designed for a femme-getting-ready playlist, “High Fashion” and “Striptease” offer glitching synths and sweeping bass to match. Rae’s muted reverb dream of a pop single offers less growl and punch than Twigs delivers in her electro-pop performance.
The similarities, however, are in the visuals produced for each song. In the video for “High Fashion,” Rae sprawls out on her closet floor and a bed of grass while dripping in jewels. She sits at a restaurant in a shining gold dress, a sophisticated bun, and a bold red lip. All glammed up and ready to… messily eat pastries drenched in powdered sugar. Truly, revolutionary if you ask me.
While Rae rolls around in a sty of her fashionable filth, Twigs juxtaposingly seems to free herself by shedding the material. She cusses out a van of men before storming through a tunnel highway into a runway. She drops her bag and fur-lined jacket to the road and rips her flowing red dress. By the end, she has morphed into a form vaguely resembling a seraph. As always, Twigs transcends the boundaries of familiar, comfortable, and digestible art.
Minimal, Sensual, & Brutalistic: Tate McRae’s “revolving door”
With the release of Tate McRae’s third album, “So Close to What,” came the music video for the album’s latest single, “revolving door.” Reminiscent of Britany Spears, McRae is bringing back the classic pop star essentials: choreography and nasally vocals. McRae blends exaggerated performances with conventional beauty to produce something slightly discomforting and wild, yet familiar.
McRae’s visual atmosphere contrasts her and her backup dancers’ skin tones against bland white walls, underwear, button-up shirts, heels, and even French tip nails. The sterile environment is highlighted by McRae’s raw knees, pink from rapidly shooting up and down in a volatile choreography. Dancing in loose unbuttoned shirts makes the video seem fun and sexy. Rather, it is a fast-paced ritual of movement, emotional intensity, and the co-existence of beauty and chaos.
The video is easy to follow, never leaving this dome of white marble sheltering the spastic rhythms of McRae and her dancers. The power behind it lies in the way each woman’s makeup aligns with the simple, natural look of the “clean girl” aesthetic. How certain elements build an expectation for the video’s performance to be exciting and confident, which it is. That is, until McRae ends the video alone, in tears, crawling on the ground.
There’s something animalistic in this portrayal of insecurity beneath beauty. This theme of the human behind the icon is nothing new or groundbreaking, but the execution is effective in its simplicity. It knows it’s not groundbreaking, even the music itself sounds like much of pop music now. Yet, in not trying to raise the bar to unimaginable heights with this music video, McRae outdid herself and put herself alongside the standard for interesting popular art.
Blending Lingerie & “Camp” – JENNIE & Doechii on “ExtraL”
Following the trends in fashion, music, and visual media is the collab between the recent Grammy winner Doechii and Blackpink member JENNIE. “They “ExtraL” unites two die-hard fanbases into one song devoted to “foreign cars” and everything in excess. Throughout, the pair wears white blazers and pants to match with red brassieres beaming through. The fashion is reflective of Doechii’s academia aesthetic staple. Despite being dressed (semi) professionally, they deliver an evocative and otherworldly performance.
The music video for “ExtraL” evokes camp humor as the duo stuns in all red… atop a man’s sweaty forehead. JENNIE can also be seen shapeshifting into a futuristic robot-human hybrid, where her waist and arms seem to have disappeared. Between the absurdity, glamour, and futuristic atmosphere, the world created by JENNIE and Doechii feels familiar to the visuals we’ve been seeing in popular music since the turn of the decade. Yet it feels completely new, just like the other videos in this list.
Post-Modern Pop Music
In this list, you will begin to see the visual themes defining the top releases of this year so far. Granted, all of these songs are made by leading femme musicians, two of them, Doechii and FKA Twigs, being better known in genres such as Hip-Hop and Electronic rather than pop. Yet the middle ground between each of these distinctly different stars is an emphasis on sexuality, non-sensical whimsy, and a hint of something futuristic and unfamiliar. Yet, each of these releases parallel each other.
This leads me to question how much authenticity and originality are in popular music. It is undeniable that for the past two decades, many songs that peak on Billboard or consume the radio waves have begun to blur together. Each song listed here is sonically unalike, yet the lyrical themes of self-realization, sexuality independence (or lack thereof in “revolving door”), and monetary success string together a blur of post-modern values.
These songs are undercut by a tone of capitalistic feminism, which prioritizes the “girl boss” vision of feminism. This is not to say that these femme artists are undeserving of their successes. More so, it is a cautionary warning of how much listeners and viewers of this media internalize it as an authentic and empowering representation of feminine identity in the post-modern 21st century.
