‘Recession pop’ is in: Why so many listeners are returning to music from darker economic times

In good times and in bad, pop music reflects the world around us.

Although now that times are seemingly good — data shows the economy is expanding and unemployment is low — recent hits paint a different picture.

On Taylor Swift’s latest double album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” one line in her song “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” deeply resonated with listeners: “I cry a lot, but I am so productive, it’s an art.”

Beyoncé, who has referenced worker burnout before, also tapped into the recent malaise in her “Cowboy Carter” album: “Hardworkin’ men ain’t got no money in the bank,” she sings in “Ya Ya.”

Even 2024’s viral TikTok hit, “I’m looking for a man in finance,” captures some of the feelings of frustration and financial vulnerability that are increasingly widespread.

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Economists have wrestled with the growing disconnect between how the economy is doing and how people feel about their financial standing.

We’re in a “vibecession,” experts say. On TikTok, some have gone a step further, even summing up the current mood as a “silent depression.”

If popular music is any guide, there has been a return to the songs of about 16 years ago that became known as “recession pop.”

“We’re feeling very, very negative about the state of our own finances … but this music offers a glimmer of fun,” says Casey Lewis, a social media trend expert and founder of trend newsletter After School.

Recession pop largely refers to the body of music that emerged during the Great Recession, which started in late 2007 and lasted for 18 months.

The recession pop trend is a “curatorial act,” said Charlie Harding, co-author of “Switched On Pop: How Popular Music Works and Why it Matters” and music adjunct professor at New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development.

“It’s a trend of people trying to make sense of a thing that happened to us that was senseless,” said Harding. “There was a bunch of songs that became the soundtrack of that era.”

Contrary to the country’s economic standing at the time, Joe Bennett, a professor at Berklee College of Music and forensic musicologist specializing in the analysis of popular music and songwriting, refers to this period as “the era of the Katy Perry banger.”

“I think about the 2008 recession and the music that was taking over the radio waves at that point. It’s a lot of Katy Perry, and a lot of hyper, very fast music,” said Lewis. “It’s very dance pop.”

The songs that dominated the charts — also including The Black Eyed Pea’s “I Gotta Feeling” and Kesha’s “Tik Tok” — were “party anthems,” Bennett said. “It was all about dancing and having a good time, in contrast to the actual economic circumstances.”

“They were feel-good songs to get us out of a difficult time and they were the medicine we needed,” Bennett said.

Since the Great Depression in the 1930s, consumers have shown a preference for happier songs during periods of economic uncertainty, according to Diane Negra, professor of film studies and screen culture at University College Dublin.

“There’s that cliché that music is faster and more upbeat and consoling in difficult times,” she said.

Music can mimic and respond to major trends, and a great example is the 1980s, according to Harding. The period of high inflation and economic downturn was also a time when subgenres like house and techno emerged.

“The thing about the Great Recession and larger economic shifts is that they do potentially touch all people, but they don’t touch people equally,” said Harding, who mentioned the development of hip hop and country, in addition to other genres that speak to economic woes experienced by different groups.

Now, Americans are returning to those escapist hits from over a decade ago. In a July 19 Google Trends email, analysts noted that searches for the term “recession pop” had reached an all-time high, with Katy Perry and Charli XCX as the top trending related artists.

Search interest in Katy Perry first spiked in 2008, during the last U.S. recession, Google noted.

But today’s economy is much different than those days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is hitting record levels. Americans’ consumer confidence has only just started to slow after years of contending with sticky inflation. And the unemployment rate has spent 30 months at or below 4% — a near record.

However, regardless of the country’s economic standing, Americans are feeling the pain of higher prices, with various reports showing many have exhausted their savings and are now leaning on credit cards to make ends meet.

“There’s a bit of a disconnect between how the economy is actually doing and how young people feel financially,” Lewis said. “It hurts to see an economist say, ‘Actually, things are better than ever.’ That tension has given way to recession pop.”

Several reports show financial well-being is deteriorating and young adults, especially, are struggling.

“You have a particularly fraught relationship to capitalism right now,” Negra said. “Power and resources are hoarded in older generations and the way younger people are avoiding financially calamity is by being dependent on their parents.”

More than half — 52% — of Generation Z between the ages of 18 and 27 said they don’t make enough money to live the life they want, according to a recent report from Bank of America. And nearly as many rely on financial assistance from their family, most notably for food and rent.

“The resurgence of recession pop that we’re seeing right now, it reflects young people specifically, their societal struggles, their distrust of corporations and the sort of economy that they’ve inherited in many ways,” said Lewis.

In the years since the Covid pandemic, homeownership has been one of the greatest tools of wealth creation — and those who have been priced out of the housing market have disproportionately struggled to achieve the same level of financial security, according to Brett House, economics professor at Columbia Business School.

“That is a massive challenge for wealth accumulation among Gen Z,” he recently told CNBC, and one which shows no signs of improvement.

Housing prices — and mortgage rates — have remained stubbornly high even as inflation in the broader economy has cooled significantly from peak levels. There is a low supply of houses for sale and far fewer affordable starter homes.

Today’s newly minted adults are “wanting to feel or create the conditions of crisis when the society is saying there is no crisis,” Negra said.

Hence, the recession pop revival.

“The present political and economic terrain motivates various kinds of escapism, and recession pop is one form of that,” Negra said.