Flush It Friday: Keep Honking, I’m Listening to Girlypop

Flush it Friday, Not Metal, Open Swim, Opinion

May 1, 2026

There’s been at least a bit of girlypop in much of my life. Be it listening to various 2000s/2010s pop divas in the car with my mom and sister or becoming hyper-fixated on Britney Spears‘ In The Zone and Madonna‘s The Immaculate Collection in high school, the ladies of pop music have pretty much stayed in my rotation. In my later adolescence, exploring this aspect of popular music began to teach me more about who I am, at a time when my self-perception manifested in my head as little more than a question mark. Needless to say, that connection has meant a lot for me.

Luckily, the 2020s have already been absolutely stacked with great pop music from everyone on the gender spectrum, let alone women. That glossy, forceful take on popular music has shifted a bit over the years, but let me take you through a few of my favorites—records that probably don’t get enough love despite their popularity.

Chappell Roan – The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess

Why are people so fucking weird about Chappell Roan? After her breakthrough with “Pink Pony Club” and the following debut full-length, it seems like every move she makes rubs people (read: dipshits) in the most wrong of ways. Maybe it’s because she’s a confident and uncompromising queer woman? Maybe it’s because a celebrity daring to demand privacy and respect from what Carly Rae Jepsen once called “Buzzfeed Buzzard and TMZ Crows” on “LA Hallucinations” (just look how hard Tyler, the Creator has had to fight just to eat at a restaurant and not get accosted). Regardless, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is a modern classic of synthpop that rivals Jepson’s EMOTION. Roan’s lyrics are sharp and witty, showing a truly talented storyteller and creative voice while also sonically bringing me back to the 1989 era of Taylor Swift, back when Swift was a songwriter and not a Tumblr quote assembly line. Chappell’s proven herself to be a one-of-a-kind writer and performer that rivals anyone from the past 30 years of pop music. I’d say I can’t wait for more, but I think I can. After how weird people are about her, I wouldn’t blame Chappell if she retired tomorrow.

Sabrina Carpenter – Man’s Best Friend

I think it is pretty fitting that Sabrina Carpenter recently performed with Madonna as the latter gears up for a sequel to her Confessions on a Dance Floor album (LFG), as Carpenter has the exact same ultimate talent of “farming controversy” that propelled Madonna into becoming one of the biggest stars of music as a whole. While Carpenter’s forays into inducing pearl-clutching haven’t resulted in exactly the same amount of star power, Man’s Best Friend shows that she has what it takes to back up the discourse, at least to me. In seeing the general reception to this album, I do feel like there’s depth to the material that goes underappreciated. A bulk of the run-time shakes out to be a borderline narrative showing the dissolution of a toxic relationship, serving as a microcosm of the modern dating landscape and how it’s affected by gender roles. Looking to “Manchild” and “Nobody’s Son,” you can see how this hypothetical partner’s immaturity and Carpenter’s almost enabling of that dispositions leads to decay in the partnership. It’s a really vivid depiction of the highs and lows of heartbreak in the 2020s. Weaving these lyrics together, the music of this album generally occupies the space between country and pop that Dolly Parton helped pioneer, while also delving into ABBA-style pop on “Goodbye” and dreamy folk balladry on “Don’t Worry I’ll Make You Worry.” Who cares that a lot of this was lost on fucking Radiohead fans, more for me.

Halsey – The Great Impersonator

I’ll be perfectly honest, I disliked Halsey’s past work as much as any other music nerd, but it feels like many listeners let their perception of her past work paint their thoughts on The Great Impersonator. To my ears, this is an incredibly heartfelt, sad, and varied work with great ambition. The musical styles jump from Paramore-coded emo-pop on “Lonely is the Muse,” power pop on “Ego,” singer/songwriter on “Dog Years,” synth-pop on “Lucky,” and baroque pop on the title track. Each song centers around Halsey occupying different points of popular music (take the repeating motif in the form of “Letter to God,” which takes the form of different years’ popular styles) to make up this idea of the “Great Impersonator.” That moniker ties into the lyrical themes, as it’s a phrase often used to describe lupus, which almost took Halsey’s life. You can hear the pain in her voice when she describes the fear of leaving her son behind and the hazy nostalgia of her looking back on her life. There’s maybe a bit too much material and a few lines that are a bit weaker (if you force my arm to come up with critiques), but The Great Impersonator is a really moving record with a lot of ambition and a clear love for the history of pop music.

Charli xcx – BRAT

Okay, this one had to be on here. In a time of a dying monoculture, the massive movement of “Brat Summer” reminded us how fun it can be to all be listening to the same thing. I’ve been a Charli xcx super fan since around 2018, when I got super into Number 1 Angel—which made it very gratifying when BRAT blew up while still being earnestly and genuinely Charli. The irony of CRASH (a record made to be more mainstream) under-performing before an album that went back to the roots of the PC Music label and internet pop scene became the album of the summer in 2024 is glorious. It helps as well that BRAT is one of the greatest pop records probably ever. Super bombastic, inventive, witty, and multifaceted—it’s a celebration of party music while using the medium to personify Charli’s surprisingly relatable self doubts and internal monologues. A masterwork of pop that we’ll probably still be thinking about in the year 3026. RIP Sophie.

Olivia Rodrigo – GUTS

Okay, one last one. Former Disney star Olivia Rodrigo gets occasionally clowned on, but I feel like music listeners have been surprisingly perceptive of her work. Guts is an immediate and fiery pop rock record informed heavily by the pop-punk comeback that threatened to materialize but probably died thanks to MGK‘s goddamn bullshit. There’s slower moments like the lead single, “vampire,” and “teenage dream,” but most of this album is pop rock goodness that ranges from unbearably catchy to the-closest-a-girlypop-song-can-get-to-a-barn-burner. I probably don’t have nearly as much to say about her lyrics other than they’re funny and revealing looks into Rodrigo’s love life, but I’m more so here for bangers like “bad idea right?” and “ballad of a homeschooled girl.” It’s probably not for everyone and at times feels pretty immature, but that’s life! Besides, we have to give Rodrigo props for introducing the youths to Robert Smith and David Byrne.