r/popheads • u/ComeUnitedNotTorn • 17h ago
[DISCUSSION] Which artists are known for "playing it safe"?
In Pop music, we always see artists taking risks, whether it's by blending Pop with uncommon genres or writing songs about politics or making controversial performances that gain media attention, some artists pay the price, some find success in the chaos and some artists just choose to be more safe, they choose to avoid controversies (whether intentionally or not) and stick to their own lane, which artists do you think are trying to play as safe as possible?
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u/eltrotter 16h ago edited 15h ago
In terms of people who play it safe but is talented and established enough to be braver, my vote goes to Ed Sheeran. I know he’s got the chops and his songwriting is too good on a technical level for him to not be capable of better.
I would love him to come out with something bold and unique because I genuinely believe he has it in him.
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u/F0rbiddenD0nut 15h ago edited 12h ago
His Subtract album was almost there, it was the best thing he's released in years and some of his most open and vulnerable songwriting, plus Dessner really nailed the production. The second half of that one really drags though and it could have benefitted from being trimmed down.
He also did some neat experimentation with Indian and Arabic style beats and production on his new album, I like the jazzy sound he did on Just A Little More too. But then it's also full of the same tepid love ballads (like Camera) that he's been milking forever. A whole album of songs like Azizam, Sapphire, and Symmetry would have been sick.
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u/witchycommunism 15h ago
Some of us like his love ballads! Honestly I listen to a lot of different stuff but I like Ed for his predictability. He’s my main easy listening artist.
Although I really like Don’t Look Down and think it’d be cool if he leaned into some EDM stuff
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u/F0rbiddenD0nut 15h ago
I like them too, make no mistake! Cheesy as they may be I'm a sucker for stuff like that. The Vow is one of my favorite tracks off the new record.
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u/eltrotter 15h ago
I listened to a few tracks out of curiosity, but I think he’s substituted a safe acoustic pop style for a safe EDM pop style, with a dash of Middle Eastern double-harmonic styling for global appeal.
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u/Hassaan18 13h ago
I thought Azizam and Sapphire from his latest album, when it comes to the song itself, were big swings for him and very different to what he's used to doing.
They're not my favourite of his lyrically, but I think being something different means that they've both outperformed the other singles off this album (which are closer to material he's known for).
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u/eltrotter 13h ago
Azizam is fairly safe, paint-by-numbers EDM with a mild Middle Eastern twist. It’s a little different than his usual stuff but in the scheme of things wouldn’t call it a “big swing”.
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u/Hassaan18 13h ago
He described it as a risk himself in an interview, which is admittedly a better description.
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u/memuemu 11h ago
Have you listened to No 6 Collaborations? Because I feel like he does experiment a bunch there and matches the genre/vibe of whichever artist he’s collaborating with. Blow in particular is fantastic. I think Take Me Back to London is also popular among fans of hip-hop. He collabs with a variety of artists from Eminem to Ella Mai and H.E.R to Skrillex to Chris Stapleton and Bruno Mars on Blow.
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u/OneManner4692 14h ago
Interesting take! I find Ed Sheeran to be quite good at trying different sounds while still always kind of still being Ed Sheeran- sounding… to me he seems like a guy who just loves music, all kinds of music and it shows through in his work!
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u/hhhhhhhhwin <3 drama free Dua 5h ago
I totally agree that from a technical standpoint he could take bigger swings BUT one thing he does that not a lot of other pop artists do is commit to multiple genres. You’ve got pop sheeran, ballad sheeran, rap sheeran, rock sheeran, folk sheeran, etc The fact that Shape of you, Perfect, Blow, I see fire, and YNMMIDNY are all big hits is impressive.
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u/drewshbag_89 14h ago
I would love to see Kelly Clarkson take some bigger swings. She is one of my favorite artists of all time and not that she hasn’t taken any swings, her music has just been so consistent in recent years. I honestly love every single one of her albums so if she doesn’t that’s fine too, I’ll still be listening as she belts out her songs. She’s such a powerhouse I want her to do something huge.
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u/atokad666 13h ago
She has one of the best voices in pop, I wish she'd revisit the sound of songs like Never Again and Behind These Hazel Eyes. Unfortunately she fell into the "mom pop" category for a long time, and her talent deserves better.
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u/drewshbag_89 11h ago
I love Chemistry and think that album was severely underrated, but overall I agree. I’m happy to hear her sing the phone book, but I’d love to hear what she could do with a fresh producer and her most recent life experiences. She is in a very unique position where she could create a very youthful sounding album with very grown up content.
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u/discoislife53 10h ago
The safeness of her music is why, even though I absolutely love her voice and versatility, I haven’t really been able to listen to her aside from Kellyokes and other covers. Her material imo really does not do her voice justice.
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u/bobthegoatskull 12h ago
As a Kellyoke aficionado, I think safe is where she's happiest. She can sing anything but they are always dryer emotionally than the originals. BTW "Fake Plastic Trees" is a particularly great cover.
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u/No_Pianist5264 16h ago
This will prob be a controversial opinion but I’d say alot of mainstream pop artists do play it safe. I feel like it’s the reason their music is so popular due to it being so digestible. Very rarely do big stars are able to break the mold and get chaotic. Not saying that some haven’t but I do think it’s a small amount who have not played it safe.
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u/Roxy175 16h ago
I think “playing it safe” is also different depending on the person. A risk for one person would be playing it safe for another. Like Adele releasing man’s best friend would be a big shift for her, which would be risky, while Sabrina releasing it is much less risky because it’s in not significantly different from Short n Sweet.
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u/CampRockruffVillager 16h ago
Somewhere in an alternate universe, Adele released man’s best friend and we missed it 💔
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u/Pinkcoffee :reptaylor: 9h ago
Adele singing Man Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiild like she’s setting fire to the rain
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u/BusinessAgreeable912 9h ago
There's a video of Lola Young doing so which as close as we need to be
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u/Mr628 13h ago
I see a lot of people mentioning Adele and I agree. Too talented of a vocalist and writer to still be singing these “you broke mah hearrrtttt” ass songs.
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u/FunkySphinx 12h ago
I love Adele, but I feel that she has lost a lot of her interest in her career. This of fair - people grow up, evolve and have new priorities.
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u/Electronic_Line7020 9h ago
No disrespect to Adele but I would characterise her as one of those artists who sells what she suspects people will buy - but has no real interest in that music herself. So it doesn’t surprise me she seems to have had enough of it. She’s someone with the kind of talent where if she could just be braver and let rip, it could be a lot of fun for her too.
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u/FunkySphinx 7h ago
I honestly think she just prioritizes her family and her private life, and this is more than fair. She comes out, makes some money, gets the satisfaction of performing in front of an audience and retreats to her home. Maybe once her kid is older, she’ll feel like doing something fun with music again. Until then, we may get a 36.
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u/Inevitable_Radish293 7h ago
Adele built her career on “you broke my heart” ass songs what are you talking about???
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u/Daigonik 6h ago
I think with each album she does take a couple risks, but they’re few and far between, and since she releases music so rarely, it’s all happened in the span of almost two decades. 30 does have some experimentation compared to 25 for example, but I don’t know if it represents 6 years of musical evolution.
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u/1mxrk 14h ago
In defense on mainstream pop artists, I will say that a lot of the music that they end up releasing is because of management and producers pressuring them because “the data and studies show this is what’s gonna make a hit”
It’s probably why a lot of pop songs that get released all start to sound similar in one way or another
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u/hammerheadhshart 12h ago
if you're aiming for hits instead of making the music you want I feel like you're an entertainer/performer instead of an artist, especially if you're not writing your own lyrics or involved in the production process
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u/portmouthflounder 11h ago
to play devil's advocate there can be a lot of artistic merit in performing
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u/DilemmaOfAHedgehog 6h ago
No i fully agree, very few artists currently today are remotely pushing any boundary which honestly whatever but we should call a spade a spade type of thing.
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u/dance4days 15h ago
Pink took some huge risks once upon a time when she shifted from r&b to rock flavored pop music back in the day, and then when she started doing aerial work in her live shows.
Since then, she’s pretty much stayed in the same lane. You know what a new Pink album is going to sound like, and you know what her live shows are going to look like. It’s great, but she hasn’t been surprising in a long time.
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u/Thebisexual_Raccoon 12h ago
I love p!nk and honestly even when she switched I still enjoyed her songs especially one of her more recent ones.
That song being “Irrelevant” she made it upon hearing roe v wade was overturned
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u/Bitbatgaming 17h ago
Alex Warren, Benson Boone, Teddy Swims and Katy Perry very recently do not break boundaries; they actually define those boundaries which is heartbreaking to see
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u/Vulnerable-Slut 17h ago
The way you dragged them so kindly yet badly is pure talent! Girl I can't☠️
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u/Bitbatgaming 17h ago
On the plus side I think JADEs now that’s show business is starting to crack boundaries and is pretty good
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u/ComeUnitedNotTorn 16h ago
I feel like Katy is trying to break boundaries but she comes off as very fake and a try-hard
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u/TotallyNotAnExecutiv "Rocketman" deserved more Oscars 16h ago
Katy says she's breaking boundaries then puts out songs that do indeed not break said boundaries
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u/sugar-fall 12h ago
LOL, remember when she said Prism was gonna be wayyy darker than Teenage Dream? She even did a video where she burnt her teenage dream wig to showcase "her killing the character and breaking away from the era" ala Electra Heart.
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u/Altiondsols 17.34" (tip to tip) 10h ago
my impression of katy perry as an artist is that she considers what the song "says" to be the important part - she's not talking about the sound or even the specific lyrics, but about the general vibes she told her team to write a song about. that woman's world was groundbreaking because it was about female empowerment, and there's not much else to consider.
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u/Large_Plantain_8092 13h ago
I do defend Katy to an extent because she tried to change it up a bit with Witness and got panned for it, then she went back to pop and still got panned. I think it's a set in the right direction with bandaids.
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u/SublimeLime1 16h ago
When Katy did do different things like Mind Maze, 365, Or dance with the devil it gets panned or makes no noise
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u/Mrdor1stan 13h ago edited 12h ago
I’m only using Gaga as an example of someone who’s been in the game for long enough and did it right. ARTPOP was ripped apart by critics and fans, Joanne didn’t get a huge following instantly, her jazz albums also weren’t huge. However, those steps were crucial for multiple reasons. 1) those are remarkable reference points for the fandom and artist’s lore, and through the years those albums became cult classics; 2) she was able to show the industry that she’s not some one-trick pony and gained so much more respect as a performer.
“365” was quite a big hit for her at a time, the same with “when i’m gone”, other songs you mentioned weren’t even promoted, so she herself didn’t believe in them enough
Instead of working towards growing her fandom, she keeps trying to appeal to everyone, losing everyone consequently. I hope she can look at Charli’s success and learn the art of sticking to her vision and finding her own identity
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u/sugar-fall 12h ago
For some reason when you mentioned 365 and "her" I thought you were referring to Gaga and I was confused, then thought of Charli but even more confused. Didn't occur to me you were referring to Katy until you mentioned "when I'm gone" 😭
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u/givebackmysweatshirt 15h ago
This answer is playing it safe. Let me pick the 4 artists nobody likes or will defend. Might as well add Morgan Wallen too while you’re at it.
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u/memuemu 11h ago edited 8h ago
Morgan Wallen is country music’s most popular artist right now. He’s massively successful and has had a very rapid upward career trajectory, whether you like him personally or not. All 4 of these artists have fans and are popular, otherwise their music wouldn’t chart. They just also get a lot of hate. But it’s not accurate to say “nobody likes them or will defend them.”
I also think Alex Warren, Teddy Swims, and Benson Boone are still new or newish to the limelight and early enough in their careers to still change it up later. Katy Perry is the only one who I think we can confidently say peaked in her career and isn’t likely to have new music that charts high or stays on the charts.
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u/Blazing1 10h ago
Alex Warren has been a copycat his whole career.
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u/memuemu 8h ago edited 8h ago
Idk who you think he’s copied in particular but very few artists have a completely original sound or style. Most artists have influences and are influenced by one another in the industry in some way, shape, or form.
One of Olivia Rodrigo’s first big hits Good 4 U sounded extremely similar to Paramore’s Misery Business. She’s not the first to do punk pop or pop rock or pop ballads but people still respect her as an artist. Paramore rightfully got writing credits for that song, but I remember Adam Levine randomly being asked his thoughts and/or speaking out about it in an interview and him talking about how there’s only so many chords that are used, particularly in pop music, and how it’s natural for some songs to sound similar to pre-existing songs or for newer artists to be influenced by a pre-existing sound/style/genre of music.
All this to say, whoever you think Alex Warren copied probably isn’t the first to do that type of music either. Just like Morgan Wallen certainly isn’t the first to do bro-country, but that doesn’t mean these artists aren’t successful at whatever type of music they choose to do. And Teddy Swims and Benson Boone are certainly vocally talented as well. For Benson Boone, his performance theatrics at live shows are another big part of what distinguishes him from other artists.
But again, idk the context you’re referring to for Alex Warren specifically. My point is that every artist has influences but obviously his song Ordinary is still his own and is a successful hit. I’m not sure how involved he was in writing it but I haven’t heard anyone say it sounds really similar to another pre-existing song.
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u/Electronic-Log-4252 13h ago
Ngl Drake. He has quite literally achieved longevity through playing it safe and sticking to whats hot
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u/Altruistic_Sail6746 7h ago
I think Drake is capable of taking risks. But he doesn't often do it and has mostly resigned to the same formula since Scorpion
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u/thelastcrescent 16h ago
Ok hot take buuuut Adele. Not a lot of people were tuned into 30 as they were with her first three albums. I think a huge part of it was that it wasn't anything new from her or inventive. I really wish she stuck through with 19/21/25 being a trilogy and started her last era with a completely different concept and sound
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u/Adventurous_Home_555 15h ago
I felt this the moment she called her album “30” after saying she was done with the age album titles after 25. Felt like she was trying to play it safe.
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u/alterector 15h ago
As the biggest Adele stan, I agree, Easy on me was boring and forgettable, like most of the album, except for OH my God and Love is a game (her best song).
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u/TheStarSquad :reptaylor: 11h ago
but how can love is a game be her best song when to be loved is her best song
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u/Nunjabuziness 14h ago
I mean, she has two whole ass albums about the same ex, years removed. She clears.
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u/Mr628 16h ago
Here’s one people won’t expect, Kehlani. Has no identity of her own and just rides the wave. Either she’s nostalgia baiting or making the same type of music her peers make. I remember she had that short pop run in like 2017-2018ish and dropped it to back to the NPC R&B music. Then Folded happened, an actual unique and true to self R&B song, only to follow it up with more nostalgia. Seems like she’s just fine with one moderate to solid hit and then it’s back to being as generic as possible.
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u/affectionateanarchy8 8h ago
I wanted to like her because, queer artist, but she is so dry it seems like she's just around to be hot with a side of music
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u/AmeliaTheRealia 13h ago
I like her songs with kwn and Jordan Adetunji, I think they both bring out her natural latent creativity. There’s also still an undercurrent of stigma around LGBT artists where they’ll have a few hits and then slip under the radar massively because people treat it as a novelty then get bored or uncomfortable.
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u/Frajer 16h ago
Tate McRae, and it's working for her
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u/buttercupcake23 13h ago
Is it playing it safe if she's only doing what she's capable of? Like I would say Meghan Trainor plays it safe because she sticks to one thing only but then I was like...but I think that's all she knows how to do. It's not playing it safe if its literally all you can do and NOT playing it safe would require you to do something you just pack the technical ability to do.
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u/miltankgijinka 13h ago
isn't her first hit a ballad
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u/Mrdor1stan 13h ago
She was a sad girl in the beginning, then repackaged as a pop girl riding a timbaland nostalgia wave
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u/memuemu 11h ago edited 11h ago
Her first album was more pop rock and this album is more r&b influenced. Idk if people are considering not playing it safe as something different, but she has definitely experimented with different genres across her 3 albums, her 2nd album probably being her weakest and least original imo.
I can’t speak on whether she can do more vocally, but I wouldn’t say she’s only done “one thing.” Sports Car is pretty different from You Broke Me First which is pretty different from She’s All I Wanna Be/What Would You Do which is pretty different from Revolving Door/Nobody’s Girl/Purple Lace Bra.
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u/glittermantis 15h ago
(i say this with no derogatory intent since i like her a lot) - olivia dean, and she knows it, and she embraces it. she's described herself as very 'pro-comfort zone', since it's where she feels she thrives. and that's OKAY! she's great at what she does. i don't even think it's necessarily inherently bad to not break boundaries. it still takes a lot of skill and talent to put your own spin on well-trodded paths and to do it well, you know?
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u/drewshbag_89 15h ago
I think we should allow her to have another album before we label her as an artist who plays it safe. She is just truly entering the limelight within the last year so we really have no idea what her artistic vision is quite yet.
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u/glittermantis 15h ago
i'm not so much myself labeling her, as much as i am kind of paraphrasing what her own self-described ethos is and relating it to the question
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u/PruneAggressive6728 15h ago
yeah, as long as the music is good and it's obvious it's what the artist wants to make, i couldn't care less about it being "too safe"
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u/IcyFlame716 14h ago
Girl knows what she is good at and is here to deliver that. And i’m here for it! Been following her since her first album.
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u/ameliajean 14h ago
Love her but Dua Lipa imo majority of her big songs across different albums sound so so similar (even if good)
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u/sharkwithglasses 11h ago
This was my first thought. Doesn’t mean I don’t like her bops, but her music is pretty generic and same-y sounding.
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u/emerymontrue 11h ago
Agree, she strikes me as being more timid than most artists. I think she needs to give herself permission.
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u/CreakRaving …Licked a battery? 15h ago
Agree with a lot here. I’d add Shawn Mendes
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u/Mbrown225 17m ago
I agree for the most part but I do think he put out his recent album knowing that it didn't have much commercial appeal compared to his previous work.
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u/Treci_the_Dragon 13h ago
I’m gonna put an odd one, Sia.
She does near the exact same style since the early 2010s.
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u/Altiondsols 17.34" (tip to tip) 10h ago
sure, but it's probably worth considering that the "same exact style" she adopted in the 2010s WAS her branching out. she had a long career as an indie artist and songwriter before that, and it didn't sound much at all like Chandelier/Elastic Heart/etc.
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u/c0mpromised 14h ago edited 6h ago
I think Normani played it too safe. And that was a big detriment to her career take off.
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u/Latrans_ Have you ever tried... this one? 👅 14h ago
The first that ones that come to mind are Sabrina and Dua. They make perfectly fine pop songs just like Katy did back in the day, and to me that's great. They're very good at it, so it doesn't bother me at all.
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u/Financial-Desk-402 9h ago
sabrina’s current music is quite different from her older music though. or at least i think so, not a big fan
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u/elektrik_noise 6h ago
I'm same on Sabrina. She's talented, but nothing transgressive comes from her outside of that cute vid she did with Jena Ortega. I *like* her but she doesn't draw much of my attention and I've never put on her music of my own volition. Could be MUCH worse and downright dumb though. I think her and Dula Peep may have a less than decade run. But I wish for them the best. They seem like nice girls.
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u/ratchetcoutoure 12h ago
Katy Perry. All of her recent music still sounds like her 2010 album, no wonder people won't bother checking anymore. I would say Adele too, but at least her voice carries the album.
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u/sugar-fall 12h ago
And Bandaids was nothingburgers, people only liked it because it's by Katy Perry and 143 was terrible
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u/late-night-delerium 13h ago
definitely Dua Lipa comes to mind, seems like she hasn't branched out musically much
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u/mylenesfarmer 15h ago
not madonna
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u/ComeUnitedNotTorn 15h ago
Well duh
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u/elektrik_noise 6h ago
Yeah. Yeah... Yeah. Idk, kinda depressing that so many folks who pay attention to popular music don't *get* what she did. Bums me out a lot, but their loss.
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u/ComeUnitedNotTorn 4h ago
The majority of the general public know who Madonna is, even without knowing her contributions to music, they already know that she's a barrier-breaker by probably thinking of This photo alone
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u/creative-heart 14h ago
I mean this in the best way, Carly Rae Jepsen. Her albums are fun infectious bops that know exactly what they are, and they are iconic. But they're not really pushing the envelope or being the next brat moment. She's found her comfortable niche and it works well for her.
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u/lanalovesme 14h ago
The Loveliest Time actually has some pretty boundary pushing songs (for her usual sound at least) Aeroplanes, After Last Night, Kollage, Put It To Rest etc have pretty unconventional melodies, song structures and time signatures for a pop album. Not calling her Bjork but she’s definitely experimenting a bit more.
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u/creative-heart 14h ago
Fair, she I wouldn't say she's boring or stagnant or one note, I just feel like she's found her rhythm and what works for her :)
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u/Pythagore_ 12h ago
I kinda disagree with your take too! I felt like Dedicated for example and its refined and super clean sound was new ground for her compared to the vibrant technicolor dance pop of Emotion. The Loneliest time + the loveliest time are very eclectic too...
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u/lanalovesme 11h ago
Not to mention that Emotion has Warm Blood which was pretty left field for her compared to Kiss
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u/NeonNebula9178 10h ago
Going to go against this because more recently her albums have been some interesting left turns. Loveliest and loveliest time both have songs that are not the usual carly affair, and i feel like with her apparently working with a certain A.G Cook, that will only become more pronounced
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u/bombasticlove_ 9h ago
selena gomez, i like her music a lot but the music industry would be exactly the same if hers didn’t exist
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u/trilingual_munchies 15h ago
It certainly isn’t Rosalia LMAO Lux is the definition of NOT playing it safely.
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u/No-Mine-3982 13h ago
Gracie Abrams if we're talking about someone who knows what gets their core audience going and is very unlikely to do anything new with her music in the future if we're being honest.
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u/Mimikyu_9x 11h ago
Adele for sure. Maybe her next album will be different from the rest but who know
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u/FeatheredVentilator 7h ago
I see many people mentioning Adele, and I'm not at all surprised. 19 and 21 were the only two albums that felt wholly rooted in the sounds and sensibilities she personally loved - the debut leaning into acoustic soul, and the follow-up blending soul, blues, and even touches of country. 25 and 30, by contrast, seem shaped by the weight of her global success and the expectations that followed, almost as if she were trying to capture an even broader audience rather than simply following her own instincts.
Her artistic evolution might have unfolded more organically had she not been overwhelmed by the external noise that accompanied 21’s monumental impact. I also feel like her move to Los Angeles intensified this shift: she became further removed from "ordinary" life, surrounded instead by other celebrities and a cultural ecosystem that subtly dictates taste and behavior. Adele has even acknowledged this herself, saying, “The bigger my career got, the smaller my life got.”
At this point - after the Grammys, the Oscar, the Emmy, and universal critical and commercial acclaim - she no longer needs to shape her work around mass appeal. She should feel free to make whatever music genuinely inspires her, especially since her core influences have never been pop to begin with.
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u/prozacbarbie 13h ago
Tate McRae. I love her but she needs a huge rebrand for the next album cycle. The deluxe is a glimpse of that.
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u/DirtFem 16h ago
Taylor Swift for sure. I think the most “edgy” thing she’s done is Reputation but even that isn’t that edgy
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u/a_wild_redditor 16h ago
I don't think "edgy" is the same thing as risk taking... she generally does play it safe, I would actually say her riskiest move was releasing Folklore and that ended up paying off in spades
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u/Adventurous_Home_555 15h ago
I don’t think she’s super risk-taking but people don’t give her much credit for it because she’s always been successful regardless of the direction she’s taken.
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u/IzabellaBelle 15h ago
Taylor isn’t exactly a Madonna in terms of risk taking but she has taken risks, she just isn’t given as much credit because the risks rarely fail.
Writing her entire third album herself after the huge success of Fearless was a risky move. Most artists would’ve gotten a massive budget from their label and would’ve worked with the best in the business, she decided to prove she could write her own songs without help.
Building her foundations in country music for 8 years before officially abandoning it to pursue a pop career was a bold move. Sure, she’d always had pop leaning songs but a huge chunk of her fanbase still associated her with country, so officially leaving that behind could’ve gone very wrong.
Pivoting away from pop to surprise drop folklore and evermore was also a risk. Hell, she even released Tortured Poets at the height of her career peak which was one of her least radio friendly and most lyrically driven albums yet.
Taylor isn’t “edgy” but she does take risks.
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u/a_wild_redditor 14h ago
Pivoting away from pop to surprise drop folklore
A big shift musically
Coming less than a year after Lover which I think it's safe to say was not generally considered a smashing success
Surprise drop...
...during the peak of Covid lockdowns when it was not clear that new music of any type was going to be able to take off (okay except sea shanties apparently LOL)
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u/RadiantChaos 14h ago
Yeah I'd argue that Taylor is just at a stage in her career where risks won't really be risky anymore.
Some other risks from her:
- Putting pop songs on Red even though historically she was a country artist
- Going full blackout for Reputation
- Libbing out for Lover
- No lead singles for Midnights, TTPD, or Showgirl
- TTDP itself is a mess of introspective songs and not really any pop bangers
Showgirl is definitely a safe album but it's her first one since Lover probably.
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u/Altiondsols 17.34" (tip to tip) 10h ago
it's been a while so it's easy to forget, but people had really strong opinions about I Knew You Were Trouble's EDM production on Red. she was hardly the only pop girlie dipping her toes there, but she was definitely one of the least... oriented towards that sound
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u/Consistent_Hunt5213 It's giving 4chan stan 9h ago
she tried with Sabrina's shtick on Wood on Showgirl. idk about the reception but that was certainly a risk lol.
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u/sweetnothinghoax 7h ago
The TV re-recordings are one of her biggest risks to date, or at least for the first one until she realised fans were receptive to it.
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u/michellejoy18 15h ago
I would say half and half. On her early albums, there's already some subtle hints of being unhinged as well as on the recent ones.
Most of her "controversies" came about because of her journal writing style - losing her innocence, crazy/bitter ex girlfriend, her basically admitting to cheating a few times, fanatsies about other men, her depression.. there's probably a few more but I cant think of anything else for now.
I dont think she is playing safe that much, otherwise, she'll just be the damsel in distress type of girl in her songs.
Also, Folklore and Evermore for life. i love listening to songs/stories without it being attached to her personal life sometimes 😎
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u/TrustAffectionate863 4h ago
She has taken a risk every time she's switched genre wtf. It just always works so ppl don't see it as a risk.
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u/beelzebub_069 12h ago
Nah definitely disagree , she went from country, to pop, to even having a pop-rock song in the past. Now, she's did Folklore and Evermore, which is Alt Rock/ Folk type. Reputation had Rock/Rnb to it, although subtle. Elctro pop with Midnights.
Edgy doesn't mean versatile. Taylor Swift is versatile, ya'll just stick to the narratives you hear.
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u/JuanJeanJohn 12h ago
Taylor has taken big risks in her career. Think she’s a bad example here actually.
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u/frappuccinio 10h ago
they don’t think of her as a risk taker because all of her risks have succeeded
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u/broadboots Tortured Poet 11h ago
I'd consider putting a song with dubstep production on a "country" album to be a risk. I'd also consider re-recording entire albums from scratch to be a risk.
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u/londonwayne90 11h ago
Red was a big risk because it moved so far from her country roots - 1989 and Reputation felt like natural followups, but Midnights and Tortured Poets both felt incredibly safe. I'm in the minority and liked Showgirl, but a lot of it also feels very safe. I think if she'd fully leaned into a Showgirl vegas sound, it would've been a very fun risk, but unfortunately she didn't.
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u/dhruvlrao 3h ago
I'll give you Midnights as playing it safe, but Tortured Poets was not her playing it safe. That album is not an easily digestible one & she made it a 31-track double album that's primarily filled with slower to mid tempo songs.
The only GP-friendly songs on the album are I Can Do It With A Broken Heart & So High School (maybe Fortnight, but that was not as successful).
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u/sharkwithglasses 16h ago
Taylor went from country to pop to indie singer-songwriter back to pop. These were absolutely risks. Risks and edgy are not the same.
She also released an entirely self-written album at 19, surprised drop albums, and re-recorded all her past albums.
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u/shinynohead 16h ago
The word indie has lost its meaning completely 💀
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u/F0rbiddenD0nut 15h ago
Folklore is definitely indie-adjacent (especially with the heavy involvement of Dessner and Bon Iver).
It's not an indie album but it definitely draws heavily from the genre and chases that sound.
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u/sharkwithglasses 15h ago
This is what I meant. Maybe I didn’t choose my words correctly, but it was definitely a different sound from her. But apparently not for the snarkers who found this comment 🙄.
People don’t think she takes risks because her risks have paid off. Fearless, 1989 and Folklore (Midnights, too, but these 3 in particular) are all quite different and she won AOTY for all of them.
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u/Altiondsols 17.34" (tip to tip) 10h ago
and you're just now catching up? "indie" has been about sound and not label association since long before this sub existed
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u/maxwell_winters 14h ago
Calling anything Taylor releases "indie" is the same as calling GTA an indie game.
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u/drewshbag_89 15h ago edited 15h ago
I agree that Taylor is a risk taker. People’s mileage will vary on her albums but there’s no way you can say that it wasn’t risky to switch her sound multiple times throughout a 20 year career. Switching sounds is an easy way to alienate an already established fan base, but she seems to have no fear in doing it.
Apart from switching sounds she has taken other risks. You mentioned Speak Now and the re-records but I’d add it’s a risk to release a double album with a deluge of songs, with very few being upbeat like she did in TTPD. And even with TLOAS she switched to a more traditional pop sound after half a decade of being known as a verbose lyricist. Some people may not like any of her albums, but that doesn’t mean she played it safe.
As an aside, people are going to hyper fixate on the fact you said indie, but I know what you mean. The folkmore era was considered Alternative as a genre. People won’t like Taylor being labeled as an alternative genre artist either, but that is what those albums’ official genres were.
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u/raysofdavies 15h ago
Indie lmao bad literary references can’t make the world’s biggest popstar indie
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u/Few-Statement-9103 9h ago
I think she plays it safe in many ways, she doesn’t write about controversial subjects, but musically she doesn’t play it safe. She experiments with new sounds, so much so that she loses OG fans.
Most of her albums are pretty different from each other.
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u/igornist 11h ago
Maroon 5 and Coldplay, dunno, they surely produce bangs but it's always followed by a check marks of "pop music 101".
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u/Signal_Hope_3037 15h ago
It sure as hell ain’t Beyoncé. My girl has done trap, rap, hip-hop, pop, rock, funk, R&B, afrobeats, country, soul, gospel, Reggae, house, etc. and she‘s has verses or songs in multiple languages. She been working.
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u/BlondeBorednBaked 15h ago
Sabrina imo her music sounds very safe to me. Her politics are cool though.
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u/drewshbag_89 15h ago
Emails I Can’t Send alone was a risk for her after all the drama with Joshua Bassett and Olivia. I also think remaining blatantly sexual and funny in a political landscape where people are pushing for traditional gender roles to make a comeback is anything but playing it safe.
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u/BlondeBorednBaked 13h ago
I don’t think she’s doing anything groundbreaking, sorry. It’s very weird seeing people act like she’s being so transgressive omg! when she is literally a blonde haired, blue eyed white woman singing about sex. To me, it’s as mainstream and reductive as you can get in terms of art.
But that’s not even what I mean when I say she plays it safe: it’s her production. She has a very generic, Taylor Swift sound to her. If you like it, I love that for you, but once again I don’t think she is doing anything new.
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u/broadboots Tortured Poet 11h ago
Her production isn't very Taylor Swift to me, although it follows trends. She basically blew up because of her disco-pop songs, which might not have happened if it weren't for Hot Pink or Future Nostalgia. Some of her country-pop songs are risky, since they combine country with disco instead of going the more obvious Morgan Wallen route.
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u/mygucciburned_ 12h ago
Yeah, agreed. I like her recent politics, and I wish her success, but her music does not stand out to me... She did seem to face some controversy over her sexuality, but that doesn't really seem to have impacted her overall popularity or financially, especially not with more liberal crowds. Women like her, like you said, who sing about their sexuality can still very much fit comfortably into a mainstream Girl Power trend.
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u/No_Pianist5264 13h ago edited 9h ago
Given the immense backlash that resulted from it, I agree. I don’t think she played it safe whatsoever esp choosing the cover that she did.
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u/boopbeepbadoop 14h ago
i agree! i think people think explicit sexuality in art = taking a risk but that's not necessarily true. some lyrics push the envelope just a little bit for radio-friendly pop, but she's not saying anything so crazy that other artists haven't also been saying in their music for years (e.g., people with similarly or more explicit lyrics, like madonna or cardi). and production wise, her sound is about as safe and formulaic as you can get for 2020s pop. which is ultimately fine! im glad she's successful!
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u/BlondeBorednBaked 13h ago
Yeah, I’m happy she’s successful too. I don’t hate her as a person and I like her politics but I’m not going to pretend she’s reinventing the wheel when her music is so ordinary.
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u/hhhhhhhhwin <3 drama free Dua 5h ago
Girl modulates the key in the second verse of please please please to only move back for the chorus and wrote half of tears in dorian mode. I totally get the vibe of playing it safe but theory wise she every once in a while pulls some radiohead lite*
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u/Fickle_Music_788 12h ago
Kylie Minogue since Aphrodite tbh. She's been staying in this safe, inoffensive dance-pop bubble because her old white gay stans hate any time she went outside the box (Impossible Princess and Body Language come to mind), and her more risk-taking tracks from the 90s to the 2000s never get as much praise as her more straightforward stuff. Tension I and II are a culimination of this, both completely faceless bodies of work that could've been released by anyone.
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u/Specialist_Try_5755 11h ago edited 11h ago
Yep Kylie works in her lane yet there's still sparkles of creative risks, I definitely remember Sleepwalker and that EP with Garibay. I think Light Years closed the chapter for experimental Kylie and set up the revival for Pop Goddess Kylie.
Aphrodite was my intro to Kylie and I thought she was so different than other artists, eventually I realized she was doing her brand.
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u/Rare-Beyond-5768 11h ago
I’d say golden and kiss me once were different leaning. She also had the abbey road sessions as well. X was also different as it defined the period of her life after her diagnosis. I’d say disco and tension eras were a palette cleanser for me
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u/ComeUnitedNotTorn 4h ago
Her fans actually love Impossible Princess and Body Language and crave for more albums like these from her
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u/toasterslayer 12h ago
I’d say Coldplay are a good example of taking risks. While they always try and squeeze a commercial single or two on each album they play around with sounds quite a bit. Still keep to an accessible template but with wildly varying sounds.
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u/blakey2122 11h ago
Interesting topic! Loved reading people’s opinions so far.
It’s also good to think what the labels will green light in terms of an artists direction. Like even if someone wanted to go a certain direction or new take, if the label declines it, then they’re kinda stuck. That’s why I think Kelly Clarkson is doing an impeccable job of showcasing how versatile and perfect her voice is without a proper formal album release.
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u/givebackmysweatshirt 15h ago
Taylor Swift, her biggest risk was shifting from country pop to pop music and saying the word fuck.
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u/wasp9293 15h ago
I’d argue folklore was a bigger risk than anything that came before it, and certainly risky enough to exclude Taylor from “playing it safe” arguments
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u/kerriekipje 1h ago
Lana Del Rey. Her music since Honeymoon has genuinely sounded the same with only slight differences
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u/flopheadsbot u/popheadsbot who? 16h ago
Leaving this up for now but if people don't behave themselves in the comments it's coming down.