Rosalía Doesn’t Want to Take It Easy
On Lux, her intense and expansive new album, Rosalía pushes the boundaries of pop music in a unique way.
Pop Music Trends in 2025
Recently, it seems many artists aspire to become pop icons. Last year, Taylor Swift transitioned from identifying as one of the “tortured poets” to calling herself a “showgirl,” releasing an album of short, catchy songs co-produced by top hitmakers Max Martin and Shellback.
The year's breakout act might be Huntr/x, a fictional girl group from the animated Netflix film KPop Demon Hunters. Demi Lovato revisited her roots with a surface-level club track, “Fast,” from an album titled It’s Not That Deep. Even Machine Gun Kelly, who shifted from rap to rock, attempted a pop reinvention with his video “Cliché,” mimicking boy-band style, which triggered mixed reactions. He later explained,
“It’s a pop song, man.”
Rosalía’s Unique Path
Rosalía stands apart as a classically trained flamenco singer from Spain who gained international fame in 2018 with El Mal Querer, an album merging flamenco and pop. This project also doubled as her thesis at the renowned Catalonia College of Music.
“El Mal Querer” was full of diaphanous flamenco-pop experiments.
Her Distinctive Approach
Unlike many who simplify or mimic pop styles, Rosalía blends tradition and innovation, transcending typical pop limits with her rich flamenco background and daring compositions.
Author’s summary: Rosalía redefines pop by merging flamenco roots with modern sounds, standing out amid trends of superficial reinventions in today’s music scene.