Pinpointed: Is Harry Styles Our Only Male Popstar?

By Bailey Tolentino

I pitched this article being 100% ready to say, “Yes! Harry Styles is our only male popstar and here’s how he does it!” I was also ready to defend the fact that being a male popstar is not a negative reflection of anyone’s artistry. I believe we need more of them, in fact. However, upon listening to his new record, it seems Styles is growing out of that label with Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. The record is not particularly groundbreaking, but I am intrigued as to what it means for the trajectory of his sound and career. I would say I am relatively indifferent towards it (I’d give it a 6/10), but I do believe it’s a step in the right… direction.

The thing is, everyone is going to listen to the new Harry Styles record no matter what. It’s Harry Styles, for Pete’s sake. And it seems he knew that; which is not to say he didn’t put effort into it, but he certainly had the freedom to do whatever he wanted. Well, sonically, at least. Lyrically, the album is entirely unimpressive, but I was not expecting much on that front. In his interview with Zane Lowe, he explained that he took a 3-year sabbatical (spent primarily in Italy) to “remember why he does it / loves it” — “it” being music. He shares an anecdote with Lowe, spelling out that ‘Carla’s Song’ is about his experience of watching his friend Carla listen to Simon and Garfunkel for the first time, and being so inspired by how much the music was moving her. You can feel that desire to present music as a communal experience in this album (though ironically not on ‘Carla’s Song’). However, the songs are often just not “big” enough. You can also feel the passion for music in his experimentation with his own established sound. Tinges of house totally work with his generally monotone vocals, and I think he’s better off making music for dancing and picnics over music for crying or analysing. I think he’s getting somewhere — he’s just not there yet.

The title is very accurate: this is music to have on in the background while you are kissing (or enjoying life), and occasionally, there are moments that make you dance — but only at a disco level. No head-banging necessary. I don’t think the vocoder suits his voice very well, but I imagine a striking vocal performance was not the goal. It feels like a sister album to Fine Line, for it plays with trends in music without giving into them. Where Fine Line was British Rock for Dummies, this is Sort-Of-Techno for Everyone. Styles teases the subgenre of house, but does not fully commit (which is why songs like ‘Pop’ and ‘Dance No More’ feel a bit like they just have vocally incomplete choruses rather than intentional leads, sweeps, hoovers, and crashes). If the choruses are not absent, they are horrible or annoying (e.g. ‘Aperture,’ ‘American Girls,’ ‘Season 2 Weight Loss’). That is a shame, because they all have extremely groovy verses.

The stand-out track is ‘Ready, Steady, Go!’ because it has those super groovy verses, the beat-drop at the chorus is satisfying, the synthesiser lead feels intentional, his voice suits the melody, and the 1-2-3 structure of the lyrics makes it irresistible to dance to. It’s the best endeavour at the concept he was going for. The worst is the very next track, ‘Are You Listening Yet?’ which makes me wish I weren’t. I don’t know why the hell he is rapping in the verses, and the chorus is aggravating. May as well just listen to LCD Soundsystem, instead. However, the record really picks up around the middle, with ‘Taste Back’ and ‘The Waiting Game’ being the two best tracks. 

‘Taste Back’ is the fullest song: clear structure, some memorable lyrics, and a catchy (but not annoying) chorus. I see it becoming the biggest hit. Where a lot of the songs feel like ‘vibes’ or ‘ideas,’ this one feels fully fleshed out. ‘The Waiting Game’ was my favourite upon first listen and it will likely remain so. While I do think it is one of the best, it’s not necessarily a ‘standout’ because it doesn’t show us anything new about Styles’ capability. It just happens to sound like if ‘Grapejuice’ (from Harry’s House) and ‘Sunflower, Vol. 6’ (from Fine Line) had a baby, and that is the exact kind of thing he does that I do love. Last on the notable list (though a skip for me): ‘Dance No More’ is certainly the most “disco” track.

I did my first full listen of the album in my living room while getting ready for my day, and I remember appreciating its sonic cohesion as an album, but not much else. My second listen was on a bus ride to Dundee on a sunny day; and I must say, it was immediately two times better once I was on a moving vehicle. I feel that all the songs are great to hum along to or play on a windows-down car ride (which I can’t wait to do this summer), but not to learn the lyrics to or shout in a stadium. So, it’s rather ironic that the accompanying tour brought the most expensive tickets we have practically ever seen.

While his self-titled debut is my favourite as an album because it plays seamlessly, it doesn’t say much about him as an artist. It’s basically a Pink-Floyd-Fleetwood-Mac cosplay. He has said himself that he feels, in hindsight, he played it too safe. Fine Line was his breakthrough moment, with inescapable smash hits ‘Watermelon Sugar’ and ‘Adore You’. This was also when he started wearing dresses and nail polish, which brought him a little too much praise for doing things Bowie and Prince already did, and landed him the first-ever male solo feature on the cover of Vogue. It felt a little overdone, perhaps a dramatic leap-of-faith to escape his One Direction heartthrob identity. 

His 2022 record Harry’s House was the best representation of his artistry and persona. Hands down, his best era. He toned it down with the fashion, sporting merely a blouse in the cover, and nothing felt contrived. He proved he had an original sound (with ‘As It Was,’ ‘Late Night Talking,’ and ‘Keep Driving’) and displayed a true understanding of music production and arrangement (with ‘Grapejuice’ and the most impressive track in his whole discography, ‘Satellite’.) The production style complemented his voice so well, and the record perfectly walked the line between radio-friendly synth pop and his personal interest in funk and new wave. 

It was only by this third album that I personally stopped speculating on who the songs were about, and started receiving the music the way I would have from any other artist that I hadn’t had a parasocial relationship with for my entire teenhood. I believe that’s a result of the genuine introspection, which we see most prominently in ‘Boyfriends’. He reflected on the ways he acts in relationships, and revealed a sense of maturity that we see further developed on ‘Coming Up Roses’ in the new record. Harry’s House was always going to be difficult to follow up. KATTDO is nowhere near as good, but I do still think it’s more interesting than Fine Line. 

After trying all these lives on, Styles is now stuck in this awkward middleground where he is neither a rockstar nor a popstar. His music is not revolutionary enough to make him a rock legend, so I don’t want to critique it the way I would critique a, say, Jack White album or something. I can only manage to fully enjoy this new record if I take it as pop music that’s not meant to be taken so seriously… and while he does not come off as a pretentious person, the way he spoke of the album in his interview with Zane Lowe made it seem like he thinks it is a lot more experimental and innovative than it is. Clearly, Harry Styles does not want to be our only male popstar, and it seems he is slowly grooving his way out. If he’s thoughtful enough, he might just succeed.