Many of us are aware of cultural trends to come in every 20-year cycle. It is why That 70’s Show became one of the biggest shows in the ‘90s. Likewise, we are all aware of how the ’90 sitcom Friends had a nostalgic renaissance in the 2010s.

When I hear a few specific songs from the year 2000, I go back to my pre-teen. Where in my bedroom, lying on the floor, I used to look up at the walls. Then, I’d roll over only to press skip on my CD player to get to Aaliyah’s ‘Try Again’ on the soundtrack of Romeo Must Die.

It was the top most 2000 sentences ever

Just like the clock works, Y2K dominates pop culture, and that’s music, to be more precise. Pop culture undoubtedly saw the pop-punk revival becoming ubiquitous in the past few years. Legacy acts with defined movement in their heyday are now reaching new commercial peaks. When the contemporary artists like Machine Gun Kelly found success with their interpretations of the genre.

Emo, proven to be more than a phase, has taken over fleeting trends. Many look forward to the nostalgic wave that will take the world by the next storm. When we think about the answer, it would be Taylor Swift’s next album.

Sleazing Indie

While accepting the award for Video of the Year at the VMAs, Swift announced the release of her 10th album Midnights. The released album portrays the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout the pop singer’s life. From the latest trend, we can see that she is entering the indie sleaze era and taking all of us with her.

Indie Sleaze is one of those terms coined among TikTok influencers and fashion bloggers in 2021. It refers to the fashion aesthetic popular in the mid-aughts through the early 2010s.

The aesthetic isn’t the only indicator of the play here. The singer’s last two folklore, Evermore and Folklore, were classified as “alternative” on Spotify, regardless of what the work means to you. They were an alternative to anything Swift had done up to the point. The subdued, grounded material paired with the atmospheric production from ‘The National’s Aaron Dessner. They not only introduced the public to the idea of Taylor Swift, but also now known as an indie folk artist, but we can also regard it as the priming pump for the mainstream success of other artists in the space, like Phoebe Bridgers.

One thing to mention is that Swift was not the one to come up with a folk revival like Machine Gun Kelly, who didn’t save pop punk. Instead, they were known to be the mainstream artists who paved the way for these alternative genres to succeed in pop spaces.

If it is indeed Swift’s intention to no longer ‘make fun of hipsters’. Her intention was to make an indie record that is cool enough for her hipster ex. Today, 2000s indie nostalgia would be for 2023, something pop punk was known for in 2021.

What exactly does it sound like? Makeup of Swift would indicate that Karen O inspires her, and her proclivities for both country and alternative would almost definitely make her a Jenny Lewis fan.

We know how she’s been listening to The 1975, and it may mean she’s insane enough to jump straight to the early 2010s Tumblr pastiche.

What we think

When we think it is time for pop music to rest, there’s nothing much you would need to speculate about because it has already started in a few ways. Few critics referred to the latest record of Harry Styles named Harry’s House as a throwback to the ‘80s. Comparing to A-ha and Depeche Mode. Instead, the critics are all showing up their age. When we are really on it, ‘As It Was’ totally seems like it was written by Vampire Weekend.  In fact, it is not unreasonable to consider the band was huge when Styles was in his teens.

So, even though it is quite easy to speculate that Swift will likely strike the incipient indie sleaze wave during the album release cycle, we can’t say anything for sure yet. But, if not, the album art is enticing and inviting speculations.

Let’s see if Swift releases more folk music or another synth-pop record while waiting for her next album.