Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Why Recession Pop Is Hot-Even When Its Not a Recession

12/10/2024

Why Recession Pop Is Hot-Even When Its Not a Recession Discover why fans turn to party anthems during times of economic crisis-or just when the vibes are off. Plus: a playlist of recession pop hits old and new, from Lady Gaga and Pitbull to Charli XCX and Chappell Roan.

By

Bryan Parys

October 11, 2024

Recession pop, a dancey genre that emerges during periods of economic recession, is having a resurgence. There's just one problem: We're not actually in a recession.

According to a recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US saw over 250,000 new jobs added in September, nearly doubling the growth projected for the month. The report prompted Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics, to say on X (formerly Twitter) The economy is at full-employment, no more and no less. Wage growth is strong. . . . One couldn't paint a prettier picture of the job market and broader economy.

What Is Recession Pop?The numbers don't lie, and yet, the musical trends over the last few months indicate a desire among listeners to find escape in high-energy pop music. Enter: Recession pop. Escape is a common theme in popular music, but in the case of recession pop, music critics and cultural commenters have spotted a seeming correlation between a dour national mood and the kind of blissed-out pop that focuses on liberation via the dancefloor.

Early examples of recession pop include songs that found their commercial peak during the Great Recession of 2008-though accounts vary of how long this original period lasted, with some saying it dates from 2007-2012, and others dating it as far as 2015. Songs from this era would include Don't Stop the Music, by Rihanna, I Gotta Feeling, by Black Eyed Peas, and Teenage Dream, by Katy Perry. Lady Gaga first found her meteoric rise during this era, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a better mission statement for recession pop than the chorus to her mega-hit Just Dance, which goes Just dance / Gonna be ok.

Recession Pop and the Art of DistractionPitbull was another artist speaking to this cultural moment (and getting massively popular because of it) with songs such as Hotel Room Service and Time of Our Lives, whose first verse just came right out and said it:

I knew my rent was gon be late about a week ago

I worked my a** off

But I still cant pay it though

But I got just enough

To get off in this club

Have me a good time, before my time is up

Life got you down? Just dance. Bills bearing down on you with no relief in sight? Better have you a good time before your time is up. It's not practical advice, but in times of national and global crisis, it can sometimes feel as if distraction is the only antidote one can afford.

It's not as if artists are consciously setting out to write recession pop, however. The term itself was applied after the 2008 recession, and started its resurgence on TikTok over the course of summer 2024. Musicologist Joe Bennett, professor of professional music and songwriting, has become a go-to expert on the trend, and recently told MarketWatch that recession pop is essentially a label that mashes up a style with a timeline.

So why, during an otherwise Brat Summer, were people going back to Katy Perry and Flo Rida? For one, there's the nostalgia factor, which is something every generation eventually faces. It's why the newly reunited 90s-era band Oasis could come back in 2024 to sold-out arenas, for example. As Bennett explains, There's a certain maxim in the music community: All the best pop music in the world came out in the same year, and it's the year that you were 17.

But that reasoning only goes so far as fans have started to apply the recession pop label to a new generation of mainstream music, which includes HOT TO GO! by Chappell Roan, Nasty by Tinashe, and 365 by the brat herself, Charli XCX.

Its Not a Recession, but Is It a Vibecession?While there isn't a clear answer to why recession pop is trending when it's not a recession, one way to sum it up is to say the vibes are just off.

Economist and cultural commentator Kyla Scanlon coined the term Vibecession in summer 2022 in her newsletter to try and put a name to this phenomenon. [T]here is a lot going on and no one really knows what is going on, she wrote at the beginning of her essay, which gets to the heart of why the economy can be one way, but people can feel another. Scanlon wrote this at a time where the height of the pandemic wasn't too far in the rearview, housing prices and interest rates soared, and inflation reached record heights. And even as inflation has started to decrease, those same issues continue to loom in the collective consciousness.

With that in mind, perhaps it's clearer to say that the term recession pop is much more about the listener than the artist. There will always be party music that climbs the charts, but party music when times are tough just hits different, and perhaps listeners end up reading more into it because they're looking for something to make sense.

Listen to a playlist of recession pop hits from its original era as well as more recent additions:

Recession Pop by the Lyrics As you listen to our recession pop playlist, take a look at some of the key lyrics from each song that put the recess in recession.

1. Just Dance, Lady Gaga (2008)Keep it cool, whats the name of this club? / I cant remember, but its alright, alright / Just dance / Gonna be okay

2. Time of Our Lives, Pitbull and Ne-Yo (2014)Have me a good time, before my time is up / Hey, lets get it now / Ooh, I want the time of my life

3. 365, Charli XCX (2024)When Im in the club, yeah / Im bumpin that / 365, party girl / Im bumpin that

4. I Gotta Feeling, Black Eyed Peas (2009)Tonights the night / Lets live it up / I got my money / Lets spend it up

5.
LINK: https://www.berklee.edu/berklee-now/news/recession-pop-playlist...
See more stories from berklee

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

18/06/2026

The Gauge: Poland | May 2026

The average daily TV screen time in May was 3 hours and 36 minutes, marking a clear decrease of 15 minutes compared to April. This trend proved to be much stron...

18/06/2026

Gracenote and PubMatic Bring Curated Live Sports and Content-Level Deals to Programmatic CTV

Integration embeds Gracenote content intelligence, including contextual segments...

18/06/2026

AJA Debuts Io Xpand Thunderbolt 5 Expansion Chassis for...

AJA Video Systems unveiled Io Xpand, a high-performance Thunderbolt 5-enabled PCIe expansion chassis for AJA KONA and Corvid video and audio I/O cards. As dema...

18/06/2026

Providius Announces Providius Direct for Faster AV-over-I...

New NVRT-driven workflow enables on-demand traffic mirroring and guided troubleshooting for AV teams, integrators, and support organizations ahead of InfoComm 2...

18/06/2026

Mavis Studio Brings New Muscle to Mobile Production on iP...

At InfoComm 2026, Mavis announced a major update to Mavis Studio, its live production app for the iPad, with new features designed to make professional AV produ...

18/06/2026

Harmonic Completes Divestiture of Video Business to Media...

Transaction Positions Harmonic as a Pure-Play Broadband Company Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ: HLIT), the worldwide leader in virtualized broadband solutions, today a...

18/06/2026

ACT Entertainment and NETGEAR Partner to Power the Futur...

ACT Entertainment and NETGEAR have announced a strategic partnership that establishes verified interoperability between NETGEAR Switches and key technologies fr...

18/06/2026

IBC2026 creates new pathways from innovation to real-worl...

IBC2026 is set to bring the global media, entertainment and technology community together at the RAI Amsterdam from 11 14 September, enabling industry players f...

18/06/2026

PLIANT TECHNOLOGIES DEBUTS CREWCOM FLEX THE WORLDS FIRST...

Pliant Technologies is proud to introduce CrewCom Flex , the world's first frameless matrix intercom system and the only complete matrix IP-based intercom s...

18/06/2026

XR Sports Alliance Strengthens its Capabilities with New...

The XR Sports Alliance (XRSA) has announced that a new cohort of members has joined the strategic initiative: ActionStreamer, Antigravity, Creative Artists Agen...

18/06/2026

Hollywood Filmmakers Launch AI Production Platform Cascade

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

18/06/2026

ATVA Blasts Deltavision Media for Demanding 'Egregious' Retrans Fees

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

18/06/2026

MediaKind Completes Merger with Harmonic's Video Business

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

18/06/2026

AJA Unveils Io Xpand Thunderbolt 5 Expansion Chassis At InfoComm 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

18/06/2026

Linda May Han Oh Receives Guggenheim Fellowship

Linda May Han Oh Receives Guggenheim Fellowship The Berklee professor, bassist, and composer will use the fellowship to debut Dreams of Knowing, an interdisci...

18/06/2026

Arqiva secures WTA Tier-4 accreditation

Arqiva's Crawley Court and Chalfont Grove teleports re-certified at highest World Teleport Association standard 18 June 2026, Winchester, UK - Arqiva, the ...

18/06/2026

Apple announces changes to iOS in Brazil - UPDATE - Posted on 18 June 2026

Apple today announced changes impacting iOS apps in Brazil that reflect a recent agreement with Brazil's competition regulator, the Conselho Administrativo ...

18/06/2026

Sync and Stream: GeForce NOW Connects to Members' Game Libraries Across Devices

Play favorite titles from popular game libraries, keep progress synced and jump ...

18/06/2026

At Cannes Lions, NVIDIA Partners Reshape Advertising and Marketing With AI

The digital era gave the advertising and marketing industry speed; the AI era is giving it autonomous operations. For companies building next-generation techn...

17/06/2026

EVS Achieves EcoVadis Gold Medal, Ranking in Top 5% of Companies Globally

EVS has announced it has received the EcoVadis Gold Medal for sustainability performance, ranking among the top 5% of companies globally in the Technology/Mid-S...

17/06/2026

Chyron Releases Weather 2.4 with Updated DataFlow Module

Chyron has released Weather 2.4, an update to its weather suite for broadcasters and meteorologists. The release focuses on enhancements to the DataFlow module,...

17/06/2026

VSiN Launches Best Bets TV, a 24/7 FAST Channel

VSiN, The Sports Betting Network, has announced the launch of Best Bets TV, a free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel. The 24/7 channel is currently avail...

17/06/2026

Snapchat and Team Whistle Launch World Cup Creator Program Across Miami, New York, and Los Angeles

DAZN's Team Whistle and Snap Inc. have announced a creator program centered ...

17/06/2026

LiveU Supporting Broadcast and Public Safety Operations for Summer of Soccer

LiveU is providing video transmission technology for broadcasters, production companies, and public safety agencies across North America's busy Summer of So...

17/06/2026

NATAS Announces Two New Board Members and COO Promotion

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) has announced that Laurens Grant and Jacob Ullman have joined its Board of Directors. Chief of Staf...

17/06/2026

Akta Brings AI-First Cloud Video Workflows to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

Akta, the AI-First SaaS video platform for modern broadcast and streaming operations, today announced that its video platform is now generally available on Orac...

17/06/2026

SVG Students to Watch: Nicholas Stafford, Texas Southern University

This recent graduate from Houston found inspiration in technical directing and now eyes a future career in sports production...

17/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: Audio-Technica Brings New Wireless, Networked Audio, and Certified Conferencing Solutions

Audio-Technica (booth C7959) arrives at InfoComm 2026 in Las Vegas with a slate ...

17/06/2026

SNS Positions AI Suite as On-Premise Answer to Video Indexing and Search Demands

SNS has published a guide addressing growing demand for AI-powered video indexing, transcription, facial recognition, and searchable metadata across media libra...

17/06/2026

Providius Announces Providius Direct for Network Troubleshooting on NETGEAR Pro AV Switches

Providius has announced Providius Direct, a workflow for investigating network i...

17/06/2026

NEP Launches NEP Platform Software Orchestration System, Selects Bridge Technologies VB440

NEP Group has announced the commercial availability of NEP Platform, a software ...

17/06/2026

BBright White Paper: SRT vs. RIST for Professional Video Contribution and Distribution

A new white paper examining Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) and Reliable Interne...

17/06/2026

Bango Research: 51% of Gen Z Say Highlights Are Replacing Live Games

New research from subscription bundling platform Bango finds that younger sports fans are increasingly consuming sport through highlights, clips, and social med...

17/06/2026

SMPTE Opens Entire Standards Library to Public at No Cost

SMPTE has announced that its complete Standards catalog is now freely available to the global media technology community, including all published SMPTE Standard...

17/06/2026

MediaKind Completes Merger with Harmonic's Video Business, Creating Independent Video Infrastructure Heavyweight

Harmonic has completed the sale of its Video Business to MediaKind for $145 mill...

17/06/2026

Omaha Productions to Produce 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event Coverage for ESPN

Omaha Productions will produce the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vega...

17/06/2026

SoundBridge 3.1.0 now available

New features, changes & bug fixes SoundBridge have just released another update for their remote collaboration-focused DAW - reviewed here in SOS March 2026...

17/06/2026

Fryette launch the Valvulator Mini

Valve-based front end for digital & modelling rigs The latest addition to Fryette's product range delivers a packed-down, pedalboard-friendly version of...

17/06/2026

The Biggest UK Pro Audio Show In 20 Years!

GearExpo UK - 27 June 2026 Sound On Sound are proud to announce GearExpo UK, a major new recording and music technology exhibition in London! This is the bi...

17/06/2026

Genelec introduce the 9402A System Management Device

SAM monitoring line-up gains Dante and AES67 support The latest expansion of Genelec's UNIO monitoring ecosystem introduces a new device that provides D...

17/06/2026

The R&SPR300 portable receiver from Rohde & Schwarz sets new standards in spectrum monitoring

The R&S PR300 portable receiver from Rohde & Schwarz sets new standards in spect...

17/06/2026

Elt Group and Rohde & Schwarz sign a cooperation agreement to explore commercial opportunities in electronic warfare and defense

Elt Group and Rohde & Schwarz sign a cooperation agreement to explore commercial...

17/06/2026

NABLF Graduates Its 2026 Broadcasting Leadership Training Class

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/06/2026

ABC and ESPN Score Most-Watched NBA Finals Since 1998

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/06/2026

Smartly, Roku Bring Social Performance Tools to CTV

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/06/2026

Pliant Technologies Debuts Crewcom Flex at InfoComm 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...