Can Anyone Make Music? An Analysis Of Bedroom Pop
By Anne O’Leary
I became aware of the genre of bedroom pop back in 2017 when I clicked on a YouTube video from the trending page of a cute girl holding up a little toy titled “Pretty Girl.” I watched the low quality music video filmed using Apple’s Photo Booth, and listened to a low production song about wanting to be a “pretty girl” for someone. I remember at the time seeing the views and being intrigued by how something like this could amass so much attention. Not to mention, I enjoyed the song despite its low quality. I also became fascinated with the girl in the video, Clairo. After that, I loosely began following Clairo and her music journey as well as many new artists that began to adopt the similar genre and style that became known as “bedroom pop.”
But what really is bedroom pop? Why has it become so popular, and can anyone make this style of music? According to Jake Uitti of Yamaha Music, bedroom pop is more about how the music is made rather than what kind of genre the music actually falls into. So despite having the word “pop” in the title, bedroom pop can have a variety of music styles, including rock, hiphop, indie, or just simply pop. Yamaha says that bedroom pop is supposed to provide a “sense of vulnerability” or intimacy with the listener, lo-fi production value, and visual aesthetics.
Bedroom pop has its roots in the ‘80s and ‘90s when it became more accessible to create music at home. It created a DIY element and focused on the intimacy of creating music as well as producing it. Pioneers of the genre include icons like Alanis Morissette and Elliot Smith. It can be argued that the sense of intimacy and the ever-growing parasocial relationships on the internet contributed to an explosion of the genre in the late 2010’s, due to the rise of social media platforms.
Visual aesthetics seem to be a really important part of characterizing bedroom pop, and it’s often more important than the actual track itself. It’s about the perfect pair of vintage Levi’s, Carhartt utility jackets, and the best collection of vintage vinyl. Despite taking on that hippie off-the-grid lifestyle, it’s all about who has the most visually pleasing and interesting social media presence. It’s about who reads the most sophisticated books and watches the most insightful films, rather than practicing actual artistic individuality.
Many of my favorite artists happen to be in the bedroom pop scene, but there have been plenty of times that I personally felt alienated due to the fanbase's priority on aesthetics rather than the actual music itself. Maybe the question is less of can anyone make bedroom pop, but rather, can anyone be a bedroom pop fan?
I think it would be a lie to claim that anyone could really be a bedroom pop artist, because, unfortunately, it comes with a territory of being marketable to the audience that I described above. While Clairo is immensely talented and has proven so with her two albums Immunity and Sling, we can’t kid ourselves into thinking that Clairo would have been on the trending page with her low budget video and song if she didn’t have the aesthetic and good looks to pander to the audiences. In fact, as the genre of bedroom pop has exploded over the years on Tik Tok, many female artists have expressed being uncomfortable with the particular male fans who sexualize their image. A prime example is beabadoobee, who has grown exponentially in the last year but in turn has gained many male fans who only see her as an object, making the OG fans feel uncomfortable and unsafe to attend her shows.
However some artists have been able to conjure an online following similar to the bedroom pop genre with their more “niche” interests. An example that comes to mind is an artist that goes by Negative XP who is known for his creation of the genre “incel punk” and his song “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Ruined A Whole Generation of Women.” A track that claims that the 2010 movie Scott Pilgrim vs The World ruined Millennial and Gen Z women due to the idolization of the character Ramona Flowers. The song is horribly misogynistic, calling women “whores” and “holes” and has made a place for incels to feel comfortable. While Negative XP is not into the bedroom pop scene, he follows a DIY genre in a sense that his work is self produced, creating a sense of intimacy between listener and artist. I think it’s safe to say that Negative XP wouldn’t have the following he does today without the backing of incels.
While I am actually a big fan of bedroom pop, I think that the criticisms are valid to be pointed out and analyzed for all sorts of listeners to have a better, more inclusive listening experience. But despite this, bedroom pop is extremely nostalgic for me and I still continue to listen to the genre today as well as the artists who have transformed and adapted. But I always find myself returning to the genre as a sense of comfort.