Welcome to the Hannah Montana Generation of Pop Music

It is only very recently that this postmodern hatred towards every kind of ideal has gone fully mainstream — mainstream enough to take over TikTok. Just ten years ago, teenagers still revered ideals. They looked up to the red-lipped sexiness of pin-up girl pop stars like Katy Perry, a standard of beauty that was artificial — injected with plastic a... See more

At first blush, the Rodrigo-Carpenter dynamic doesn’t seem to be that different from the way culture has always pitted pop princesses against each other. Whether it’s Britney and Christina, Debbie Gibson and Tiffany, Brandy and Monica, or Katy Perry and Taylor Swift, there’s always been an inclination that every female pop star needs a rival.

Girlhood is big business. The ones who are best at it literally treat it as an occupation, modeling or taking suitably candid-looking pictures of themselves, recommending clothes and jewelry and books, going viral on TikTok. They’re performing a way of being that looks joyful, effortless, and adorable. It’s a performance that by definition has a sh... See more