Wardah Khan

Every teen popstar who stays in the business long enough eventually comes out with an album which is “The Album”. This album means I am no longer a teen idol, now I am a serious grownup musician . Confident was that album for Demi Lovato. An album which tackled the artist’s own demons with some strong vocals. Demi is an artist who has always shown potential when it came to singing but even then I always felt something was missing in her songs. After listening to Confident I realized what it was, that girl is made to sing anthems about real issues not some basic pop songs that just about everyone can sing.

‘Rap’ a genre so powerful yet so underutilized. A good rap can give you goosebumps, it has that quality of being revolutionary and a bad rap can take your faith away from this whole style. We have always admired rapper from the other side of the globe be it Eminem, NAS, Tupac or countless others who spoke their reality through their rhymes. Of course it was before rap became all about big booties, hot chicks, drugs and sex. Gully boy revived my faith in rap scene in South Asia. It basically showed me why people rap, from where it comes to how it explodes when performed in the right way. Gully Boy is inspired from the life of youngsters living in Mumbai slums and how their difficulties and hardships makes for great rap verses.

The year was 2007 and I was in 5th standard when one of my friends introduced me to the would-be pop queen by asking me to download some songs for her. She handed me a list and most of the songs in that list were of Rihanna. “Shut Up and Drive” was my introduction to this lady who will go on to reign millions of hearts including my own for the next decade. Ironically enough that list had almost all the songs of Good Girl Gone Bad except “Umbrella”. What “Dangerously In Love” did for Beyoncé in 2003, Good Girl Gone Bad did for Rihanna in 2007. I was addicted to her songs cuz let's face it they are still your jam but there was something else about her which kept her on my mind. It was her originality where most popstars start from a holier than thou image and they then go overboard with now I am an all grown-up serious musician. Rihanna came in bad with “Pon De Replay”.

If we say One Direction was NSYNC of 2015 then ZAYN was definitely Justin Timberlake of the group (as in the most powerful voice of the band). Being like him, he also took the same step as him by quitting to pursue a solo career, having enough confidence in his talent but then the story changed a bit and Mind of Mine didn’t become Justified. Justified showed what Justin Timberlake could do without NSYNC from “Like I Love You” to “Cry Me A River”, but Mind of Mine showed me what I already knew – That ZAYN’s a serious artist.

The story of young teen popstars going wild is not that unusual but usually that ends only one way in them fading away from limelight one way or another. But Justin Bieber not only found error in his ways at the peak of his career but did that before it was too late. We all remember cute shy Bieber with a haircut which was copied by millions, who then getting worldwide fame turned into what most of them have turned before ‘’The Wild One’’. This routine was not new for many but what happened afterwards was definitely shocking he genuinely acknowledged his mistake and talked about the dark side of fame and later dedicated an album to his journey of finding himself which brings us to Purpose.

It’s funny how the first Ariana Grande song I listened to was “Problem” to which my reaction was Okay another mainstream pop songer with nothing new to say and now when I look at my playlist she dominates it. When Thank u Next was about to release there was this buzz going around it, that it’s about her exes and I swear I was praying ‘’Please don’t pull a Taylor Swift’’. Before any Swifties come at me I have nothing against her infact I like her songs, “Endgame” is in my Top 10 Playlist but this writing songs on exes isn’t a legacy to be continued either.