ADRIAN MA, HOST:
Let me take you back to the fall of 2008. The country is in the grip of the Great Recession. Unemployment is rising. Home foreclosures are spiking. It is dark times. But when you turn on the radio...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHATEVER YOU LIKE")
T I: (Singing) Stacks on deck, patron on ice. And we can pop bottles all night. Baby, you could have whatever you like, if you like. I said you could...
MA: (Laughter) It's a different vibe. "Whatever You Like" by T.I. was the No. 1 song in the country, an anthem about proving your love through wealth and luxury, no matter the price.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHATEVER YOU LIKE")
T I: (Singing) Anytime you want to pick up the telephone, you know it ain't nothin' to drop a couple stacks on you.
MA: "Whatever You Like" was part of a wave of songs that captured millennials' imagination because the economic reality they faced was just so brutal. Nowadays, there's actually a term for this kind of pseudo music genre - recession pop.
TAYLOR CRUMPTON: The majority of songs that came out during the Great Recession wax poetically about partying, optimism.
MA: That's music and culture writer Taylor Crumpton.
CRUMPTON: And it was made in response to the economic turmoil that happened in the late aughts.
MA: She wrote a piece for Time Magazine called "Maybe We Need Recession Pop Right Now." When you look back at the Great Recession, unemployment was the highest it had been in decades. So to ward off the economic demons, people at the clubs and on their iPods - they wanted fun, dancey (ph) tunes.
(SOUNDBITE OF LADY GAGA SONG, "JUST DANCE")
MA: Crumpton says recession pop provided an escape. Songs with relentlessly optimistic lyrics and tempos designed for dancing - the combo was irresistible.
CRUMPTON: That's the thing about recession pop. It's truly that girl because it's so catchy.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JUST DANCE")
LADY GAGA: (Singing) All right, all right. Just dance, going to be OK, da-da-doo-doo. Just dance.
CRUMPTON: Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas, Rihanna, Katy Perry - they were known for making these dance pop songs that just encouraged you to move and dance.
MA: And at a time when a lot of the country was tightening their belts, recession pop songs said spend, spend, spend. Like, take this Black Eyed Peas hit...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I GOTTA FEELING")
WILL I AM: (Singing) I got a feeling.
MA: ..."I Gotta Feeling."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I GOTTA FEELING")
WILL I AM: (Singing) That tonight's going to be a good night.
CRUMPTON: That song is saying, hey, we know that you are going to spend an amount of money. It could be the entirety of your paycheck, but it's going to be worth it. There was almost a kind of sinister nature to the lyrics of recession pop songs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I GOTTA FEELING")
WILL I AM: (Singing) Good night.
MA: Cut to 2025, a time of economic uncertainty, what with the tariffs and the stock market gyrations. And these songs from the Great Recession have regained popularity.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE WAY I ARE")
TIMBALAND: (Singing) I ain't got no money. I ain't got no car to take you on a date.
MA: According to Luminate, which is a company that tracks music industry data, these cheery recession pop songs have seen a notable bump in streams this year. Taylor Crumpton says, we have Gen Z and social media platforms like TikTok to thank for that.
CRUMPTON: It's so funny to me that you guys are saying that Lady Gaga making good music is a recession indicator, and I do agree with you.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: McDonald's brought their snack wraps back. Hollister dropped a whole anniversary line. Is this a callback back to the 2000s, specifically late 2000s?
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: A video just popped up on my FYP, and the girl was wearing two cami tank tops layered on top of each other, and that is literally what we wore in 2008.
MA: Look at that, millennials and Gen Z finding some common ground.
CRUMPTON: Gen Z and the generation that came of age during the COVID-19 pandemic are experiencing a number of economic and political realities that millennials were experiencing in 2008. They're wanting to hearken back to a time where the only thing they were worrying about was, does this guy like me? - and, this vodka cran is too strong.
MA: And Crumpton says maybe that's what we need right now.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE WAY I ARE")
TIMBALAND: (Singing) I ain't got no Visa. I ain't got no Red American Express. We can't go nowhere exotic. It don't matter 'cause I'm the one that loves... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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