The Pop Girlies Are Serving Cinema

When I think of the pop music that defined my childhood and teenage years, there are a few images that come to mind. Britney Spears dressed up as an air hostess. Christina Aguilera in a boxing ring. Beyoncé in an orange and purple Versace dress dancing up a storm.

Pop music videos were everything to me, and some of my core memories as a young girl include Saturday mornings watching Rage and Video Hits, dancing along (albeit wildly inappropriately) trying to emulate the pop stars on my screen. 

Well, my inner child is THRILLED to announce that music videos are having a moment. Particularly, the pop girlies. Fun, fantastical and flirty, the ladies are leaning into the zeitgeist and serving us #cinema. 

Here are some of my favourite music videos of 2024 so far:

Sabrina Carpenter, ‘Please Please Please’ 

Sabrina Carpenter is quickly becoming one of the biggest (yet smallest) names in pop music. With her supporting slot on The Eras Tour, her SKIMS campaign and her caffeinated mega-hit, the little lady has been making her presence known. 

Last week, she dropped the music video for her latest single, ‘Please Please Please’, and the video does NOT disappoint. 

In a genius move, Sabrina hard launches her equally notable boyfriend Barry Keoghan in the funniest way possible (in my opinion). Making your boyfriend star in a music video for a song that is essentially about pleading with your partner to not embarrass you and fuck everything up feels like a win for feminism. 

Barry playfully indulges her, and the video’s narrative is almost a begrudging Bonnie and Clyde where Barry keeps getting arrested for doing dumb shit while Sabrina looks hot and cringes at his behaviour. 

No notes.

Ariana Grande, ‘the boy is mine’ 

Ariana Grande is no stranger to epic music videos. She also has a great grasp on pop culture and knows how to give the people what they want, even when they didn’t know they needed it. 

In her video for ‘he boy is mine’, Grande gives us her version of Cat Woman, featuring You’s Penn Badgley (hot) and cameos from the iconic singers of the original ‘TBIM’, Brandy and Monica. 

Ariana transforms from an obsessed civilian creating a love potion for the Mayor (Penn) into sexy, slithering Cat Woman, stalking the powerful man in his own home. Once she’s cornered him, he unmasks her and sees her beauty, and Ariana doesn’t need to force the love potion upon him because he’s already smitten. Shoutout to whoever decided to cast Penn (who plays a stalker in You), who finally gets a taste of his own medicine.  

Charli XCX, ‘360’

Ok well, this is womanhood. 

Or at least the unofficial convention of every hot internet girl. The cast is stacked with babes, featuring notorious IT crowd Chloë Sevigny, Julia Fox, Rachel Sennott, Emma Chamberlain, Gabbriette, Alex Consani, A. G. Cook, Chloe Cherry, Isamaya Ffrench, Salem Mitchell, Hari Nef and Richie Shazam.

“Charli, we have to fulfil the prophecy of finding a new, hot internet girl, that’s literally why we’re at dinner,” Gabriette tells the songstress at the start of the music video, surrounded by her fellow hot internet girls. “Or else our kind will cease to exist, forever,” Chloe Cherry adds, dramatically. 

The music video is a silly, cynical take on internet culture and has been dubbed “the Gen-Z ‘fashion girlie’ equivalent to Taylor Swift’s ‘Bad Blood’ music video.”

Olivia Rodrigo, ‘obsessed’

There’s no denying that a crucial component of the female experience is being obsessed with your crush’s ex. Olivia Rodrigo is reminding us that this is okay, hun. 

The ‘obsessed’ music video is set at the ex’s annual ball, aka a dull, debutant ballroom full of  young women dressed in white gowns donning sashes. They read, “Miss Thought She Was the One”, “Miss 2 Summers Ago”, “Miss Long Distance” and “Miss Put Him in Therapy”, among other titles. 

Rodrigo wears a black mesh dress with dark lipstick, socks/flats and a sash that says “Miss Right Now”. Everyone looks miserable, Rodrigo in particular, and it’s a fantastic representation of how we let our imaginations run rampant when dating someone new. 

Taylor Swift, ‘Fortnight’ (feat. Post Malone) 

“When I was writing the Fortnight music video, I wanted to show you the worlds I saw in my head that served as the backdrop for making this music. Pretty much everything in it is a metaphor or a reference to one corner of the album or another,” Taylor Swift shared on her Instagram. 

The black and white video features cameos from The Dead Poets Society’s Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles, and collaborator Post Malone starring as her fleeting love interest. Swift creates a crazy, confined world full of face tattoos, “forget him” pills, mad scientists, typewriters, overcast skies over empty roads and a rain-drenched telephone box atop a mountain. 

It’s not the most obvious or straight-forward narrative, but it delivers the imaginative chaos that Swifties adore that sets her apart from her peers.  

While I no longer have to rely on Saturday morning television to view the latest pop music videos (thank God), I can’t help but feel like my younger-self watching the pop girlies absolutely kill it on screen. There’s something so empowering and fun watching the gals absolutely dominate the art, and I for one think this should be celebrated. 

Now, let us collectively manifest some cinematic masterpieces from Beyonce, Billie, Gaga and Dua to close out 2024. 

Written by Lil Friedmann, a staunch defender of pop girlies and a seasoned watcher of music videos. You can follow her at @lilfriedmann on socials.

Image credit: Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Charli XCX, Olivia Rodrigo+ Punkee