Artists like Hilary Duff, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Heidi Montag, who once embodied the height of the tacky manufactured pop star, are now celebrated as icons of a nostalgic sound and aesthetic that feels oddly comforting in 2025.
(Excerpt from the Independent- read the full article HERE)
After dabbling in melodramatic bedroom-pop, Tate McRae steers straight into the early-2000s lane with her latest single “Sports Car”. It was a time when hip-hop met glossy pop and everything sparkled (including the diamanté flip phones). From the opening stuttering beat, it’s a love letter to an era of Tamagotchis, Juicy Couture, and mainstream club tracks you could really dance to.
But with whispered vocals layered over revving motor sounds, the pop star conveys an ode to lust without pushing the boundaries like fellow pop princesses Britney and Christina did, respectively, with songs like “I’m a Slave 4 U” and “Dirrty”. “Sports Car” has no intention of being dirty or bold; it is meant to be a bit of beige fun.
Fans and critics alike drew immediate comparisons with The Pussycat Dolls, and “Sports Car” mashups with “Buttons”, the group’s sultry 2006 single, complete with glossy beats, began surfacing online. “Nasty pop girls are so back and I’m so here for it,” one fan wrote under McRae’s music video, which features her performing at a peep show.
Once dismissed as shallow, the slick, bass-heavy pop of the 2000s is now being re-evaluated, especially by Gen Z. Where critics once decried “Buttons” as “style over substance” and dismissed its parent album PCD as vapid, today’s listeners hear something else: simple escapism.
And maybe that’s the point. Gen Z – those born from the late 1990s through to the early 2010s – are reclaiming music once labelled as “guilty pleasure” and ditching the guilt. Artists like Hilary Duff, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Heidi Montag, who once embodied the height of the tacky manufactured pop star, are now celebrated as icons of a nostalgic sound and aesthetic that feels oddly comforting in 2025.
