Culture critics discuss Harry Styles' new album and his evolving approach to pop superstardom, analyzing his musical evolution and exploration of sound.
Today on Commotion, culture critics Lucy Ford, Louise Bruton and Michelle Cho join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to share their thoughts on Styles’ highly-anticipated return, and his revised approach to pop superstardom.
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results. Harry Styles performs 'Aperture' on stage during The BRIT Awards 2026 at Co-op Live on February 28, 2026 in Manchester, England. The 12-track album is a propulsive pop project, put together with the help of songwriters and producers Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson. From the mature, electronic evolution in his sound to his unique upcoming world tour, it’s clear that this time around Styles is keen to do things differently., culture critics Lucy Ford, Louise Bruton and Michelle Cho join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to share their thoughts on Styles’ highly-anticipated return, and his revised approach to pop superstardom. We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion on Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally as well as Blackpink’s Deadline,: I think when I listen to this record and think about what it's intended for, it's intended for you to figure out how to move your body to the music. And also, Lucy, the idea that Harry went to Berlin for quite a bit of time to work on this record — Berlin tends to produce these larger sounds where, actually, pop stars can disappear a little bit against those landscapes. And what you hear on this record is Harry sort of fighting not to disappear in the music, but also allowing himself to kind of get lost in the music at the same time…. What is Harry mining on a record like this one, do you think?: I actually feel like Harry is in this era of life where he's figuring out how far he can get lost before he does completely lose himself…. But he's really trying to step away from being in any way up for public consumption. And I think that's a really interesting aspect of this era…. A huge theme of the album is just his relationship to fame. Obviously, there are songs that feel like … can be interpreted as love songs and songs about past relationships. But he also almost anthropomorphizes this idea of celebrity … and how he can have this ongoing relationship that doesn't feel like it's taking from him constantly. And he's sort of working it out in the lyrics, which I think is … kind of interesting from him.: Yeah, I think every celebrity has had this fight of how do I not give myself too much over to the fame, and how do I maintain a core of who I am. But I think the way that Harry's doing this, Louise, is interesting to me…. You associate very famous pop stars with this really hectic touring schedule. Harry's not doing that, right? What he's going to do in terms of the tour is he's still doing 67 shows, but in only seven cities. He's basically doing mini residencies in Amsterdam, London, New York, Mexico City and a few other cities. He's doing, like, 30 dates in New York City at Madison Square Garden. What do you make of that approach — the idea of trying to still ground yourself somewhere, even though you still want the life of a touring pop star, but maybe not to excess? : I think it's a clever move to reframe how touring actually works for artists, especially pop artists, when you can't just go on stage without a big production behind you. You know, it's crews of thousands that are going to be moving around the world with you. And we've kind of become quite used to the Taylor Swift's and the Beyoncé’s who are … always trying to outdo themselves. With this record, I feel that there is a sense of intimacy … coming across in the songs, and should come across in the tour by kind of picking these seven cities…. And, you know people will travel to him as if he's the new Messiah. You will come and listen to what it is that he's going to wow us with. Poor New York, my God…. But it's interesting in terms of economics. It's interesting in terms of sustainability. It's interesting in terms of somebody being able to decide what they want to do with their lives, inside the economy of being a big pop star — because it's not right, not be in your own bed for two full years…. It's a sad thing that's part of the contract. But now he can just do it in a quick span and have a life in between — go for runs, fade into the crowd — which is … something that he wants to do…. And it's admirable, but … people are still spending, you know, hundreds on tickets. So, how admirable is it?Amelia Eqbal is a Toronto-based writer and social media manager for Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud. She has previously contributed to Q with Tom Power, CBC Books, and CBC News' Entertainment unit. You can find her at amelia.eqbal@cbc.ca.
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