The style of late capitalism is "nothing"

Robin James: "There’s nothing interesting to say about songs like 'Choosin Texas”' because there’s nothing in them; they are designed to be so generic that they can accompany anything and fit any context. As The Guardian reports, "Brian Mansfield, managing editor of the trade publication Country Insider, says that the song’s twangy-but-smooth sound makes it appealing to program directors – whether in country, pop or adult contemporary – who tend to avoid songs that would sound jarringly rootsy next to fluffier pop fare. 'It’s a song that sounds good next to almost anything you can play, and that is an underrated part of creating the music mix for any format,' he says."

“Choosin Texas” was crafted with ubiquity in mind: lacking in any prominent distinguishing features, it can work across radio formats and streaming playlists, and thus rack up the numbers necessary to top the Hot 100 for months on end. The song is a home-fried version of what I’ve elsewhere called “ordinary slop,” which “has to be flexible enough to adapt and give voice to a wide array of private individual feelings and experiences.” Ordinary slop is a strategy for developing licensable audio IP for use on platforms like Instagram or TikTok – generic sounds optimized for algorithmic personalization. Songs like “Choosin Texas” adopt a similar strategy of being dialectically so generic or indeterminate that they can fit many different determinate contexts, but applies it in a slightly different type of market (one more accommodating to traditional radio and its demographic-based formats). Both approaches are iterations of the idea that “in popular music the style of late capitalism is NOTHING.” Today chart and market success requires incredible flexibility and adaptability from songs: they have to soundtrack anyone and everyone’s short-form video clip, they have to succeed across numerous radio formats, etc. In order to accommodate any and every determinate quality, the songs themselves can have no (strong) determinate qualities. They have to be a sloppy void. And there’s not much meat on those voidy bones for critics to chew."

https://www.its-her-factory.com/2026/08/slop-doom-ism-a-new-era-for-pop-music-criticism/