19 November 14 - 20, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Riding the Pink Pony Dallas singer Ella Red might be the next big pop princess. BY ALYSSA FIELDS T he Billboard charts have been littered lately with the names of modern pop princesses: Chappell Roan, Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter, to name a few. Femme-pop, music unapologetically per- formed by women for women, has surged in the last year. This year women played to sold-out stadiums, reset culture and sprin- kled arenas with lots of rhinestones. Dallas is a key stop for women on tour as they reach for icon status. In March, Olivia Rodrigo rocked on stage for an angst-filled, heartbroken crowd. Tay- lor Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour spent a long weekend at AT&T Stadium in April. After painting the town neon green, Brats rejoiced at Charli XCX’s stop at the Ameri- can Airlines Center in October. Wrapping up the parade of strong women was Sabrina Carpenter, whose Short n’ Sweet tour line started forming at 9 in the morning on Hal- loween eve. Making waves in the music scene a little farther south, Chappell Roan’s Austin City Limits performance was promoted to the main stage and still drew a crowd. Roan, ex- periencing the exponential growth in femme-pop, has captured media attention for openly discussing the difficulties of ad- justing to an excessively rapid ascend to fame. Determined to keep Dallas on the map is Frisco-based Ella Red. Only 21 and still living at home with her parents, she is riding on the back of the femme-pop revolution. “Because of how fast I’ve grown this last year, I feel like this is a great opportunity with the rise in hyper-feminine pop,” she says. “It’s a great opportunity for me to just ride the current.” In just a year, Red released a dozen songs, gained almost 200,000 monthly listeners and is on the cusp of a blossoming pop career. “Since the very beginning, since I started and I released my first song, I’ve been in a state of exponential growth that everybody is confused about and nobody really knows what’s going on,” Red says. One of her earliest releases, “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is,” has half a mil- lion Spotify streams. The song, which begs for a noncompliant man to fulfill broken promises, performed well on radio charts im- mediately upon release. “‘Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is’ did so well,” Red says. “I didn’t understand what was going on. I was so new to the scene.” A few months later, Red was invited to per- form for an audience of 4,000, opening for LoveJoy in Denver.. She followed this up with a radio tour, then spent September opening for fellow femme-pop princess Morgan St. Jean on a tour across the Midwest. Capitalizing on the song’s quick success, Red released a follow-up track, “I Like You Best,” mimicking the rhythmic structure of her former single. This time, the hyper-fem- inine hit found success online and has over two million streams. “I’ve been getting around 20,000 streams a day since it’s been released, and it’s not show- ing any signs of slowing down,” she says. With so few singles under her belt and a short time spent in the industry, Red’s instant growth was a shock to the artist. “I didn’t understand how good this was, that this was all happening,” she says. “I was completely taking it all for granted, having no idea.” Red credits her success to social media and Spotify’s editorial playlists. She is a fea- tured artist on the Next Gen Singer-Song- writers and SALT playlists. SALT, or sapphic alternative, is a myriad of sexually driven hyper-feminine lyricism strung over reverb-heavy pop-rock instrumentalism. “SALT is entirely female alt-pop,” Red says. “I’ve always really loved that. I wanted to lean into as much of that as possible when I started recording these songs a little over a year ago.” There’s more nuance than just women making music, says Red, and she’s happy to embrace a smaller niche. “I knew that there was a really big market for alt-pop because it was doing so well, but it wasn’t as big as standard pop, like Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter,” she says. “I knew that I would have a chance to break into this genre in this market.” A key ingredient to success in pop music is image. Red carefully curates hers, creating a blend of coquettish appearance and taboo appeal. “I’ve always been incredibly feminine and girly,” Red says while twirling a large neon-pink-dyed curl. “I feel like I’m heal- ing a lot of people’s inner children and in- ner teenagers by showing you can be feminine.” Her music is expletive-riddled and hyper- sexual, but she takes the stage in billowing gowns and lace. Speaking of “I Like You Best”, Red told her Instagram following, “I wrote this song in part as a song for my significant other … but also as a way of expressing my sexuality and giving a voice to those who can’t turn their feelings into words.” Following performances at the State Fair of Texas, she plans to release new mu- sic and, hopefully, tour in the coming year. Her moves are paying off, in the form of a record deal. “I’m about to be signed by a record label — Nettwerk Music Group, probably within the next couple of days,” she says. “We just finished our negotiations and are signing now. Exciting!” | B-SIDES | t Music Jade Alex Ella Red is building a musical rainbow. D INTERESTED CANDIDATES PLEASE SEND YOUR COVER LETTER AND RESUME TO [email protected]
