Madison Beer And Mid Art In A Post-Taylor Swift Age

Once upon a time, a princess was among the fairest in the land. This princess did not laze about, complaining about the pea underneath her stack of mattresses. Instead, she went out and achieved things from a young age. Sure, there was help along the way, because that’s how life works, but this girl made a name for herself. She was an aspiring queen, not content with nepo baby dreams.

Her voice was her claim to fame, though her visage didn’t hurt. Nor did her relatability impede her rise. For while she was a modern American princess, she was also given to heartbreak. And she laid it bare in song after song, album after album. That is, until our girl, who could’ve been a cheerleader in a different timeline, met her prince from the football field.

Of course, I’m talking about Madison Beer. Who else would fit the description above?

Born in 1999, the singer began her climb in 2012 when Justin Bieber reposted her cover of Etta James’s “At Last” to his followers. From there, she became known for her cover tunes. Her first solo album arrived in 2021, her second in 2023, and her most recent in January of this year. That was roughly six months before she and her fiancé, Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, hard-launched the engagement on Instagram on July 28.

May the couple experience marital bliss, a union destined for the ages, an inspiration for other young couples all over the world, a pairing so perfect the James Beard Foundation starts wondering if it deserves an award. But while both are fine, they are not Taylor and Travis.

Taylor is, well, Taylor. In the parlance of Jay Z, she’s not a businessman; she’s a business, man. People might get mad if you compare her to Dolly, but she is comparable to Dolly. That’s just the truth, irrespective of your feelings.

Travis is, well, Travis. He may not be a business, man, but he is an exceptional football player, even if his ability to read words can’t keep up with his ability to read defenses. Which is not a diss. A healthy society takes a lot of different types. Some dudes can take a brutal blow while catching a ball and lead their team to victory, earning millions along the way. Others can read really well, and maybe even write some words, without earning millions.

Taylor and Travis do complement one another, though. And they are both at the top of their craft. They represent not a financial goal to reach for, but a Platonic ideal. They are the heroes of modern society, and even if 99.9999999% of us will never achieve anything approaching their level of success, it’s still good to try.

Which is what Madison Beer and Justin Herbert are aspiring to. Beer is fine. She’s talented. She’s easy on the eyes. She has a large team behind her. But there’s nothing about her that really grabs you. She’s the modern corporate architecture of a musical artist. She probably won’t offend anyone, but she also won’t truly stand out.

Herbert, he’s also fine. He’s talented. He has a talented team behind him. He does well when certain metrics are considered, but not so well when one looks at the big picture. He’s a stable central structure in a fluid landscape.

In other words, they are both adequate. They fulfill their roles with adequasivity. Everything in their lives goes adequately. But this isn’t about them, not really, but about the increasingly midwit nature of the world. If they excelled, it might threaten their peers’ sensitivities.

Rather, it might offend anyone. Taking a stand isn’t super popular these days. Taking a stand for standard-issue current mores doesn’t count; it isn’t actually taking a stand, just echoing the herd. The cause or issue du jour doesn’t really matter. What matters is not being on the wrong side of that issue. Art, architecture, clothing, and music become bland nothings, as attempts to placate everyone inevitably end up.

In a just world, a visionary producer would take Madison Beer under his wing and unleash her full potential. He would challenge the existing structures. We do not live in that world. The days of legendary risk-takers in the music industry are largely on pause. Rather than incubating talent, labels find talent on social media, juice them for everything they can, and then move on to the next. It’s elevator music as a business plan. It’s the safety of superhero franchises extended to a different medium. It’s listening to Madison Beer.

But it can’t hold. Just as franchises are losing their power, so too will music as a franchise. For while Madison Beer has cachet, likely boosted by her prince, artists who write their own songs rather than going for the tried-and-true formulaic approach better represent the future. Take, for example, Sienna Spiro, who writes all her own music and bests Beer across all charts.

So, while the present is mid, the future might just be bright. Whether or not it’s going to be so bright that we gotta wear shades remains to be seen. I remain optimistic, though, not because I trust myself to forecast the tastes of teens, but because I have three teenage daughters and none of them listen to Beer, including the one who’s an actual cheerleader. If the industry wants to keep their attention – and it does, because of money – it’s going to have to unleash the risk-takers of yore and let them hit the play button, because beige album after beige album isn’t going to cut it.

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Rich Cromwell is a writer living in Northwest Arkansas. He produces the Cookin’ Up a Story podcast, which you can listen to here. You can also follow him on X: @rcromwell4

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