Anniemal Turns 20

These days, it’s possible for a pop star to move like an indie band. Whereas someone like Carly Rae Jepsen might’ve been written off as a one-hit wonder a generation or two ago, she’s spent her post-hit career touring clubs and festivals, playing to audiences who aren’t just there to hear her one hit. Last year, the critic Shaad D’Souza wrote a New York Times piece about the middle-class pop star, a category that seems to grow more crowded every day. The term fits avant-pop critical sensations like Caroline Polachek and Rina Sawayama, but it applies just as easily to singers like Rita Ora and Ava Max — permanent also-rans whose down-the-middle dance-pop never quite broke through but who have nurtured culty fanbases of their own anyway.